tourist movie avalanche

Force Majeure

In Ruben Östlund ’s sharp-edged marital drama “Force Majeure,” a young Swedish family–mom, dad, two grade school age kids–begin their skiing vacation in a French Alpine resort in typical holiday high spirits. The first day on the slopes, they pause to have their pictures taken en famille by a tourist photographer, as if to acquire tangible evidence of their sentimental solidarity and joy at outdoorsy togetherness.

Then, on the vacation’s second day, something extraordinary happens. They are having lunch at the resort’s rooftop restaurant when, just after their food has been served, they hear a loud report from the mountain above them, and snow begins to topple down the slopes. It’s a controlled avalanche, a common thing in ski resorts, but this one quickly comes to seem excessive, as if it’s not under control at all.

Due to the ensuing confusion, it’s easy to miss exactly what happens next on a first viewing of the film. But it is the crux of the story: Fearing they’re about to be engulfed by the avalanche, many diners react in panic, and the Swedish father, Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke), jumps up and flees the deck, leaving his wife and kids at the table. Fortunately, the avalanche stops short of the restaurant, though it sends up a billow of snow that whites-out the scene for a minute or two. Though terrified briefly, the diners soon resume their lunches. But the appearance of no-harm-done is illusory, at least in the case of the Swedish family.

Tomas at first is puzzled that his wife Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) appears irritated at him. What reason could she have? Rather than saying, she shrugs it off. Their kids seem annoyed at both parents. But the real rub comes when the parents have dinner that night with another couple. Ebba tells the story of the avalanche, and how Tomas abandoned his family to save himself, taking his cell phone but not his son. Tomas flatly denies he did any such thing. It never happened, he says, adding defensively that he and Ebba obviously have two different versions of what occurred.

Both partners quickly come to seem shocked by the implications of this disagreement. After what Tomas calls “that godawful dinner,” they hug each other and agree that though the avalanche terrified the whole family, everyone is now fine. But the avalanche of their emotions is, like the one on the mountain, not nearly as controlled as they imagine it to be. The subject won’t go away.

Östlund has said the film was inspired by an incident in which a Swedish couple, friends of his, went on vacation to Latin America. They were having dinner when gunmen burst into the restaurant and began firing. Rather than protecting his wife, the husband dove for cover. The wife was stunned. “Back in Sweden,” the director said, “she could not stop, after a glass of wine or two, telling the story over and over again….” Östlund later did research on couples who survive disasters like shipwrecks, tsunamis and such, and found that a strikingly high percentage of them end up divorcing.

Taking the idea of a sudden upset of familial normality as his dramatic kernel, Östlund fashions an examination of marital upset that’s beautifully written, sometimes quite funny, and plotted with a kind of forensic exactitude. Unlike American movies, where our identification with one character or another would likely be imposed from the outset, “Force Majeure” stands back from its couple, allowing us to inspect the characters from a discreet distance and draw our own conclusions.

It is important, however, both dramatically and symbolically, that there are not two equal “truths” at work here. The wife alone is right about what happened at that fateful lunch (as a second viewing of the film will confirm). So the story is not about anything so fashionable as the relativity of truth. It’s about what happens when one partner blatantly fails in his duties to his family and then can’t admit or come to terms with that offense.

The film has a real feeling of cultural currency, which sometimes comes through in small details that can seem more resonant in thinking back on them. For instance, the two people the main couple share that “godawful dinner” with are a young American guy and an older Swedish woman who’s picked him up that morning. In introducing the guy, the woman says he’s told her he’s “very religious.” He replies that he said no such thing, only that he’s “not an atheist.”

Beyond another example of a man and a woman narrating the same incident differently, this moment reminds us that “Force Majeure” is a Swedish film belonging to the era after Ingmar Bergman ’s “silence of God.” With no Deity to blame for that avalanche–an “act of God” to some–the humans in this tale are left to fend for themselves.

A prize-winner at Cannes this year, and easily one of the most impressive European dramas of late, “Force Majeur” is assured and finely calibrated on every level, with especially expert, nuanced performances by its leads. Östlund’s cool, distanced style–the camera often follows characters from behind with fluid motions, or gazes down from a height at the ski slopes or the hotel’s interiors–has been compared to that of Michael Haneke , though the adjective “Kubrickian” might also be applied: Though less horrific (or final) than that of “ The Shining ,” the alpine marital ordeal chronicled here is no less striking.

Godfrey Cheshire

Godfrey Cheshire is a film critic, journalist and filmmaker based in New York City. He has written for The New York Times, Variety, Film Comment, The Village Voice, Interview, Cineaste and other publications.

• Lisa Loven Kongsli as Ebba
• Clara Wettergren as Vera
• Vincent Wettergren as Harry
• Brady Corbet as Brady
• Johannes Kuhnke as Tomas
• Ruben Östlund

Leave a comment

Now playing.

The Last of the Sea Women

The Wild Robot

We Live in Time

Look Into My Eyes

The Front Room

Matt and Mara

The Thicket

The Mother of All Lies

The Paragon

My First Film

Latest articles.

TIFF 2024: The Room Next Door, Hard Truths

TIFF 2024: Young Werther, Addition, My Father’s Daughter

TIFF 2024: Table of Contents

TIFF 2024: Daniela Forever, Can I Get a Witness?, Ick

The best movie reviews, in your inbox.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘force majeure’ (‘turist’): cannes review.

Swedish director Ruben Ostlund examines the far-reaching emotional consequences of an avalanche in the Alps in his third Cannes-selected feature.

By Boyd van Hoeij

Boyd van Hoeij

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

Another Cannes regular, Sweden’s Ruben Ostlund strolled the Croisette twice before, with Directors' Fortnight title Play in 2011 and competition entry Involuntary in 2008. His latest, formerly known as Tourist , sees a Swedish family visiting a French ski resort where they are confronted by irresistible forces of nature. Ostlund has promised the film’s avalanche scene is the best ever shot. (Sales: Coproduction Office)

CANNES — Instead of rescuing his kids, a sporty Swedish father of two runs for the hills when faced with an avalanche on a ski trip in Force Majeure (Turist), the latest confrontational and sharply observed feature of Swedish provocateur Ruben Ostlund .

The filmmaker, back in Cannes after the 2008 Un Certain Regard-selected Involuntary and the 2011 Directors’ Fortnight title, Play , is still as fond as ever of creating situations in which his characters are confronted with the worst or most unexpected side of themselves, though like in all his films, the ugliness is not the subject but the pretext for the story, which here painstakingly examines the aftermath of a man’s instinctive, split-second decision to save his own skin — instead of his own kin — and how the perpetrator and those around him try to make sense of this revelation.

Related Stories

Hitmaker for ariana grande, the weeknd launches company to support songwriters in india (exclusive), erotic infidelity and berlin s&m feature in trailer for oldenburg opener 'traumnovelle' (exclusive).

Though the two-hour film should’ve ended a reel or so before it actually fades to black, this is another solid and provocative feature from Ostlund, which should extensively slalom down the festival circuit and attract the attention of niche distributors not afraid of films in the conversation-starter mode.

CANNES REVIEW: Amour Fou

Apparently unfamiliar with the concept of over-sharing, Swedish skiing tourist Ebba ( Lisa Loven Kongsli ) explains to another female Scandinavian tourist at a chic Alpine hotel why she’s there with her husband ( Johannes Bah Kuhnke ) and pre-teen kids Harry ( Vincent Wettergren ) and Vera ( Clara Wettergren ): “We’re here because Tomas works too much; he’s going to dedicate five days to his family.”

At this point, they are still unaware these will be five very long days, as the photogenic family — immortalized in all their Ikea-catalog cuteness by a photographe touristique in the opening scene — will have to live down the aftermath of an unexpected event that happens during lunchtime on their second day: A “controlled avalanche” is rapidly approaching and might possibly engulf the outdoors terrace of the restaurant they’re eating at, causing Ebba to take the kids and try to protect them from harm and Tomas to get his iPhone and gloves off the table and run.

Both are clearly shaken by the event, which in the end didn’t cause any bodily harm, though the young couple’s rapport suffers what looks like irreparable damage. It’s not even immediately clear to Tomas that he’s done anything wrong and he’s (at least outwardly) puzzled when the kids are mad and his wife gives him the could shoulder.

Things take a turn for the worse during dinner, when Tomas and Ebba are joined by the woman Ebba talked to in the morning and an Italian, “non-atheist” skier she picked up that very day on the slopes. After the required niceties are exchanged — which Ostlund records in meticulous detail, as they can be just as telling as moments of naked truth — Ebba confesses what happened during lunch, though Tomas initially laughs it off and then vehemently denies he ever ran away.

In the subsequent days, husband and wife try to find a workable entente, and there’s talk of agreeing on a “shared version” of events that both can live with. But Ebba’s knowledge that she’s married someone who is good-looking, works extremely hard and adores their kids but who becomes a selfish monster when push comes to shove seems to slowly poison the possibility of any type of future reconciliation.

When a couple of Norwegian friends, the divorced Mats ( Kristofer Hivju , from Game of Thrones) and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Fanni ( Fanni Metelius ), come for a visit, they find themselves drawn into the couple’s argument in a way that one senses the director hopes is also the case for the audience, as they start to question what they would do in a similar situation. In typical Ostlundian fashion, what’s so terrifying is not what one thinks of oneself, since people find it very hard to be hard on themselves, but the realization that other people might think we are not always the best people we can be, even hypothetically speaking. In the case of Mats, it literally gives him sleepless nights.

CANNES REVIEW: Darker Than Midnight (Piu’ Buio di Mezzanotte)

Ostlund and co-editor Jacob Secher Schulsinger carve up the action into five parts that correspond to the days of the family’s holiday, with the events interspersed with short segments, set to Vivaldi at his most tormented, that showcase the man-made machines that operate at night and are intended to keep the slopes in optimal conditions by day. Not only do they first foreshadow and then recall the pivotal “controlled avalanche” — itself a contradictory term that goes right to the heart of the material — but they also visually suggest one of the main themes: the idea that humans try to control both human nature and nature at large, though both prove to be quite indomitable at times.

Acting is close to naturalistic even in scenes that feel slightly surreal, such as when Tomas finds himself in a club, celebrating with a group of almost naked and very drunk men, all strangers reduced to cavemen, though with better quality drinks. Even the characters’ big emotional outbursts feel, within the context of what they are going through, quite natural. The kids are also extremely well-cast, looking fragile and tiny with their ski gear on, with their pale, big-eyed faces popping out from underneath their huge protective helmets that’ll only keep them safe from bodily harm.

Like in his previous work, Ostlund displays a preference for lengthy and rigidly composed fixed shots, though as the film progresses, the camera occasionally starts to moves a little — a little zoom here, a small pan there — to suggest that nothing is again like it was before. Cinematographer Fredrik Wenzel , with the help of a special effects team, beautifully integrates all the snow and mist effects where necessary. Though the film was clearly a modest production, there is never a sense that Ostlund’s vision was compromised.

The film’s only real hiccup is the finale, in which the tourists go home. The entire sequence, which features the family as just a small unit within a much larger group, might be trying to extrapolate what it has just shown on a larger scale but instead the opposite happens, as the events and dynamics don’t jive with the film’s general sense of a large, uncontrolled event having a devastating impact on an extremely intimate level.

In Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard)

Production companies: Plattform Produktion, Parisienne, Coproduction Office, Motlys

Cast: Johannes Bah Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Clara Wettergren, Vincent Wettergren, Kristofer Hivju, Fanni Metelius

Writer-Director: Ruben Ostlund

Producers: Erik Hemmendorff, Marie Kjellson, Philippe Bober

Director of photography: Fredrik Wenzel

Production designer: Josefin Asberg

Music: Ola Flottum

Costume designer: Pia Aleborg

Editors: Ruben Ostlund, Jacob Secher Schulsinger

Sales: Coproduction Office

No rating, 118 minutes.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Harvey weinstein resting and “weak” after being rushed to hospital for heart surgery, civil rights group color of change calls out cma awards for beyoncé snub (exclusive), another ufo boss to break silence in major book deal: “the process of disclosure has begun”, dnc unveils youth voter push on debate day: “google project 2025”, tiff: anti-netanyahu film premiere goes forward in toronto after court motion fails.

• Rankings FA
• TV Premiere Calendar
• Coming in 2024
• Latest Reviews

Turist (Force Majeure)

• Credits 
• Image gallery  [8]

All images are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders and/or producers/distributors.

• Fanni Metelius
• Karin Myrenberg

• Johannes Moustos
• Jorge Lattof
• Adrian Heinisch
• Michael Breitenberger
• See all credits
• #99 Best Swedish Movies
• "'Force Majeure' is both funny and sad (...) It's one of the highlights of 2014. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of four)"  Michael Phillips : Chicago Tribune
• "Ruben Ostlund’s precisely calibrated fourth feature (...) [is] visually stunning even in its most banal moments and emotionally perceptive almost to a fault."  Peter Debruge : Variety
• "Meticulous and deliberately paced, 'Force Majeure' unexpectedly hits the viewer like an emotional avalanche. (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of four)"  Claudia Puig : USA Today
• "Filmmaker Ruben Östlund shifts gears from humor to psychological thriller, redefining courage and family in the process. 'Force Majeure' is a jolt. You won't know what hit you. (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of four)"  Peter Travers : Rolling Stone
• "This brilliant, viciously amusing takedown of bourgeois complacency, gender stereotypes and assumptions and the illusion of security rubs your face in human frailty as relentlessly as any Michael Haneke movie."  Stephen Holden : The New York Times
• "Ruben Östlund's film, about a father who abandons his family during an avalanche, brushes off the surface layer of human behaviour revealing ice underneath. (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of five)"  Henry Barnes : The Guardian
• 13 My Favorite Swedish Movies (31)
• 42 My Top 10 Movies from 2014 (95)

All copyrighted material (movie posters, DVD covers, stills, trailers) and trademarks belong to their respective producers and/or distributors.

User history

Get Your Local Running Newsletter

Plan your week with local routes, events, and weather.

BEST WEEK EVER

Try out unlimited access with 7 days of Outside+ for free.

Start Your Free Trial

This Film About a 40-Year-Old Avalanche Helped Me Process My Own Trauma

The new documentary ‘Buried’ looks back at 1982 tragedy at Alpine Meadows ski resort, and finds lessons that are as relevant as ever about surviving a traumatic event

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Reddit

New perk: Easily find new routes and hidden gems, upcoming running events, and more near you. Your weekly Local Running Newsletter has everything you need to lace up! >","name":"in-content-cta","type":"link"}}'>Subscribe today → .

It’s been 40 years since former avalanche forecaster Jim Plehn dug his friends’ bodies out of the snow. A massive avalanche had crashed into the base area of Alpine Meadows ski resort, near Lake Tahoe in Northern California, after a four-day, late-season storm had dumped seven-and-a-half feet of snow and brought 100-mile-per-hour winds to the ridgetops. Alpine Meadows was closed that day because of extreme avalanche danger, but a few employees remained in the ski patrol headquarters, housed in a small building at the bottom of the resort’s main chairlift.

At 3:45 P.M. on March 31, 1982, a fissure more than 2,900 feet across and nearly 10 feet deep ripped through the snowpack, sending a tidal wave of snow large enough to destroy an entire building and bury the parking lot. Seven people died. Four of those killed were Alpine Meadows employees; the other three were two men and a young girl walking in the parking lot.

Plehn was 33 at the time of the avalanche, a ski patroller who’d been promoted to avalanche forecaster a few years prior. He’s 72 now and the star of a new film, Buried , which documents the tragedy using archival news footage, present-day interviews, and a few reenactments. Buried debuted at the Telluride’s Mountainfilm Festival in 2021, where it won the Audience Choice Award, and it will be making its theatrical release across the country on Friday, September 23.

The film was made by two Alpine Meadows residents, Steven Siig, who owns the Tahoe Art Haus, a local movie theater, and Jared Drake, who used to work in the film industry in Los Angeles before he moved to Tahoe. Their goal, says Drake, was to understand “what happened, why it happened, what those who were there learned, and how they’ve processed it all over the last 40 years.”

I saw the movie at the Tahoe Art Haus, in Tahoe City, California, last winter, just a short drive from where the avalanche occurred. Anyone watching this film will have an emotional reaction to the devastating images of the slide’s aftermath, but I had a physical response, too. My body tensed up, anxiety coursing through me. I struggled to take shallow, short breaths as I saw footage of the wreckage and listened to the patrollers talk about searching for their friends in the debris. When the first body was recovered, tears dripped down my face.

I was born two months before the 1982 avalanche, and I grew up skiing at Alpine Meadows. I heard the story of the slide as I got older and joined the mountain’s race team. My two kids are learning to ski at Alpine now. So, this mountain is home to me. But that’s not the only reason the film shook me to the core.

Ten years ago, I searched for three friends’ bodies six feet under the snow after a massive avalanche ripped apart the backside of Washington’s Stevens Pass ski area, in a backcountry zone known as Tunnel Creek. Three people died that day. One person survived being swept up in it. A decade later, not a day goes by that I don’t think about that avalanche, the people we lost, and the decisions we could have made differently to save them.

Anyone watching this film will have an emotional reaction to the devastating images of the slide’s aftermath, but I had a physical response, too.

After watching Buried , I called Plehn to talk about the movie and see how he’s doing all these years later. “When you go through something like that, it’s always with you,” he tells me. “It never goes away. You just learn to live with it.” In 1982, post-traumatic stress disorder wasn’t a topic people were familiar with. For first responders like ski patrollers and mountain rescuers, there was no debriefing, no post-incident therapy sessions.

“A big part of the film is talking about PTSD and the effects of an incident like this on the people involved, especially the rescuers,” Plehn says. “As Jared and Siig started working with us, they could see the imprint of PTSD on each of us. They realized this wasn’t just a story about an avalanche. The after-effects were important, too.”

After the avalanche at Alpine Meadows, the search-and-rescue process went on for days, while the storm continued to hammer the mountain. At one point, Plehn had to call the search off for the safety of the rescue crew—a moment he calls the hardest decision he’s ever had to make. “When it was all over, we were at the fire station, our rescue headquarters, and I completely fell apart,” Plehn recalls. “I was completely emotionally exhausted and wrung out. I started crying, just bawling my eyes out.” A mentor of Plehn’s, an avalanche expert and former mountain manger named Norm Wilson, put his arm around him and said, “That was a really hard experience you just went through, but I want you to be really proud of what you did.”

“I knew by the way he said it that he meant not just me but my whole crew,” Plehn says. “I think Norm saying that to me helped give me the strength to face up to the hard questioning that was going to come afterward.”

A lawsuit followed—the ski area was sued by several of the victims’ families for wrongful death—but in 1985, after several days of deliberation in a courtroom, a jury found the Alpine Meadows ski patrol non-negligent in their hazard forecasts and avalanche control procedures. They had done everything they could to mitigate the avalanche danger during the storm. It was not their fault. The court declared that it was an “unprecedented event resulting from a precedented storm.”

“That was a huge healing moment for me,” Plehn says. “I don’t feel that we made any mistakes, and a jury agreed with that. But it has occurred to me: What if the verdict went the other way?”

I tell Plehn I have regrets. I have flashbacks that still plague me. That day at Stevens Pass, on February 19, 2012, we skied a steep slope that we shouldn’t have been on—it was the morning after a storm on a day with considerable avalanche danger. I knew better than that. Besides, we were too large a group, and there wasn’t enough communication among us. Sure, we did everything in our power to find our friends, but we couldn’t get to them fast enough. They were too far down. Three people lost their lives that day; three families were left with gaping holes where these men once were, and maybe we could have stopped that. I still can’t shake that feeling.

“It’s really hard when you think about the families,” Plehn tells me. “Certain things will bring it back up, those triggers.” Plehn says his most important takeaway is to remember that when we recreate in hazardous environments and get in trouble, that affects not just us, but also our families and the rescuers who have to respond to that situation.

Here’s how we handled it back then: the better part of us went to the bar and drank,” says Larry Heywood.

Larry Heywood was the assistant patrol director at Alpine Meadows in 1982 and is now a semi-retired snow safety expert. Heywood has a prominent role in Buried , alongside Plehn. The two clash a bit in the film, showing how ego and hubris played a role during the fallout of the avalanche. I recently ran into Heywood in the Alpine Meadows locker room. He and I were both heading out to ski during a massive Tahoe storm in late December of last year, with the power flickering on and off in the lodge. “What was it like being a patroller back then?” I asked him.

“Some days were magical: blue skies, big avalanches, sunrises, things that nobody else in the world gets to see, and you get to see it all the time,” Heywood told me. “But there were hard days, like when a kid got badly hurt. Here’s how we handled it back then: the better part of us went to the bar and drank.”

The night I saw Buried in the theater, Plehn and Heywood were both there and did an audience Q & A afterward, with filmmakers Siig and Drake. “This is a conversation about avalanche awareness,” Siig told the audience. “This is what mother nature can do. If mother nature is pissed, she’s going to tell old man winter to kick us in the ass. That’s something we all need to be aware of, the inherent risks of living, working, and playing in the mountains.”

They started talking about grief, about the importance of addressing post-traumatic stress. Heywood put his arm around Plehn, an uncharacteristically gentle move for two stoic older men who haven’t always agreed with each other. “I said it in the film, and I’ll say it again here: Jim didn’t screw up. Nobody did,” Heywood said. From my seat in the audience, I could see Plehn’s shoulders relax under the weight of his former colleague’s words.

After seeing those men come together after all these years and all they’ve been through, I finally took a full breath. They are all right, I thought. They did everything they could. So did I. Sometimes the mountains give you a beating to remind you to pay attention. I’ve spent ten years harboring pain and remorse around the lives we lost in Washington that day, a sadness I couldn’t fight off. But in that theater seat, I started to feel like I could finally begin to let it go. My hands eased their grip on the armrests. After 90 minutes of stress-watching this strikingly beautiful film, my body began to lighten. It wasn’t my fault. Everything was going to be OK.

• Documentary

Popular on Outside Online

Enjoy coverage of racing, history, food, culture, travel, and tech with access to unlimited digital content from Outside Network's iconic brands.

© 2024 Outside Interactive, Inc

Avalanches rip through the Swedish film ‘Force Majeure’

Swedish director Ruben Östlund had two goals with his latest film “Force Majeure.” “I wanted to create the most spectacular avalanche in film history and increase the divorce rate,” he says. Even over the telephone it’s clear that his tongue is playfully planted in his cheek.

Östlund is considered something of a provocateur, with films such as “Play” (2011), his depiction of racially charged crimes committed by children. “Force Majeure,” the jury prize winner at Cannes this year and Sweden’s official entry for the best foreign film Oscar (the film opens in the Boston area on Friday), is his take on the battle of the sexes. His eye-popping avalanche at a posh ski resort doesn’t cause physical injuries, but it nearly destroys the marriage of well-to-do couple Tomas (Johannes Kuhnke) and Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) when Tomas instinctively flees in fear, leaving his wife and two children at the lunch table. Nothing is quite the same after that, and couples who see it, like other characters in the film, are likely to leave asking one another, “What would you have done?”

“The goal with all my films is to raise questions,” says Östlund. “When people say, ‘I wonder what you would have done,’ I can say for certain that a man is more likely to run than a woman. My French co-producer said this film could be the end of my career. He was worried that I had pushed [Tomas] down so deep.”

Östlund says Tomas’s breakdown seems to rile male viewers, providing more fodder for Mars-Venus divisions. “I wanted to show the worst man-cry ever in history; women like to see that but men are provoked, I guess.”

Kuhnke, a stage actor and musician, relished the chance to play a flawed man in a movie. “In theater, I’ve had to play the young, heroic man, but now that I’m older I can show uglier feelings. I just finished playing Humbert Humbert [in ‘Lolita’] on stage. In theater you play roles to get to the higher you. With [‘Force Majeure’], I had to get to the lower you. Tomas’s persona cracks and everything falls out.” He says audiences are bored by one-dimensional male heroes in movies just as they are by women who are simply eye-candy.

“It’s more provocative to be weak. I was worried people would not understand the humor in the film but it seems like it’s universal,” Kuhnke says, adding that “Force Majeure” is a huge hit in Sweden, the country synonymous with Ingmar Bergman and his own famous take on romantic relationships, “Scenes From a Marriage.”

Advertisement

But Östlund claims he’s the anti-Bergman, with films that satirize middle-class mores. He got his start making skiing documentaries around the world before enrolling in film school in his native Sweden, where he still lives. “I’ve been looking for a way ever since to set a feature film at a ski resort to show absurdity, the struggle between civilized and uncivilized nature, of humans trying to control nature that can dissolve at any second. All those ski lifts, grooming tracks, all those neon colors and mirrored lenses— it’s a very kitschy and absurd world,” he says.

That cultivated world explodes in the avalanche scene that ate most of the film’s small budget, he says. It’s a stunning shot that combines footage of a real British Columbia avalanche with the actors against a green screen. But the intimate moments that follow are even more catastrophic.

“The nuclear family is a term that was invented in the ’40s when most people lived in large families. Stockholm has the most single-person households in the world. We’re not asking fundamental questions about how we live. We’re more fragile when it comes to raising kids. I see this as connected with tourism and what we do on holiday.” That’s why he includes scenes in “Force Majeure” of Tomas and Ebba standing before a large bathroom mirror at their resort, the only sound being that of their dueling electric toothbrushes.

“I’m making fun of myself also, because I’m part of that socio-economic level in society,” says Östlund. “We’re living lives that are too easy for us. Wouldn’t it be more interesting if we were pointing our perspective at other people who don’t have it so good?”

Loren King can be reached at [email protected] .

CANNES 2014 Un Certain Regard  / France

Force Majeure (Turist) : An avalanche and its consequences

by  Fabien Lemercier

18/05/2014 - CANNES 2014: Ruben Ostlund dissects a family's behaviour following an act of paternal cowardice in an intelligent film with a human side, unveiled in Un Certain Regard

“He was so scared that he ran away at full pelt.” When Ebba, the main character in Force Majeure (Turist)   [ + see also: trailer interview: Ruben Östlund film profile ] by Ruben Ostlund , spills the beans to two people she barely knows about how her husband shamefully abandoned her and their two children in the face of a terrifying avalanche, it constitutes a deafening clap of thunder that rings out in the lives of this small, exemplary Swedish family on holiday in France. And it's a rumbling made all the more violent by the fact that the husband denies having done it. With this film, unveiled on Sunday in Un Certain Regard at the 67th Cannes Festival , the cryptic Swedish filmmaker continues his fascinating work surveying human behaviour in response to extreme situations. This time, he turns his microscope on the dual pairing of one's personal survival instinct and one's values of solidarity, set against a moral backdrop that revolves around the subject of cowardice, which he had already tackled from a different angle in his previous opus, Play   [ + see also: film review trailer interview: Ruben Östlund interview: Ruben Ostlund film profile ] .

Bouncing back with his usual tact and sense of openness to interpretation – on various themes that provide food for thought, such as family life, the couple, the duality of man and woman, truth and lies, children's education, and a society dominated by leisure – Ruben Ostlund presents an intelligent film that is brilliantly directed with his classic visual hallmarks based on fixed shots, and characters coming in and out of the field of vision. This is an approach that wonderfully reflects the disunity that is dramatically taking hold of the family, with husband Tomas suffering from an increasing sense of isolation caused by his own cowardice.

Force Majeure (Turist) is broken down into five acts – one for each day spent in the French Les Arcs ski resort by Tomas ( Johannes Bah Kuhnke ), who works too much, according to his wife Ebba ( Lisa Loven Kongsli ); she would like him to spend a little more time with his family and two children, Vera (Clara Wettergren) and Harry (Vincent Wettergren). However, whereas the first day goes very well, tying in with the classic cliché of togetherness and harmony (everyone goes skiing together and enjoys an afternoon nap together, etc), the atmosphere takes a turn for the worse the next day, when a gigantic avalanche comes hurtling towards the terrace where the family is having lunch. Despite the screams and shouts of his offspring and wife, Tomas scarpers as quickly as he can. When all is said and done, it's more about him being afraid than being evil, but the damage is done and the entire family balance has been put off kilter. Denying it completely in very public confrontations, Tomas will have to take responsibility for a deed that consequently brings to the surface a range of other lies about a life that seemed perfect at first glance...

Patiently dissecting the chain reaction at work at the heart of his screenplay, Ruben Ostlund again demonstrates with much originality his preference for analysing human nature. Swinging from a highly meticulous psycho-social realism (the everyday life of the characters) to skilfully suggesting more existential matters, via some very atmospheric sequences (the mountains, the starry night and the lights of the resort, thick snowflakes falling), he also allows himself a few moments of humour through the supporting characters (the various witnesses to the couple's confrontation) and an almost dreamlike scene that is really quite enigmatic. When seen as a whole, it combines concept and truth, which, despite a conclusion that could be very much open to discussion, makes Force Majeure (Turist) a fascinating film thanks to the powerful universal draw of its subject matter.

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

more about: Force Majeure

Interview: Ruben Östlund • Director

CANNES 2014: Cineuropa met up with Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund to talk about his Un Certain Regard entry Force majeure    

18/05/2014 | Cannes 2014 | Un Certain Regard/France

Interview: Jean-Christophe Meurisse • Director of Plastic Guns

“My characters are disguising their actual lives and trying to step into different ones, even if it will eventually destroy them”

Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones to play Hungarian émigrés in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist

12/04/2023 | Production | Funding | UK/USA/Hungary

Ruben Östlund to preside over the Cannes Film Festival jury

28/02/2023 | Cannes 2023

The 20th Berlinale Co-Production Market announces its selection

10/01/2023 | Berlinale 2023 | EFM

Interview: Ruben Östlund • Director of Triangle of Sadness

“I’ll be a much better father now than I would have been, had I not been entered in the main competition at Cannes this year”

Interview: Ibon Cormenzana • Director of Beyond the Summit

“It’s during the difficult times that you reveal what you’re really like”

Interview: Judita Gamulin • Director of Leave the Door Open

“I like to watch films in which the setting is used to paint a clear picture of how it feels to be in the protagonists’ heads”

Ruben Östlund, Sergei Loznitsa, Paul Schrader and Jesse Eisenberg to receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award

03/08/2022 | Sarajevo 2022

related news

10/09/2024 Oscars 2025

European titles submitted for the Oscars race

07/09/2024 Venice 2024 – Awards

The Golden Lion goes to Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door

07/09/2024 Venice 2024 – Giornate degli Autori/Awards

Manas triumphs in Venice's Giornate degli Autori

Venice announces the winners of its parallel awards

06/09/2024 Venice 2024 – International Film Critics’ Week/Awards

Vietnam's Don’t Cry, Butterfly wins the Grand Prize in Venice’s International Film Critics’ Week

06/09/2024 GoCritic! – Animest 2024

GoCritic! launches call for video journalism workshop at Animest Bucharest

Privacy Policy

Copyright Disclaimer

The images used on this website have been provided by journalists and are believed to be free of rights. However, if you are the owner of an image used on this website and believe that its use infringes on your copyright, please contact us immediately. We will remove the image in question as soon as possible. We have made reasonable efforts to ensure that all images used on this website are used legally and in accordance with copyright laws.

About us | Contact us | Logos and Banners

Mission |  Partners |  Team |  Participate |  Donations |  Terms and conditions

Buried! The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche

At the end of March 1982 snow was piling up so fast and furious that the Lake Tahoe region had come to a standstill. Alpine Meadows was closed when an enormous avalanche struck the Ski Area destroying the ski patrol building and burying much of the ski area parking lot. It was a monster slide bigger than any seen in the ski area’s history and it killed seven people and initiated the “most difficult avalanche rescue ever performed in a ski resort,” said Jim Plehn, Avalanche Forecaster for Alpine Meadows at the time. 

The rescuers included ski area employees and volunteers who made it through the blizzard to do whatever they could to find and rescue those who were in the building. Eventually, a miracle occurred when on the 5th day of the search they found an injured but alive ski area employee Anna Conrad stuck underneath a piece of furniture.  Finding Anna, the lone buried survivor, amongst the devastation, was a beacon of good news for the searchers and community.

“Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche,” in dramatic and spectacular fashion tells the story of the devastating avalanche through the eyes of the ski patrol and volunteers who were there on the scene. It also delves into the emotional trauma still suffered by those caught up in the event 40 years ago. Through footage from news media and personal photo collections as well as lengthy and powerful interviews with the key characters, the movie will make you cry, but also feel overpowering admiration and pride for the ski patrol and other ski area employees who were true heroes. Hopefully, the movie will also be a profound educational experience for all those who spend time in the snow. 

Avalanche forecaster Plehn was up to his neck in deep snow and avalanche danger throughout the enormous winter of 1982. His Alpine Meadows ski patrol crew knew the mountain and avalanche prevention well. All winter they had tossed thousands of pounds of explosives to set off little avalanches to prevent the big one, but in the end, when it snows as hard as it did in March, they were finally beaten by the avalanche monster. Plehn’s lengthy interview forms the true spine and crux of the movie: Is it possible to 100% protect a ski area with avalanche control? 

In addition to telling his story, Plehn was instrumental in making the movie happen. He met “Buried” co-writer and director Stephen Siig years ago when Siig was buying a house on Alpine Meadows road and spoke to Plehn about its avalanche danger.  “At the time it was the only house he could afford but it was in an avalanche zone. He wanted to learn about the avalanche problem and the risk he was facing. We got together and I told him everything I knew.” 

Everything he knew included a memory as a 12-year-old of getting a Weasel snowcat ride up to Bear Creek in the winter with his father, an engineer, who was meeting with the original developer of Alpine Meadows, John Reilly. His father could see the enormous avalanche potential of Alpine Meadows. “My father told Reilly, ‘you shouldn’t be putting the road here and selling lots of houses. I can’t do it, I’m a licensed civil engineer and can’t put my name on the plans.’ I ended up inheriting the problem working for Alpine Meadows.” 

Plehn suggested to Siig, who had worked on ski movies for Warren Miller, that he should do the movie. Siig at first said it was “way beyond me,” A few years later Jared Drake, who was in the film industry in Los Angeles, moved to Alpine Meadows, read the book “Wall of White” by Jennifer Woodlief about the avalanche, and he and Siig eventually were convinced to make the movie together.  

“Quite honestly, the movie went beyond expectations. It was a monumental task,” said Plehn.  There are over a half dozen main characters interviewed for the story, and Plehn alone was interviewed for 16 hours over 4 days. “The editor they hired did a phenomenal job.” 

The experience of friends buried in the avalanche, the grueling search for survivors, and in Plehn’s case, many hours of testimony in court to fight a lawsuit filed by several of the victims, all combined to have a devastating impact on all of those involved. “The moviemakers wanted to illustrate how hard it was on us,” said Plehn. 

In one of the most powerful scenes in the movie, Mike Alves relates his experience on that day. He was standing at the entrance to the equipment yard and saw people walking through the parking lot towards the closed ski area. Then the avalanche hit, and he saw them instantly disappear under the massive onslaught of snow. “He has lived with that vision and had nightmares since,” said Plehn. That scene for Plehn is a reminder of the most important educational lesson of the film: Make good decisions because what you do has an impact on others. In this case, the decision to ignore warnings to stay away from Alpine Meadows and walk across the parking lot meant they not only lost their lives but had a dramatic impact on the rescuers and witnesses who had to search for them.  

For filmmaker Jared Drake the goal for “Buried” was to tell the story with an ensemble cast, with Plehn as a key character. There was also Larry Heywood, ski patrol assistant director whose different style and approach sometimes led to conflicts with Plehn, and other ski patrol members Lanny Johnson, Casey Jones, and Meredith Watson. Sandy Harris represented the lift crew. Troy Caldwell and Dick Tash were champion volunteers joining the hefty crowd of folks shoveling and probing, hoping to find someone alive. It was truly a story of ordinary people doing extraordinary acts. 

One of the heroes was Roberta Huber, who brought her trained dog to the search in a long shot hope that they would locate someone still alive. This was a task for dogs that at the time had never been done before. Eventually, after several days of dogged effort, her German shepherd Bridget located Anna Conrad, carrying out the first live rescue with an avalanche dog in North America.

Ski patroller Meredith Watson ended up at the top of the Summit Chair ski patrol shack for three days because once she and her two partners got there it wasn’t safe to ski back down or run the lifts. Blasted by wind-driven snow they remained safe inside but were down to the last of the food when a break in the weather allowed them to return to the lodge, where they quickly jumped in with the rest of the volunteers to search for survivors and victims. 

Drake says, “I hope the movie elicits more respect for the ski patrol and for what they risk physically and emotionally. I hope it also scares the shit out of a lot of people. And on a wider scale, we hope this movie can be a source for all of us who are struggling with grief and trauma.”

“I really wanted to make this film,” said Plehn. “I’m really proud of my ski patrol crew they did a phenomenal job. The support for the rescue was phenomenal as well. It was the first time that the incident command system was ever used for something other than a forest fire. We had tremendous support from all of the public agencies.” 

In the last 40 years, Plehn said he has told the story of the avalanche many times, starting with setting a Placer County record for the longest testimony in a trial. “The trial was an amazing experience in a lot of ways, and it turned out in the end that it became my post-traumatic stress therapy, even though it was really difficult, I was able to work through a lot of shit.” He also said perhaps part of the reason it was helpful was that the court found that they were not negligent. 

In the end, for Plehn what made the process of spending all that time under the lights worthwhile was his hope that the story will have a powerful educational message about the importance of understanding the danger of avalanches. While he encourages people to take avalanche courses as an important first step, there is no substitute for reading the avalanche forecasts and listening to what they tell you: especially if they tell you not to go ski in the backcountry. But of course, if you really want to understand avalanches, Plehn says, join a ski patrol. “In one day on the Alpine Meadows ski patrol, you will see more avalanches than you will ever see in the backcountry.” 

For information on “Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche” and where to see potential showings go to buriedfilm.com . This winter the movie will appear in 100 cities, at which local avalanche centers will raise money for the crucial work to keep people safe who are out enjoying the snow. 

Tim Hauserman is a nearly life-long resident of North Lake Tahoe. He wrote the official guide to the Tahoe Rim Trail, the recently published 4th edition. He also wrote Monsters in the Woods: Backpacking with Children and writes frequently on a variety of topics. In the winter, he runs the Strider Glider after-school program at Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area. Support Tim’s work in the Ally.

Founded in 2020, the Sierra Nevada Ally is a self-reliant publication that offers unique, differentiated reporting on the environment, conservation, and public policy, and gives voice to writers, filmmakers, visual, and performing artists from throughout northern Nevada and beyond. We rely on the generosity of our readers and aligned partners.

Republish our stories for free, under a Creative Commons license.

Tim Hauserman

Tim Hauserman is a freelance writer and nearly a life-long resident of North Lake Tahoe. He wrote the official guide to the Tahoe Rim Trail, the recently published 4th edition. He also wrote Monsters in the Woods: Backpacking with Children and has written hundreds of articles on a variety of topics: travel, outdoor recreation, housing, education, and wildfires. Check out Tim’s website . https://www.timhauserman.com/ . Tim’s latest book: Going it Alone. Ramblings and Reflections From the Trial is now available at your local bookstore, along with his many other publications.

Related Articles

Why Now Is the Time to Go to Prison

A decommissioned one, of course.

Read More »

Two Poems by Steve Lewis

Indelible Ink & Turning 78

The Big Release

The Sacramento River as told through Kayla Anderson

Username or Email Address

Remember Me

This site uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. By continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with our  privacy policy .

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy . We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

‘Play’ Director Ruben Ostlund Preps ‘Tourist’; Will Contain “The Most Spectacular Avalanche In Film History”

Christopher bell.

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Share on LinkedIn
• Show more sharing options
• Submit to Reddit
• Post to Tumblr
• Print This Page
• Share on WhatsApp

This year’s New York Film Festival had plenty to offer for film buffs salivating over the spring season’s wealth of buzz movies. From the silent-era love letter “ The Artist ” to the impressive psychodrama “ Martha Marcy May Marlene ” (not to mention established champions like “ The Descendants ,” “ Carnage ,” “ The Turin Horse ,” “ A Dangerous Method ,” and more), very few from the anticipated roster disappointed the east coast crowd. However, much like your average fest, these well-known titles stole the spotlight from smaller films not containing  Marilyn Monroe or Michael Fassbender’s member. It’s understandable — there’s only so much time and skrilla — but one movie worth catching up with is  Ruben Ö stlund’s “ Play .” Based on a true story about a group of wrong-side-of-the-track kids bullying and robbing three better-off children, the Swedish director’s third feature is an uncomfortable and often-times bizarre film. The man’s got a voice and perspective so unique that the movie only incites a hunger for more — and thankfully, we won’t have to wait long for another helping.

Variety reports that the filmmaker is prepping another feature with a to-the-point title “ Tourist .” Hopefully any frightful memories of the loathsome Johnny Depp / Angelina Jolie vehicle have been blotted out because this actually sounds much more watchable. Said to be told in three parts, the French Alps-set movie will center on a father and his cowardly behavior following a monstrous avalanche. Those not sold on the simple premise might like to know that the filmmaker hopes to create “the most spectacular avalanche in film history” with a combination of live snow-fall and visual effects.

The director hopes to shoot in the spring, so it will be a while yet before we see what he has in store. As for the excellent “Play,” there doesn’t seem to be U.S. distribution in place, but for now you can get a taste with the trailer below.

Variety reports that the filmmaker is prepping another feature with the to-the-point title “Tourist.” Hopefully any frightful memories of the loathsome Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie vehicle have been blotted out because this actually sounds quite watchable. Said to be told in three parts, the French Alps-set movie will center on a father and his cowardly behavior following a monstrous avalanche. Those not sold on the simple premise might like to know that the filmmaker hopes to create “the most spectacular avalanche in film history” with a combination of live snow-fall and visual effects. Admittedly, it ain’t “Avatar,” but who can look away from an epic landslide?

Most Popular

You may also like.

• Now Playing
• Airing Today
• Popular People
• Discussions
• Leaderboard

War for the Planet of the Apes

Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.

Last Holiday

The discovery that she has a terminal illness prompts introverted department store saleswoman Georgia Byrd to reflect on what she realizes has been an overly cautious life. With weeks to live, she withdraws her life savings, sells all her possessions and jets off to Europe where she lives it up at a posh hotel. Upbeat and passionate, Georgia charms everybody she meets, including renowned Chef Didier. The only one missing from her new life is her longtime crush Sean Matthews.

A Dog's Way Home

The adventure of Bella, a dog who embarks on an epic 400-mile journey home after she is separated from her beloved human.

The Wave (Bølgen)

Although theorised, no one is really ready when a mountain pass above the scenic and narrow Geiranger fjord in Norway collapses and creates a tsunami over 300 feet high. A geologist is one of those caught in the middle of it.

Norm of the North

Polar bear Norm and his three Arctic lemming buddies are forced out into the world once their icy home begins melting and breaking apart. Landing in New York, Norm begins life anew as a performing corporate mascot, only to discover that his new employers are directly responsible for the destruction of his polar home.

After a collision with a comet, a nearly 8km wide piece of the asteroid "Orpheus" is heading towards Earth. If it hits it will cause an incredible catastrophe which will probably extinguish mankind. To stop the meteor NASA wants to use the illegal nuclear weapon satellite "Hercules" but discovers soon that it doesn't have enough firepower. Their only chance to save the world is to join forces with the USSR who have also launched such an illegal satellite. But will both governments agree?

Seven Chances

Struggling stockbroker Jimmie Shannon learns that, if he gets married by 7 p.m. on his 27th birthday -- which is today -- he'll inherit $7 million from an eccentric relative.

Force Majeure (Turist)

While holidaying in the French Alps, a Swedish family deals with acts of cowardliness as an avalanche breaks out.

Barely escaping an avalanche during a family ski vacation in the Alps, a married couple is thrown into disarray as they are forced to reevaluate their lives and how they feel about each other.

The Abominable Snowman

A kindly English botanist and a gruff American promoter lead an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti.

Avalanche Sharks

A snow avalanche awakens humungous, prehistoric sharks that proceed to chomp on bikini clad co-eds.

Extreme Ops

While filming an advertisement, some extreme sports enthusiasts unwittingly stop a group of terrorists.

Invasion of the Animal People

After a herd of reindeer are mysteriously found dead following a meteor crash in a remote part of Lapland in northern Sweden, soldiers and a geologist are called out to investigate.

Nature Unleashed: Avalanche

It begins on a glacier nestled on a frozen peak high in the wild Ural Mountains of Russia, kissed by clouds, the top of the world. A lonely, forbidding place, it's home to THOM CUSSLER and brother, JOCK, a pair of transplanted westerners seeking their fortune in Russia's new capitalist economy. They run a hard-luck snowmobile tour business that takes adventurous winter tourists up the mountains to experience the ultimate extreme winter thrill. During one such excursion, a massive ledge of snow at the top of the ridge suddenly collapses and an avalanche crashes down! Only the quick thinking and expert driving of Thom and Jock saves them. The tiny village of Dubroz, nestled far below, is not so lucky. Avalanche sirens wail, but the panicked villagers barely have time to act as the avalanche crashes down! A wall of snow smashes into one end of the village, blasting-in windows, collapsing and burying buildings... Written by GFT Entertainment

Bear Island

A group of people converge on a barren Arctic island. They have their reasons for being there but when a series of mysterious accidents and murders take place, a whole lot of darker motives become apparent. Could the fortune in buried Nazi gold be the key to the mystery? Donald Sutherland and Vanessa Redgrave investigate

After an avalanche of snow crashes into their ski resort, a holiday at a winter wonderland turns into a game of survival for a group of vacationers.

Avalanche Express

CIA agent Harry Wargrave is sent to aid Gen. Marenkov, a senior Russian official, who is defecting to the west. Wargrave decides they should travel to safety on a train across Europe, the "Atlantic Express". During the journey, they must survive attacks by terrorists and an avalanche, all planned by Russian spy-catcher Nikolai Bunin.

Wolf's Hole (Vlčí bouda)

Ten troubled teens from different schools are chosen for a skiing workshop in the mountains. On the day of, eleven young people arrive, each bearing an invitation. A massive avalanche hits, and the lodge is cut off from outside contact. Unfortunately, as food supplies are limited, the three instructors strongly advise that the youths work together to make do or choose someone to leave. The kids soon learn that their 'teachers' are not what they seem to be.

Northern Pursuit

Canadian Mountie Steve Wagner captures a German Luftwaffe officer on a spy mission, who later escapes from the prison camp. To catch the spy ring, the Mounties employ a ruse so that the spies, believing Steve to be sympathetic, enlist him in their plans.

Two brothers and an avalanche researcher try to convince endangered villagers that a giant, deadly wall of snow will soon destroy their valley.

Can't find a movie or TV show? Login to create it.

On media pages

On tv season pages, on tv episode pages, on all image pages, on all edit pages, on discussion pages.

Want to rate or add this item to a list?

Not a member?

Sign up and join the community

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Tourist

Revolves around Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Revolves around Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path. Revolves around Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path.

• Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
• Christopher McQuarrie
• Julian Fellowes
• Johnny Depp
• Angelina Jolie
• Paul Bettany
• 531 User reviews
• 313 Critic reviews
• 37 Metascore
• 4 wins & 4 nominations

Top cast 71

• Frank Tupelo …

• Elise Clifton-Ward

• Inspector John Acheson

• Chief Inspector Jones

• Reginald Shaw

• The Englishman

• Colonnello Lombardi

• Sergente Cerato
• Tenente Narduzzi

• Tenente Tommassini

• Conte Filippo Gaggia

• Capitaine Courson
• Brigadier Kaiser

• Brigadier Ricuort
• Brigadier Marion

• Brigadier Rousseau
• Brigadier Cavillan
• Cafe Waiter Jean-Michel
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

• Trivia Angelina Jolie admitted in an interview with Vogue Magazine that the only reason she agreed to do this movie was because she knew it would be a "quick shoot" in Venice, Italy.
• Goofs At the cafe in Paris when Elise orders her breakfast, the waiter says "un croissant beurre". On her plate, when she finishes reading her letter is a "pain au chocolat".

Elise : Invite me to dinner, Frank?

Frank Taylor : What?

[Elise gives Frank a look]

Frank Taylor : Would you like to have dinner?

Elise : Women don't like questions.

Frank Taylor : Join me for dinner.

Elise : Too demanding.

Frank Taylor : Join me for dinner?

Elise : Another question.

Frank Taylor : [thinks for a moment] I'm having dinner, if you'd care to join me.

[Elise smiles at Frank]

• Connections Featured in The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards (2011)
• Soundtracks Cat's Pyjamas Composed by Jack Alfred Courtesy of Extreme Music

User reviews 531

• Jul 7, 2012
• How long is The Tourist? Powered by Alexa
• What is 'The Tourist' about?
• Is 'The Tourist' based on a book?
• How does Shaw find out about Frank?
• December 10, 2010 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Sony Pictures (United States)
• Du Khách Bí Ẩn
• Venice, Veneto, Italy
• Columbia Pictures
• Spyglass Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $100,000,000 (estimated)
• $67,631,157
• $16,472,458
• Dec 12, 2010
• $278,780,441

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 43 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Surround 7.1

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.