Good Scene/Bad Scene: Petter Ness

Chosen by the director Of 'Elling'

Good: 'I Hired a Contract Killer' (Aki Kaurismaki, 1990)

There's a scene I like because it's very sweet in an otherwise melancholic movie – it's very Finnish in the sense of being both sad and funny at the same time. The movie is about a guy who has lost his job and wants to commit suicide, yet all his attempts are thwarted. There's a gas strike when he puts his head in the oven, and his rope breaks when he tries to hang himself. Finally, he hires a contract killer. However, on his way back from meeting the killer he goes to a bar and, of course, he meets a woman and falls in love.

The scene I enjoy most is when he's headed back to where he met the killer to cancel the job and he steps out of the taxi, the camera goes close on his face, and we see that something is wrong. Then the next shot is on the building and it has been knocked down. He has no other way of getting in contact with the killer. Suddenly he has a real conflict: he's found a reason to live but he doesn't know how to save his own life. It's an incredibly sweet moment of someone who had had no reason to live who is now struggling to live. I also enjoy the deadpan delivery of the actor; it really works here because it's the only moment in the film when there's a twinkle in his eye – so we really know that he's worried now.

Bad: 'About Schmidt' (Alexander Payne, 2002)

One scene is disappointing because the most expected thing happens. An elderly man (Jack Nicholson, above), who is coping with the recent death of his wife and his own retirement, is sitting on the roof of his Winnebago mobile home under a star-strewn sky, considering his life and concluding that he should have treated his wife better. I started to hope the scene wasn't going to end with a shooting star. He tells his wife all about his personal revelations and, sure enough, there's a shooting star. Then he's got an expression that says he's glad his wife has heard him. Personally I believe she was up there listening, but it shouldn't have been hammered home by the shooting star. It also wasn't necessary to make the scene work. It's important to always try to avoid the obvious.