The most accurate film ever about aspiring writers: Reprise

The Norwegian film Reprise is one of the very few films about the literary life - in this case, about two young men each aspiring to be a great (Norwegian) novelist, in the high literary tradition - that actually has a sense of what it's like to be a writer; compared with movies such as Bright Star or Kill Your Darlings, there's really no comparison - this one truly gets at the jealousies, the torments, the self-doubts, and hubris, the occasional cruelty, the more the occasional affection and support, the minuscule recognition, the star-worship - all part of the literary life. Granted, the literary life depicted here, which seems to be from the late 90s?, and is in Oslo rather than NYC or Iowa, is like an anthropological study of a vanished culture; I doubt too many young men today dream of a writing career in the same way that the two men in this movie do - as an admixture of Hemingway (Paris), Salinger (solitude), and rock star world recognition. The very idea of sending a manuscript to a publisher by surface mail - and actually having the publisher read it, edit it, and bring it to life - let alone accede to an unreadable title (Prosopoeia, if I have it right) - and that this novel would be the subject of a panel discussion on a TV talk show - well, not in America, anyway. The movie really gets the close but sometimes strained relation between the two friends - one of whom is clearly the more talented, but deeply suffering; the other more conventional and superficial, and he knows it - but more likely to be successful for those very reasons. The movie is about their lives - and the lives of a set of their close friends, secondary characters - over a fairly long period of time. It reminded me in this of the very great Italian series The Best of Youth, but more literary and insular in scope. The narrative is a little hard to follow at times, with its weaving of a few time strands, very abrupt introduction of the secondary characters, and an occasional voice-over omniscient and ironic narrator, as in Jules & Jim. Despite these difficulties, it's worth staying with the movie for some very powerful scenes, particularly of the mentally disturbed writer, for some real depth of character, for a true sense of a life or style of life that may be seen no more, and for some unexpected turns at the ending - the movie has its antecedents for sure, but avoids all literary and cinematic cliches.