There’s arthouse, and then there’s accessible arthouse, and Norway’s Joachim Trier has become a bit of an expert at the latter. His films, especially the most recent ones, are all about that laughter through the tears. It sounds terribly sentimental, but it works.

Trier is not afraid of pain, but he talks about it in a way that’s bearable to viewers. His new Cannes competition entry Sentimental Value [+lee también:
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Not because of its subject matter, please, but because that infamous film is deemed to be an appropriate gift for a nine-year-old by absentee grandpa Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård, really one of the best actors around). That and The Piano Teacher [+lee también:
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Gustav, a film director, walked out on his family ages ago, never acknowledging what it did to his daughters Nora and Agnes (Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas). Staying in touch “in between films” has never been his thing, but it has been 15 years since his last feature; he’s run out of excuses. When he returns after his ex-wife’s death, taking over the house, it’s clear that he wants something, but it’s not reconciliation – or at least not the obvious, heart-warming kind. Gustav has written a script about his own mother: she killed herself when he was a child. And only Nora, another representative of the tortured poets’ department in the fam, can play her.

Again, it all sounds very Bergman-esque, and Skarsgård could turn things to ice with his Mr Freeze stare. But these people can’t help but be funny. Nora’s breakdown before going on stage, when she proceeds to ask her co-star to fuck her, then hit her, and then rips off her bodice in protest, is a riot. So are Gustav’s self-centredness and Agnes’s resigned acceptance that in this group of creative crazies, she’s left to clean up the mess and pick up dirty plates. There are many layers and subplots here that don’t always land. But once Gustav gets the financing going – courtesy of Netflix – and even secures a proper star (Elle Fanning), with all of these references to the film industry, or even press junkets, this is a very critic-friendly movie, and the critics were indeed friendly during that first screening at Cannes.

So many directors, or actors, compare creating to therapy, but Trier – on good form here – tenderly shows how it works in practice. Nora and Agnes’s mother used to be a therapist, actually, but they are unable to sit down and let it all out. That’s not the way, and certainly not the Nordic way. All they have is Gustav’s new script. Long-kept secrets can eat you, and your children, alive, seems to be the lesson here, so go and make some art. And be merry.

Sentimental Value was produced by Mer Film, Eye Eye Pictures (Norway), Komplizen Film (Germany), MK Productions (France), Zentropa (Denmark) and BBC Film (UK). Its international sales are handled by mk2 Films.