Bussen (film)
| Bussen | |
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| Directed by | Arne Skouen |
| Produced by | Arne Skouen |
| Written by | Arne Skouen |
| Starring | Leif Juster |
| Cinematography | Sverre Bergli |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | Norway |
| Language | Norwegian |
| Bussen | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Finn Henriksen |
| Produced by | Erik Overbye |
| Written by | Bob Ramsing |
| Starring | Dirch Passer |
| Cinematography | Henning Bendtsen |
| Edited by | Lars Brydesen |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | Denmark |
| Language | Danish |
Bussen (The Bus) is a 1961 Norwegian comedy film, directed by Arne Skouen and starring Leif Juster, and a strikingly similar 1963 Danish comedy film directed by Finn Henriksen and starring Dirch Passer (the texts acknowledge this source at the start of the Danish version). The plot and script is essentially the same in both films (and also a couple of names). The Danish version is made suitable for a Danish audience. The music to the Norwegian version was written by Maj Sønstevold and Gunnar Sønstevold, with additional songs written by Alf Prøysen. The original main character was written for Leif Juster. At this point in his career, Juster was a popular movie actor. It is possible that Arne Skouen was inspired by a narrative poem written by the poet Ingeborg Refling Hagen, about a milkman who is constantly running errands because of his good heart.
The protagonist is a jovial bus driver, well beloved by his passengers, essentially the whole community around him. The bus, however, is old, and needs to be replaced. The bus driver himself is also needed as a handyman for all the people around him, assisting with stray cattle, household machines, children's homework, errands of all kinds, and at one occasion, assisting birth. Progress is however leaving him behind, and the local county council plots on a solution, involving a new bus and driver. The community revolts, and the local midwife (married to the mayor) intervenes with all the locals to keep the bus driver, who ends up keeping his job in a new bus.
There are, however, some notable plot differences, mainly based on the casting of the main character. Leif Juster was older than Dirch Passer, and presents a calmer humour. Juster was turning 51, while Passer was 37 at the time of the respective shootings. Passer's interpretation is more Slapstick-based, and the Danish film is made in a more Chaplin-like tradition. The kind humanity of the chauffeur is more present in the Norwegian version. As Passer was younger, the element of romance is more central in the Danish version as well. In both films, the protagonist saves and cares for a small girl (Kaja - played by Synne Skouen, daughter of Arne Skouen in the Norwegian version), whose mother is falling to pieces. In the Danish version, Kaja is cared for by an older sister, who becomes a love interest for the protagonist. In the Norwegian version, the interactment is solely with Kaja, and the mother is passed off as a "lost case". The bus driver is said to have delivered Kaja in the bus, and promises to take care of her as a daughter. "The man being there at birth is the truest father", he says. This plot difference makes the romantic subplot lighter and softer, and the social criticism implied in the Norwegian version is toned down.
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