Turn Me On, Dammit! at Symphony Space

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may

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Turn Me On, Dammit!

Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
13; Members $9; Kids/Seniors $11 Get two tickets per film for an entire year for just $111 with a Thalia Film Pass! (Limit of one screening per film.)

film

Thalia Docs

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Q&A with the star of the film, Helene Bergsholm on June 10!

2011. Norway. Jannicke Systad Jacobsen. 76 min. Color. Starring Helene Bergsholm, Malin Bjørhovde.

Best Screenplay - Tribeca Film Festival
Best Debut Film - Rome Film Festival

"Enormously entertaining. Both sexy and wholesome... Turn Me On, Dammit!,... is that rare thing, a movie that says shame on sexual shame and double shame on the double standard. Bergsholm's poker-faced performance creates the effect that we are watching the misadventures of an actual teenager." - Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Charming. The credence it gives to a young female's sexuality is definitely refreshing." - Miranda Siegel, New York Magazine

"Charming. The brazen honesty sets it apart as a refreshingly confident film, giving the teenage sex comedy a much warranted human dimension. Whereas American Pie and its studio-produced kin went for raunchy laughs, Turn Me On, Dammit! goes one step further in dealing with a teenage sex drive: it takes it seriously. There are few subjects as incendiary in cinema as a teenage girl's sexual awakening. Attempts to depict it can veer to melodrama as easily as sexploitation. There are few films that can tackle the subject without over-relying on nervous laughs or gratuitous sex. " - Daniel Loria, L Magazine

"Bergsholm is an utterly natural and absolutely fearless star." - Matt Singer, Time Out NY

"A must-see for its bold, fresh style of filmmaking. Surprising at every turn. Jannicke Systad Jabobsen has taken the original, startling tack of presenting a young girl's desire as normal."- Erica Abeel, The Huffington Post

"A breakthrough. A charming, wistful tale. You've never seen a teen coming-of-age film like 'Turn Me On, Dammit!' Find it and see it."- Marshall Fine, Hollywood & Fine

"Jacobsen's frank, funny but nonexploitative approach to teen libido has the feel of honest memoir, a look back at those years that recognizes, with the benefit of distance, that there's plenty of humor to be found in even the most arduous of growing pains." - Ian Buckwalter, NPR

"Pulls no punches. Alma is a charming heroine, and one likely to be discovered and cherished by girls who so rarely see relatable role models on screen. Parents should be aware that this film takes a much more blunt approach to teen sexuality than the average American movie-but it's so much sweeter, too."? - Elizabeth Weitzman, NY Daily News

TURN ME ON, DAMMIT! is the girl's coming of age movie that Hollywood would never make. This Norwegian movie gets away with stuff that would never slide in a slick Hollywood production. It's totally hilarious. Watch it." - Doug Barry, Jezebel

"Directed and written by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, this Norwegian-language movie packs plenty of deadpan humor and charm into its 76 minutes. TURN ME ON, DAMMIT! is no-frills, direct, funny, touching and, though frankly sexual, it's refreshingly free of nudge-nudge, wink-wink smirk and prudery. Which means there probably won't ever be an American remake starring, say, Chloe Moretz." - Stephen Rebello, Playboy

"For all its sexy, sardonic, Scandinavian sweetness, TURN ME ON, DAMMIT! will likely find the most favor for its frank portrayal of adolescent eroticism, female division, which seldom gets portrayed onscreen at all, much less at this affectionately candid level. For all its frustrated ardor, the film is actually quite lovely as well as honest, treating its young characters with the kind of respect to which Hollywood teen movies seem severely allergic." - John Anderson, Variety

"This is a quirky and offbeat sex comedy that shows exceptional taste, nevertheless. Helene Bergsholm charmingly plays a 15-year-old girl whose hypersexuality forces her to fantasize about those she likes and those who just seem to be nearby. Writer-director Jacobsen catches the oddball Nordic quality of life in a small town with utter aplomb and heart." - Brad Schreiber, The Huffington Post

TURN ME ON, DAMMIT! tells a story that is rarely if ever explored in films: the unbridled
sexual appetite of a teenage girl. Certainly this subject has never been approached in such a
candid and wryly comic way.
15-year-old Alma (Helene Bergsholm) is consumed by her out-of-control hormones and
fantasies that range from sweetly romantic images of Artur, the boyfriend she yearns for, to
down-and-dirty daydreams about practically everybody she lays eyes on. Alma and her best
friend Sara (Malin Bjørhovde) live in an insufferably boring little town in the hinterlands of
Norway called Skoddeheimen, a place they loathe so much that every time their school bus
passes the sign that names it, they routinely flip it off. After Alma has a stimulating yet
awkward encounter with Artur, she makes the mistake of telling her incredulous friends, who
ostracize her at school, until even Sara can't be seen with her. At home, Alma's single
mother is overwhelmed and embarrassed by her daughter's extravagant phone sex bills and
wears earplugs to muffle Alma's round-the-clock acts of self-gratification. Throughout, the
complexities of Alma's burgeoning sexuality and loneliness are compassionately rendered by
director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen with a frankness that always rings true, as does Helene
Bergsholm's quietly moving performance as Alma.
TURN ME ON, DAMMIT! has been recognized all over the world as a film that strikes a
chord with young people, but it has also been received appreciatively by those who are old
enough to remember that adolescence is a survivable malady. The film signals the arrival of
a new film talent in Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, an award-winning documentary filmmakerø
whose previous movies exhibit the same brand of humanism, sweetness, and offbeat humor
so much on display in this film.