Last week, we ran a review of Corridor, a movie that  played at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX.  It was a nifty, minimalist throw-back to Hitchcock, and the entire movie hinges on the performance of Emil Johnsen, who plays paranoid medical student Frank.

Without his convincing performance, the movie would not be as compelling. We had a chance to sit down with Emil for a one on one interview at Fantastic Fest to talk about the film, his role and what he’s up to next.

The Flickcast: When I came in from the airport for Fantastic Fest, I shared a shuttle with Jonah Storm (the director of Corridor). He said he had a project here, and I told him I would check it out.  You never know how things are going to turn out, and I just saw the movie, and it was really good. Congratulations, very cool.

So, how did you come onto this project? Did you know the directors?

Emil Johnsen: Well, the thing is, yeah.  I went to theater school at the theater academy in Sweden the same time that they were going to the film academy, so me and Jonah Lundberg actually started working together. I was in a short film that he made, then we started developing some other stuff together.  When they got financing to make a feature I was already interested.

FC: Did you have any input on the story development, or was the story completely ready when they came to you?

EJ: I didn’t have so much input, no. I did have a lot of opinions about the script, and as far as I remember there were some things I wanted to change, and I think actually they did change some stuff.

We collaborated a lot. I got the script way ahead, and read it, and I read several drafts of it.  I did, however, want there to be more of a romantic development between Lotte and Frank.

FC: It kind of starts going there…

EJ: It starts, but there’s one thing that is cut out, where Frank comes with a glass of milk, and I persuaded them to have something more romantic or sexual happen, but they cut that out.

FC: Well, it’s insinuated.

Corridor, directed by Johan Lundborg and Johan Storm (Sweden), is a darkly humorous suspense-thriller, the likes of which would make Hitchcock proud.  Frank (Emil Johnsen), a socially withdrawn medical student, goes about his daily routine with as little contact with people as he can manage – such as declining the invitations made by a classmate to study together and avoiding the other residents in his apartment building.

Frank is reluctantly roped into helping Lotte (Ylva Gallon), his persistently friendly (and moochy) upstairs neighbor with increasing frequency, much to his frustration.  In spite of this, an uneasy friendship forms between the two after Frank notices signs of domestic abuse between Lotte and her boyfriend Micke (Peter Stormare, who is always awesome) and as things progress, they get increasingly more complicated.

Because much of the action takes place out of sight, Frank makes assumptions based on what can be overheard from his downstairs apartment and his conclusions and actions set up a chain of events that topple into calamity.

I was reminded a bit of Rear Window while watching it, though Frank – unlike Jimmy Stewarts’ proactive voyeur – desperately tries to avoid social interaction and involvement with the people living in his building. The use of sound in the film is hugely important, as Frank’s perception of Lotte’s relationship with Micke is informed almost entirely by what he overhears from his flat.