By M
To PB and GSB, for letting me in (in different ways, at different times, when most needed).
This is one of my favorite movies of all times and I can only eternally thank PB for giving me such present.
Be Oskar for one second. A difficult childhood. It’s really cold in Sweden and it gets even colder when other kids make fun of you at school, it freezes when your parents get a divorce, and life is impossible when your Dad has a drinking problem. Being 12 is not fun. You go out despite the snow. There is a girl. She has that voice. She is wearing just a night-shirt. You ask her whether she isn’t cold. She says she doesn’t remember that sensation. She solves your Rubik’s cube. You become closer and you help each other become adults, stand on you own feet. You end up needing each other, because life is much better like that, because, like that, and only like that, you can fully be yourself. And live.
Now, the girl is a vampire. “Are you dead? / No”
Everything about her is right, everything is just. Everything about them both is just right. She is a newcomer to the boy’s building, where she arrives with an old man. I understand that in the book, they have an “exchange of favors” kind of relationship, where he provides for her food and she gives him sexual favors. The movie skips the sexual favors, which is, arguably, a mistake, but whatever.
The old man loves Eli so much. As much as you can picture someone loving. But he is supporting Eli in her choice to get out of her right track, in her choice of being someone else. He provides for her food so that she doesn’t have to kill. She puts a distance between death and herself. Drinks a blood that belongs to nobody. Until she meets Oskar. The old man is jealous, makes mistakes, and kills himself, inviting her to drink his blood, which she does, recovering fully her identity.
All this is shot so beautifully, so beautifully. You can feel the cold on your own skin. The music suits the images perfectly and even the special effects are well integrated: Eli gets all her years for some seconds and transforms into an old monster. The photography is magnificent and even more so because it serves the powerful story.
“Be me for one second”. That is love. Being able to be the other, even if it is just for one second.
Blood, of course. When Oskar refuses to understand, when Oskar is mad at her, when Oskar doesn’t want to abide by her rules and forces her into a world of reality, opening the door, not asking her in — “You need to ask me in” — “Why? Is there an invisible wall?” he says with the arrogance of ignorance. She enters without being invited and starts bleeding from all her pores. “No!”, he yells. “You can come in!” he cries while hugging her. Anything but losing you.
The eroticism. They are 12 year old kids, but her hand on his naked back. Her, naked in his bed. Nothing happens, just the calmness of the tension.
Love again, as protection, this time. She cuts off the heads of those who threaten him. He tries to kill the one who threatens her, but fails. She takes care of it. One of them apologizes, the other says it’s ok. Then they need to leave, and it’s forever.
I could go on, every scene is perfect, every element of the story is a jewel. He wants her to have sweets. Puts his money in it. She can’t eat, but loves him too much to disappoint him. Has the sweets, throws up. “I’m sorry / It’s ok”.
Two caveats that I need to share though. There is this one character and plot development that is beyond vulgarity. One of the city residents, a woman, gets bitten by Eli, but the girl doesn’t have the time to kill her. She turns into a vampire and decides to kill herself. The first thing that is totally unbearable is that the cats recognize that she is not human and try to attack her. The idea that cats feel paranormal activity (see Ghost, for instance) is boring. Then this lady kills herself by being exposed to the sun and burning. That scene is ugly and unnecessary.
I read an interview with the director and the author of the book to conclude that they didn’t understand much about the movie, which might explain such poor choices.
Watch it a trillion times.
cucurbitacee 