Watched FA on BBC4 last night

[Guest_Simon]

Wow! Fantastic film. I was travelling through Finland (the Aland Islands) when I saw a poster for this film; I remember being amused by its title, it would never be allowed to be called 'Fucking Amal' here in the UK! I'm assuming that this must have been the time when the film had just been released in Scandinavia.

Fast forward six years, and as a part-time student of the Swedish language, I've always wanted to see this film, but of course, in the UK, we don't often get to see Swedish cinema.

You could imagine my surprise when I was channel surfing on cable late last night and realised that this film was going to start in the next five minutes!

As for my reaction to this film, I thought it was utterly charming. I felt myself smiling and grimacing at all of the teenage dilemmas and issues that were presented, and didn't realise just how funny this film was going to be. The two lead actresses who played Elin and Agnes were fantastic; a completely naturalistic performance. But let's not forget to mention the supporting cast, who were also great, especially being so young.

So I'm a pretty happy person this morning, having watched a film I've been dying to see for years and enjoying it so much. It's quite telling that my housemate, who isn't really into films, especially not 'arthouse' ones from Sweden, stayed up way beyond the time she normally goes to bed to finish watching this film. She also enjoyed it.

So, did any other Brits see the film last night? Thoughts?

Simon

[RDL]

I came across it while channel hopping last night. I missed the first twenty minutes but I decided to stick with it as it was either that or watch Frank Skinner...

I must say, I enjoyed it immensley. It is the only teen film I've ever really enjoyed. I think the fact it was set in Europe (as opposed to the USA) helped me relate to it more. I think both Rebecca Liljeberg and Alexandra Dahlström deserve a lot of praise for their accurate character portrayals as do the supporting cast.

[Guest_John]

Yes, I too was channel hopping last night and managed to see it, three quarters of it anyway. I was surprised to see in my cable channel info screen that it warned of explicit sex scenes, well perhaps I missed them or it was edited because I thoroughly enjoyed the film! I will definitely be watching his Layla4Ever on Friday night because it is rare that I discover a film and a film maker who manage to make we want to find out more about how he thinks and his own world view through his film.

Ironically, my old housemate is a foreign films person and I generally am not, and he mentioned to me this morning about a film called Layla4Ever that is being shown this week, surprise surprise, it's Moodysson again!

I think the only reason I actually managed to get htis far is because of the amazingly English soundign name, a bit like Andersson and Johnsson I suppose.

Was pleased that this bloke is also a committed Christian. I think C gets too much of a modern bashing from Godless, unthinking, prejudiced, atheists these days and it is a relief that somebody who believes in God but is not some (asummed) meek and wooly person but is in fact not afraid to pronounce his beliefs through his art. :ph34r: