Lilja 4-Ever

[mpox]

I know it has it's own forum, sort of, but... holy shit.

It's nothing at all like FÅ but if you like cinema that makes you think and feel rather than just be entertained then you really need to make an effort to see this. Moodysson was good in FÅ but he's amazing in L4E. If FÅ was life-affirming and made you feel warm and fuzzy then L4E is heart-wrenching and makes you want to tear shit up.

(OK, so this next paragraph can be killed by a mod if they want since it describes how to watch the movie for free.)

I can understand some people might be hesitant to watch it because of the subject, but it's so good and I think even important that I'll make it easy for you. Enter the title into google and a link to the film that someone uploaded to google video is on the first page. Click the link, download it, find some subtitles (again with the google) and watch. Then if you're like me you'll probably buy the DVD because while it's not a movie you'll watch repeatedly like FÅ, you won't want to settle for the poor quality upload.

OK, no more about it here, off to the proper forum and to read through what the L4E thread has to say now that I've watched it and yap about it some more there.

[hcd]

then L4E is heart-wrenching

Until the wings-scenes appear. I've mentioned this already in the L4E thread. I don't like these scenes. They destroy the sad feeling, which is really a great pity.

Then if you're like me you'll probably buy the DVD because while it's not a movie you'll watch repeatedly like FÅ, you won't want to settle for the poor quality upload.

Poor quality? I was really suprised how good the quality of this uploaded video is. However, Amazon.de offers the collector's edition (2 DVDs) for 9.95 Euro, so it won't cost the earth to buy it.

[mpox]

Poor quality? I was really suprised how good the quality of this uploaded video is. However, Amazon.de offers the collector's edition (2 DVDs) for 9.95 Euro, so it won't cost the earth to buy it.

It uses an excellent codec (h.264, the same as is used on a lot of HD films) but it's very small if you view it outside the browser which I did to get English subs.

Now that I'm actually looking for DVDs there's a bit of a problem. I'd rather have FÅ with it's proper name rather than Show Me Love and they don't sell that with the format or region encoding I need. Bastards.

[hcd]

but it's very small if you view it outside the browser which I did to get English subs.

I watched it with VLC-player in 800*600 (zoomed to fullscreen) and it looked really good.

and they don't sell that with the format or region encoding I need.

Search for your DVD-drive at google. Maybe there official or third party firmware updates available that disable this stupid region check. Read this too. (HD-DVD was region-free. And what do we get now? BlueRay with region check. What a BS.)

[mpox]

I watched it with VLC-player in 800*600 (zoomed to fullscreen) and it looked really good.

The download was 320x170 native resolution. It scaled decently but was considerably softer than ideal and text suffered the most. It's definitely watchable but I'll be happy when I have a chance to see it in the proper DVD resolution.

Search for your DVD-drive at google. Maybe there official or third party firmware updates available that disable this stupid region check. Read this too. (HD-DVD was region-free. And what do we get now? BlueRay with region check. What a BS.)

Thanks, my DVD player now has a region free firmware and people have used it to play PAL DVDs so I should be OK.

About HD, yeah, it's too bad that the consumer was the one who lost in the format war. The new formats are so DRM laden and locked down that neither was really all that great. Fortunately both protection schemes have been cracked so it's not as big a problem as it could have been. Ideally they'll move to digital distribution which cuts the physical manufacturing costs and that'll let smaller films like FÅ get converted to HD.

[hcd]

Fortunately both protection schemes have been cracked...

Yeah, I've read this too.

and that'll let smaller films like FÅ get converted to HD.

I guess FA needs no HD conversion, because of the noise filter Moodysson used to shot the movie.

[mpox]

I guess FA needs no HD conversion, because of the noise filter Moodysson used to shot the movie.

I still think it'll be an advantage to move to HD. There will of course be the film grain but the image should be much sharper and it'll give us a real anamorphic picture rather than the 4:3 letterbox or worse yet, pan & scan, which is on most current copies. I also think the newer video codecs and larger disc size will let them handle the film grain better. Even in the best of situations DVD can produce blocking and artifacts with fast movement and because of the grain there's always lots of movement even when very little is happening on screen.

The problem is one of money, they wouldn't even do a proper 16:9 transfer of FÅ for the box set and it'll be harder to justify a complete remastering for something that has very expensive fixed costs for a film as old as FÅ. What might happen before any actual media is made for sale, is they'd remaster it for HD television broadcast and we can get the copy that will inevitably be uploaded to the net.

[hcd]

I got my collector's edition of L4E today. After watching it I tend to say that the German dubbing sucks. The speakers are not really convincing and the voice of Valodja is too soft. The original voices are much better.

The second DVD contains a 90 minutes interview with Lukas Moodysson at the London film festival some years ago, which made me laughing out loud several times. F.e. he described the shooting of L4E: drunk bit players, sickness of the crew, language problems, etc. (He don't speak Russian, so he had no idea what the actors were saying. And, if you're reading this, kant, he had no idea if the translation of his Swedish script to Russian was well done or not. So in this case there's no need for a close translation for certain.) He also mentioned that his original scripts were always different from the finished film. F.e. his first idea of Fucking Amal was two sisters who had a "crazy massmurder" as their neighbor.

However, the way he describes himself shooting films makes me think of Benny Hill and his great parody of a filmmaker:

Interviewer: Your last film was so wonderful. Especially the scene where you kicked the dog out of the scene. I mean, it was so meaningful. How did you come up with that?
BH: What dog? Ahhh... this scene... yeah that fucking dog. He just appeared. I had no idea where he came from. He almost ruined this scene. That's why I've kicked him out...
Interviewer: ... *speechles*

Seems that Lukas works in the same way.

edit: Fixed some mistakes. I was in a real hurry yesterday.

[kant1781]

And, if you're reading this, kant, he had no idea if the translation of his Swedish script to Russian was done well or not. So in this case there's no need for a close translation for certain.

Alright... for this - one - time...