Lilja 4-ever - depressive, moralistic, dispensable?

Discuss Lukas Moodysson's other films and films featuring actors in his films here.

Moderator: Ian

Postby kant1781 » Sun Nov 02, 2008 7:38 pm

What's wrong with an endless cry of desperation if the world is desperate?

Lukas Moodysson is just a very sensitive and honest observer of our world. He sees beauty, love and courage in it, and so he depicts beauty, love and courage (as in FA). He sees ugliness, cruelty, and desperation in it, so he depicts ugliness, cruelty, and desperation (as in Lilja).

But it seems that some only want to hear the first kind of message, not the second. Their repeated complaint against the second kind of message is, "This film does not tell me anything new." I cannot get rid of the feeling that the only motivation behind this is that they do not want to be bothered, just entertained.

Or why did nobody ever complain: "Fucking Amal didn't tell me anything new!" ??
(Because, actually, it didn't. And it doesn't matter a damn.)
User avatar
kant1781
Crew Member
 
Posts: 502
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Berlin

Postby bruno » Mon Nov 03, 2008 2:45 am

Problem is not what film is "positive" or "negative". Or what film tells you something new (but yet, L4E does not, and, individual true story aside, is confused IMHO at the very problem it tries to tackle, see my post 7538 above).
Problem is, in my very personal opinion I think a film should tell a story***. While I don't deny some artsy moments are present in L4E, my (very personal) opinion is that FÅ does tell a story where L4E does not.

And I have nothing against being bothered. But to bother me a film needs to tell me a real story. If it just shows like a priest' preach the sad demise of this girl being crushed and crushed again and humiliated and then forced to suicide, I just say that I know this s--t does exist and I can see almost openly it in the streets.

----------
*** Ok I think in fact this is the largely shared opinion, but it could be impossible to demonstrate it, against the subjective right to think a film should do different things: so I don't even try. I'm not for useless and endless debate or flames.
bruno
Gold Member
 
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:06 pm
Location: Milan, Italy

Postby kant1781 » Mon Nov 03, 2008 11:24 am

No harsh feelings, bruno! I didn't mean it personally and I didn't want to offend you. Sorry if I did!

I respect your personal view, I just honestly don't understand it. I don't understand what it means to say that a film should tell a "real story" but that Lilja 4ever doesn't - while at the same time saying that the things shown in the film exist on your very street. So then, I'd say, it's a real story, and it's even a realistic story, sadly. And even if you knew that sort of thing existed before, well, I don't get this point either, because (to repeat myself), I (for one) knew that there were teenage first loves between girls in boring small towns before I saw FA, and it never crossed my mind to complain about this film that it didn't tell me anything I did not already know.
User avatar
kant1781
Crew Member
 
Posts: 502
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Berlin

Postby bruno » Mon Nov 03, 2008 7:47 pm

Well, a story is something where a character can make decisions and choices, and he/she is influenced by the result of these actions.
L4E gives me a feeling of predictable, obvious things that will happen to the girl (she is helpless, can't defend herself: she can't understand she's going to be betrayed, and even if she could understand that, her destiny is probably signed anyway), all described in a linear, moralistic, patronizing way.
But I see I'm more or less repeating here things Kolya said a couple of years ago, so the better way is agree to disagree, and no harsh feelings.
bruno
Gold Member
 
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:06 pm
Location: Milan, Italy

Postby 12raHraH » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:25 pm

Impressive film by Lukas. You just have to dig deep in this one.
Writing is a socially accepted form of schizophrenia
User avatar
12raHraH
Member
 
Posts: 28
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 5:49 pm
Location: Philippines

For real: "You are dead!"

Postby bruno » Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:13 pm

Rumanian girl, 21 years old, is menaced and coerced to become a prostitute. The pimps (rumanians, too) filmed the "rite of passage" for fun.
She was the lucky one, maybe. She worked with the police to get these guys chased by the justice near Rome, and she was free. One of them is in jail (caught by rumanian police while trying to return to his country) but she faces a possible revenge against herself or her child...

http://tinyurl.com/c8ckd3

I don't want to reopen a debate here: I'm posting this just to show how L4E is little more than everyday's news. IMO, of course.
bruno
Gold Member
 
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:06 pm
Location: Milan, Italy

Re: For real: "You are dead!"

Postby mpox » Sat Feb 07, 2009 6:58 am

bruno wrote:I don't want to reopen a debate here: I'm posting this just to show how L4E is little more than everyday's news. IMO, of course.

Nobody was debating this actually happening, Moodysson was apparently inspired by a girl in Lilya's situation throwing herself off an overpass, it was that you thought that because it was "everyday news" it wasn't worth making a movie about it.
mpox
Gold Member
 
Posts: 103
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:36 am

Postby bruno » Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:13 am

L4E falls short because is just a documentary full of moralistic lessons, plus some artsy scenes. It doesnt have the depth of a film. I read somewhere it was shown as a cautionary tale in the schools of some eastern countries: probably L4E is good for just this purpose.
bruno
Gold Member
 
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:06 pm
Location: Milan, Italy

Postby kant1781 » Mon Feb 09, 2009 12:58 am

Please... not again! :wink: It's all been said, it's here to read for everyone and it doesn't get clearer by being repeated. So unless there's a new idea by anyone... otherwise, I swear, I will feel called upon to defend it once more with the ever same argument, and that gets tiresome too.

Lilya has been turned into a theater play, btw, in Germany (just like FA before, in many cities) and is currently showing in Berlin's Maxim Gorki Theater. For those who read German, take a look:
http://www.gorki.de/?page=spielplan&subpage=monatsplan&eventId=4315994
User avatar
kant1781
Crew Member
 
Posts: 502
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 6:01 pm
Location: Berlin

Postby bruno » Mon Feb 09, 2009 1:40 am

kant1781 wrote:Please... not again!


Ok, ok

I agree to a cease fire...

:wink:
bruno
Gold Member
 
Posts: 237
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:06 pm
Location: Milan, Italy

Re: Lilja 4-ever - depressive, moralistic, dispensable?

Postby fish » Sun Oct 31, 2010 5:11 am

Sort of on topic..... a bit.

Address by Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden at the Round Table of Business community against the Trafficking of Human Beings
Athens, January 23, 2006

http://www.interpol.int/public/News/2006/news20060124Address.asp

Worth a read if you haven't seen it before.
Fish
User avatar
fish
Crew Member
 
Posts: 16659
Joined: Sat Mar 07, 2009 9:34 am
Location: Adelaide, Oz

Re: Lilja 4-ever - depressive, moralistic, dispensable?

Postby katka » Fri Jan 06, 2012 1:01 am

I finally saw Lilja 4 Ever. Quite a good film. Some exterirers looked like us, especially in Ostrava - industrial city with many old functionalism and decrepit buildings factories. The film was very rough, and especially in the Swedish part of me literally irritated. There was a lot of music known when I counting some downright scenic sound and Russia's trance. Overall I quite liked Lilja. :) It's a good atmosphere, but I did not like where the wings. I think that the angels would become each understood without the wings, which had first Volodiya and then had both. :roll:
And I watched it with eng. sub. but I quite understood Russian :D so it was more natural for me :D
User avatar
katka
Crew Member
 
Posts: 919
Joined: Sun May 22, 2011 11:30 pm
Location: Czech Republic - Brno

Re: Lilja 4-ever - depressive, moralistic, dispensable?

Postby snaps » Fri Jan 06, 2012 2:23 pm

katka wrote:I finally saw Lilja 4 Ever. Overall I quite liked Lilja. :) It's a good atmosphere, but I did not like where the wings. I think that the angels would become each understood without the wings, which had first Volodiya and then had both. :roll:


I didn't like the wings bit either. Lukas can be a little didactic about his religious faith both on-film and in interviews etc. I don't think it added anything, and following the rest of the film was a bit hopelessly optimistic for my taste.
User avatar
snaps
Crew Member
 
Posts: 2151
Joined: Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:41 pm
Location: Fiskargatan 9, Södermalm, 11620 STOCKHOLM

Re: Lilja 4-ever - depressive, moralistic, dispensable?

Postby katka » Fri Jan 06, 2012 7:34 pm

hmmm :roll: I agree 8)
User avatar
katka
Crew Member
 
Posts: 919
Joined: Sun May 22, 2011 11:30 pm
Location: Czech Republic - Brno

Re: Lilja 4-ever - depressive, moralistic, dispensable?

Postby Kso » Tue Jan 24, 2012 3:12 pm

katka wrote:And I watched it with eng. sub. but I quite understood Russian :D so it was more natural for me :D


For me it was completely natural :mrgreen:
User avatar
Kso
Crew Member
 
Posts: 333
Joined: Sun Jun 07, 2009 7:21 pm
Location: Russia,Moscow

PreviousNext

Return to General

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

cron