New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

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

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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby fish » Sat Jan 25, 2014 7:16 am

Now that's just showing off! :P :lol:


Hope you enjoy it.
Please let us have your views of it when you get the chance. :Y
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby sydney » Sun Jan 26, 2014 1:37 am

fish wrote:Now that's just showing off! :P :lol:


Hope you enjoy it.
Please let us have your views of it when you get the chance. :Y

I have a feeling that this Moodysson is again awesome like the first 3 movies of Lukas. I have a slight hope that Lukas will be at the festival. Today I was in Rotterdam for the festival and saw 4 movies and also the directors were there for Q&A. I keep my fingers crossed. *:)*
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby ArcticMonkeys » Wed Mar 12, 2014 2:35 am

The film is released at the end of March here in Ireland. So looking forward to watching this cause it seems like a return to form for Moodysson to the lighter films of his first two films.
Good to hear it's getting good reviews.

Here's how my list of Moodysson's films go.

1/ Fucking Amal and Together (can't chose what's the better film as I love them both so much)
2/ Lilya 4 ever
3/ A Hole in My heart
4/ Mammoth
5/ Container
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby Ian » Wed Mar 12, 2014 9:53 am

One to import then, perhaps. :D
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby ArcticMonkeys » Mon Mar 24, 2014 4:24 pm

Ian wrote:One to import then, perhaps. :D


Ah my girlfriend wants to see it on the big screen (turned her into a Moodysson fan) plus I got a unlimited card for the cinema, so I can go see films for free so perfect excuse to go :D
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby Ian » Tue Mar 25, 2014 10:09 am

Zero chance of it ever getting a cinema showing anywhere in Townsville, I would imagine!
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby ArcticMonkeys » Tue Mar 25, 2014 4:21 pm

Ian wrote:Zero chance of it ever getting a cinema showing anywhere in Townsville, I would imagine!


I got in touch with the local Cinemas in Dublin and one or two are planning to screen it on a limited basis starting from April 18th, probably for just a week run. I'm amazed that it's getting a run cause most of Moodysson's work is only screened at Art Cinema's or Festival's before they are released on DVD.
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby Dahls » Tue Mar 25, 2014 11:34 pm

That's true.
I was the only one sitting in the theater when I saw it in Trondheim. :P

It was a week after the premiere though, so many could have watched it before me.
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby ArcticMonkeys » Wed Mar 26, 2014 2:20 pm

Dahls wrote:That's true.
I was the only one sitting in the theater when I saw it in Trondheim. :P

It was a week after the premiere though, so many could have watched it before me.


He was a critical darling thanks to his three films so he got a lot of attention and Tillersmann and Lilya4ever got proper screenings even if they were only shown twice a day. After he went off the rails a little, he lost a bit of that glamour and his last few films were straight to DVD. So after the good reviews and few awards it's won from smaller film festivals it seems he's getting back some of that attention.

Ah I can't see many going to see it, I think his commercial day's are gone but he could get it back if he continues on making films as good as his first three.
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby snaps » Thu Apr 17, 2014 1:34 pm

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Lukas Moodysson on 'We Are the Best', Punk & Christianity

By Oliver Lunn http://grolschfilmworks.com/ca/features/lukas-moodysson-on-we-are-the-best-christianity-punk-interview

Lukas Moodysson is, hands down, one of the greatest European auteurs of the last two decades – having directed Show Me Love (1998), Together (2000), Lilya 4-Ever (2002). And yet he’s a wildly unpredictable filmmaker whose work explores anything from small-town life to human trafficking and the messed up world of reality TV and porn. Confounding fans’ expectations again with We Are The Best!, Moodysson presents a wonderfully sweet but not saccharine coming-of-ager about a teen girl punk band in 1980s Stockholm.

I met Moodysson in London to chat about misfits, Christianity, being in a band in the 1980s, cinema as a second-rate art form, and what made him want to become a filmmaker in the first place.


GFW: We Are The Best! is adapted from your wife's graphic novel. Did she guide you along the way, or did you want to do your own thing with the film?
Lukas Moodysson: Well, she always guides me. But at the same time, she was quite tired of going back to her own childhood because she had already been there and lived it [laughs]. Then she made the graphic novel, so for her, I don't think she was that interested in the project – apart from that she was happy I made it of course.

How could you relate to the 80s girl punk band scenario?
Well, that's not too difficult because I was the same age. I was 13 years old in 1982, and we listened to the same music. It just feels very, very close to me. The big difference is that maybe I grew up in a small place. She grew up in Stockholm, I grew up much further away from the centre.

Were you in a band, too?
I played in a band, but I don't feel I have any talent for it. I play the drums. I was never capable of learning even one chord on the guitar, so I couldn't play it. So I was on drums, but I couldn't really play drums either. It didn't turn out very well.

You've been described as deeply Christian. Did you empathise more with the Hedvig character as a Christian guitarist?
Hmm, I'm not deeply Christian. Well, "deeply" implies... erm...

Orthodox?
I don't know. But it was fun because that's actually a character that doesn't really exist in the book. There's no Christianity in the book. That was a nice thing to add. Also it was nice the person who keeps the group together is actually the really lonely girl – the diplomat of the group. When we were making the film, it was difficult because Liv, who plays Hedvig, is not at all Christian. She was funny with us all when I was there, because she didn't find any reason to believe in God herself. So it was difficult.

But I do want to say with that, it's nice that she wins those arguments, the discussions about how Klara has a more materialistic view of things. Like, the only things that exist are the things you can touch and see. She defends the idea that there are a lot of things that you cannot see and touch that still exist.


(Mira Barkhammar. Image credit: Memfis Film/P-A Jorgensen)

Not many films really capture what it's actually like to be a teenager. Which ones have you admired over the years? Did you have any in mind for this – films or filmmakers?
No. I don't watch movies at all.

Really? Why not?
Because they're all my enemies.

I remember when I grew up, the one film that made me... what's it called in English? "Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo", the German movie.

Christiane F.?
Yes.

It reminds me of your Lilya 4-Ever, actually.
Yeah. Well, I liked it when I was 5. I rewatched it some years ago. You shouldn't do that maybe because you copy but I really liked it when I was 12 or 13 years old and I wanted to take drugs [laughs]... I could still sort of relate to the kind of desperation or something without heroin, though.

Did that make you want to become a filmmaker?
No, I don't think it did. I think the film that really made me want to become a filmmaker wasn't really a film. It was a TV series, it was Twin Peaks. But that was when I was over 20. Before that, I always felt when I was younger and growing up that film was a sort of second-rate art form.


(Image credit: Memfis Film/Fanni Metelius)

To music?
Yeah. Music and literature. I still struggle with that. I have a little bit of a problem seeing – I know this sounds strange coming from a film director – but I have a little bit of a problem seeing film as... Sometimes I feel I have very, very simple taste in film. When I'm a spectator, when I'm watching something, I just really want to see something funny and simple and uplifting.

But yet you don't always want to make films like that?
No, that's a problem, that's a problem [laughs]. Some of the films I've made, I would really have liked to see, so that's a problem at least. I think I have more sophisticated taste in many other areas. At the moment, I feel I have very simple tastes in food and in film.

You don't think films can have the same life-changing effect that music has?
No. But yeah. As I said, it's very ambivalent. I feel things can happen, yeah. I think in many ways, Twin Peaks had that for me – all the orders of existential level, but all kinds of art can change your life. Music and books and films and everything. I think we're all products... we're all very influenced by what we see.

You're quite an unpredictable director – you've done so many different projects. How do you choose those projects? Do they come to you?
Yeah. It's difficult to know.


(Image credit: Memfis Film/P-A Jörgensen)

Do you come out of one movie and think, "God, that was really intense. Now I want to do a comedy"?
Yeah. Sometimes I feel like that, but it doesn't necessarily stay like that. I remember when I made my first film Fucking Amål/Show Me Love, I really felt next time I had to do something with grownups, because I was really tired with the teenagers and children. I wanted to do something with people my own age. So that was my own decision. But then why it turned into a film about the 70s and about a commune and everything, that's a different thing.

I had a little bit of the same feeling now, actually. Now I've made a film about children, I'm gonna have to do something about grownups. But I have so many different... it's more like a chaos in my head. Some days you just have to decide: this is the one you have to make. And then you just have to be a little bit stupid— not stupid, but narrow-minded and ignore all the other things surrounding you. Because it's really difficult.

Do you find it easier writing about younger people? I know that some of those films have maybe been a little bit more popular than the older ones?
I'm not sure if I find it easier or if it's that... I don't know. It all has to do with sort of feeling that there's a great need for good films for young people, because I feel also like part of a tradition. I feel almost nationalistic. I feel very proud of the Swedish tradition of making films – and not only films, but also books and things – that are for and about young people.

Also, some of the really heavy Swedish directors, including Bergman, made some of the best. Fanny and Alexander is really a film about children. Even he made something [funny].

It's still dark, though.
Yeah. Funny and sad at some times, too. I think there's a tradition in that which I feel at home in.


'We Are The Best' is released in cinemas on 18 April. Main image: Memfis Film/P-A Jörgensen.

Follow Oliver on Twitter: @OliverLunn
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby fish » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:15 am

Excellent interview, thanks Snaps.

Cinema release today, eh?
Let's hope us poor slobs down here can get hold of the DVD soon. :P
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby Ian » Fri Apr 18, 2014 10:15 am

Nice one, Snapsie. :D
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby snaps » Sun Apr 20, 2014 10:36 am

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We Are the Best!, film review: Girl trio makes Swede music together

5-star rating from ‘The Independent’

(15) Dir. Lukas Moodysson; Starring Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, 102mins

Saturday 19 April 2014

After some mis-steps with experimental and feel-bad drama, Lukas Moodysson's seventh film is a return to the kind of heartfelt, closely observed and warm-natured coming-of-age stories he told in his early films Show Me Love and Together.

Adapted from a graphic novel by his wife, Coco Moodysson, it is about three 13-year-old girls in early-Eighties Stockholm who form a punk band at their local youth club. Only one of them can play an instrument, but their songs about hating PE lessons and the confusing idiocy of the adult world have an endearing naive intensity. Then again, they're not making music for anyone else but themselves.

It's only got a mild dose of the angst that was in Show Me Love, and the politics are more peripheral than in Together, but in its own small way, it is an eloquent piece about the Swedish tension between social conformism and political liberalism, as much as the eternal generational struggle between kids and their parents. It's about how being a teenaged outsider can sometimes be lonely and painful, but can also feel righteous and good. Especially when there are three of you being outsiders together.

Best of all, it has very fresh and natural performances by its first-time actors, and bubbles over with effervescent energy and natural humour. In fact, it's an irrepressible joy from start to finish. Think School of Rock, without adult supervision.
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby ArcticMonkeys » Sun Apr 20, 2014 10:06 pm

So got to see this at last at my local cinema in Dublin, it was shown on the smallest screen but got a few screenings. Not a big crowd really but I went to the earliest screening with my girlfriend, so I say it wasn't full but that was to be expected.

Anyway onto the film, It's Moodysson's best film since Together for me , It's probably his sweetest film to date, even Fucking Amal and Together had dark moments such as Suicide Attempt, Bullying and Domestic Abuse. "VI ÄR BÄST only real dark moment is when the girls fall out over guys but that doesn't last long. First of Mira Grosin as Klara (girl with the Mohawk) will go down as one of the best performances Moodysson ever got from one of his teenage/child actor's, she's a bit like Alexandra Dahlstrom's Elin in Fucking Amal, all mouth and confidence but you can't help liking her character. She be up there with Oksana Akinshina, Alexandra Dahlström and Rebecka Liljeberg for me as the must see performance in a Moodysson film. Mira Barkhammar as Bobo, is probably the heart of the film and I think her character is based on Moodysson's wife Coco, as she looks exactly like her when she was younger. she lacks confidence while Klara is clearly doesn't care what anyone thinks. I hate harping back to Fucking Amal, but she's a bit like Agnes, quiet and thoughtful but not afraid to stand up for herself. The third girl Liv LeMoyne as Hedvig, the Christian who the girls want to turn her away from the path of god :D, who is the only musical one in the group, isn't probably given as much to do in the film as the other two but she's rather sweet and doesn't let the side down.

Some scenes that I loved, the ending scene at their first gig playing for a local club at a Christmas party called Santa Rock, which is held in January :D, which leads to a riot (that's all I say). Klara and Bobo getting drunk and trying to trash Klara's big brother's party, The touching scene when Bobo tries to comfort her Mum who's broken up with her latest boyfriend, Klara's dad joining in a jam session with his clarinet, The lyrics to the song "Hate the Sport", Klara trying to influence Hedvig's little sister about turning her back on God (played by Moodysson's real life daughter), The girl's arguing with the local rock band about using the space to rehearse and them calling them a "girl band", the begging for money to get Hedvig a electric guitar. There are many funny scenes that leave you with a smile.

Saying that you have a few scenes that leave you with a bit of dust in your eye :wink:, Hedvig thinking the girl's don't like her anymore cause her mum wanted to make Bobo and Klara go to Church after they forced her to cut her hair, When Klara finds out that Bobo tried to steal her punk rocker boyfriend even though it's a little funny is rather sad, the scene in the bed after trashing Klara's brother's party, Bobo telling Klara that no guys like her and that she be alone forever really is up there with the Agnes scene with her father in Fucking Amal as one of the saddest scenes.

But overall it's really Moodysson's most cheerful film to date and his most enjoyable since 2000's Together, I can't say if it's better then Amal or Together yet as I think I need to view it again when it comes out on DVD before I start saying if it's his best movie, I can say it's his funniest by far. Thank god he's back to the happy and story driven side rather then the bleak, downbeat and preachy darker films.

High Points
1. Mira Grosin as Klara
2. Swedish Punk Song's
3. Moodysson's best feel good movie since 2000
4. The Ending and Montage ending credits
5. The Scene between Bobo and Klara after they get drunk (scene of the movie)
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Re: New Lukas Moodysson Film - "VI ÄR BÄST!"

Postby ArcticMonkeys » Sun Apr 20, 2014 10:27 pm

Coco Moodysson Discusses We Are The Best

We Are The Best is set to hit the big screen this week, as Lukas Moodysoon returns to the director's chair.

The movie is based on the graphic novel Never Goodnight by his wife Coco Moodysson. We caught up with her to chat about the film and the original graphic novel.

- We Are The Best is released in UK cinemas next week, so can you tell me a little bit about the film?

We Are The Best is about three girls, Bobo, Klara and Hedvig, and takes place in Stockholm in 1982. It follows their struggle to form a band.

It is also about their friendship and music. It is based on my graphic novel Never Goodnight, so it is also about my life.

- That does lead me into my next question. You wrote the comic book on which the film is based, so how did the big screen adaptation come about? Is it something your husband Lukas has wanted to do for some time?

He just asked me on day in the kitchen and I said 'yes' (laughs). It just felt natural and it didn't come as a big surprise. We don't work together but we are always interested in each other's projects: my studio is next door to his. We talk a lot about what we are working on.

I thought it was a good idea. I was happy for him, because he had just finished not only one book but two, about his dead father. I thought it was time to do something that fun, inspiring and liberating.

I had lots of fun when I drew it, and I knew that the characters would give him energy and happiness. I was happy for him to do.

- I know you have said that you were happy for the film to go ahead, but I was wondering if there were any slight reservations?

No, not really. Because I didn't have time to be involved - I was working on my own project - it was just like 'ok, you can take it. Do whatever you want to' (laughs).

I didn't feel like I had anything to protect, so it was... the book came out in 2008, so there have been some years between the movie and the book. I was a little bit fed up with punk, so I just said 'take it'.

- The movie follows three girls who form a punk band, so what inspired the original comic book story?

For me, it was... I remember I was writing a short piece for a comic magazine in Sweden: it was called I Remember My Mother's Lovers and How They Use To Touch Her.

It took place in 1982/83, but there was something about this time in my life that I wanted to work with. I liked the tone that I had found in this and wanted to continue.

There is something very interesting about the age of twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, when you are not a child anymore and you are curious. At the same time, you are not afraid because you have not gone through hard times that come after.

- Can you talk a little about writing the graphic novel? Do you write the story first and then the images for example?

I always start with the words. I always write something like a script, but I feel like I have to be free and so I don't decide everything in the script.

I have to be very open. When you start to draw, things start to happen and you characters start to do things that you don't expect them to do.

You have to start with the script, and sometimes you have to work with panels and some sketches: I try not to do so many sketches.

- How much did the story change from the initial idea that you had, to the final book?

That is very hard to answer because it was a long time ago. I think it always changes: the idea that you have at the beginning and the final result are always a different thing. It always happens.

I worked with it for so long, and I took a long time to draw: I was drawing every day Monday to Friday for two years.

- The three actresses cast in the central roles of Bobo, Klara and Hedvig are all making their big screen debuts. So what do you think of their interpretations of the characters? Did you have any role in the casting process?

Yes I did. I watched the tapes and Lukas did ask me for my opinion, which he always does. I was really happy for them as they contribute so much energy.

I think that the comic is a little bit darker than the film: I think that they make it lighter as they bring so much happiness and energy to the film. I was really happy for them.

- What did you think of the film when you saw if for the first time and the characters that you had created?

That was a happy moment, it was amazing. I loved the scenes where they play especially, because they were very important to me when I created the comic.

I wanted audiences to really feel how it feels when you go into the rehearsal room for the first time, put your amplifier on, and discover chords for the first time. I was very happy watching that.

- The movie has played on the festival circuit, so have you had a taste of the festivals? And how are you finding the reaction to the movie so far?

No, I haven't been to the festivals; I let Lukas take care of all that. I am really happy that people like it. It is amazing.

Both Lukas and I thought it was a very Swedish story, as there are a lot of Swedish references and music and so on. It is very surprising when you go abroad... when we were in Japan we got many questions about Swedish punk music. It has been really great.

- Now that you have had a taste of seeing your work turning into film, have you any desire to try to write a film screenplay?

No no no, not at all. I am not very fond of the way the film industry works. It is a nice thing to be a cartoonist, as you can sit by yourself and it is just you and your pen and your paper.

It is much smaller and there is not as much money involved. You can do whatever you want - not always - but quite often. I like it more.

- How did you get into writing and comic book drawing in the first place?

I was twenty-nine when I started. Before that, I was studying to become a sign language interpreter (laughs).

I was really bad and I never understood what the teachers were telling me in sign language. So I dropped out and was really miserable. I was just thinking 'what am I going to do now?'

I started to draw because I was bored and frustrated. One day I went to the library and found some autobiographical comics, and I knew immediately that this what I was going to do. So, that is the story (laughs).

- Finally, what's next for you? And what are you working on at the moment?

Right now, I am working on a new comic book about 1992. I have lots of work to do on that book. I am working on the script at the moment.

We Are The Best is released 18th April.



Read more: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/movies/coc ... z2zSbCy7wV
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