(no subject)

[lapsedmodernist]

me: I am so glad Fionn chose us to be his parents. He poured over the huge cosmic binders of prospective parents profiles and because of your love of death metal and my love of abandoned buildings he chose us for his parents.

theophile: well, he had applied early admission to be one of Brangelina's kids, but didn't get in, so he decided to go with his safety parents, us.

Last night I made a chicken-tofu green curry and we watched "Let The Right One In" which was really good and very beautifully shot. I was confused enough by some aspects of the film that I did some googling afterwards and discovered that in the original novel it's explained that Eli is a boy who was castrated a long time ago, and her older man companion has a much more sinister background in the book. In the movie I first "read" him as someone who was her childhood love, and she became a vampire, and he stayed with her, but after the final shot I wondered whether instead he was just like Oskar, that she had been a vampire for a very long time, and befriended him many years ago the same way she befriended Oskar when she was already a vampire. I like the ambiguity of the relationship of her with the older man (can't remember his name) than what is apparently in the book--that he is a pedophile who has only been her companion for a few months--but the stuff about her gender ambiguity, I wish had either been explicated or omitted altogether. I mean some level of ambiguity would have been fine--there is so much homosexual subtext throughout the rest of the film, involving everyone--but that scene where Oskar sees Eli changing is confusing. I read that a backstory with explanation was filmed but then cut... I dunno, what did other people think?

Also, THANK YOU legitimatelove, your package arrived!!!

Comments

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

To me it was pretty obvious that Oskar was a budding sociopath, but that he was made that way by his environment from which he was so detached that the only connection he ended up feeling was with Eli. Do you mean stunted in development in terms of mental development? I assumed (from both the movie and other vampire lore) that it was sort of a combination--life experience was superimposed on someone who is a certain age biologically--which means physically and in some ways emotionally.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

most of my vampire-lore knowledge comes from Drakula, and--mostly--the Whedonverse. I don't remember seeing/reading anything specific about entering uninvited in the former, and in the latter vampires simply could not come in--it was as if there was an invisible wall. Also you didn't have to invite them every time (as was seemingly implied in this movie)--once you invited a vampire into your home, he could always come in, which is why (if you watched Buffy), it was a problem when Angel turned evil in season 2--by that point he already had access to Buffy's house, and they had to do a ritual to uninvite him.

[legitimatelove.livejournal.com]

Oh, YAY! I was worried that it wouldn't get there in time, but the next shipping option was $29+...I was like...eh... Anyway, yay :)

P.S...you guys are awesome.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

thank you again, you rock so much. How much was the shipping?

[electric-honey.livejournal.com]

knowing all of that makes me want to read the book. i thought the same thing on seeing the movie--that the older guy had been her age once upon a time and was in love with her. i have to say that i didn't get the gender ambiguity at all (at least I don't think I did, I saw it a couple months ago).

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

well the gender ambiguity is really centered around one very quick, blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot, when Oskar sees Eli getting changed, and his/her genitals look sutured. That kind of shades the exchanges between them when Eli asks him "would you like me if I wasn't a girl" and later when she says "I am not a girl"--before that shot, the straightforward reading is of course that she says she is a vampire, not a girl, but then all of a sudden there is gender ambiguity there, too.

[catling.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reminding me that I still need to see that movie, I've heard really good things about it from a variety of folks.

And the bit about Fionn choosing you made me smile.