(no subject)
Feeling like more of a 'we' tonight than an 'I', though I couldn't tell you names, or even draw a line where 'I' ends and 'we' begins. I just get the feeling that there's more than just me here, keeping an eye on things and letting their thoughts be known. Sometimes I feel quite individual, other times anything short of 'we' feels somehow inadequate.
Definately more than 'just me' tonight. Probably because we've started writing our Prism: Andrea's World review. We're going at a cracking pace. Written over a page of handwriting already(not including quotations from the book) and we're only 48 pages into a 300 odd page book. It should condense and polish up a lot by the time of the type up and final draft tho, so I don't think it'll be another Les Miserables or Ulysses by the time it's done. Depends how riled up we get. ;o)
Watched Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål) last night. (Contrary to what I'd thought, Åmål is a place, not a person. You can never be sure with these subtitled films. *g*) Elin and Agnes are in their mid-teens, and fretting their suburban teenage lives away in Åmål, a middle-class, suburban town in Sweden.
Agnes is friendless, angsty and has the typical teenage unrequited crush - except she has it for another girl. Elin. She writes her thoughts and frustrations about her crush down in her diary on her computer, toys with self destruction, and resents her mother's confusion at her daughter's lack of companions.
Elin is popular with the shallow, pretty clique at school, and has had plenty to choose from in the way of boys, including the shy, tag-along Johan, but she is unsatisfied with it all. She struggles to break away from the mundane monotony by craving to attend raves, get drunk and take drugs - all things she sees as forms of rebellion and non-conformism. She longs to be a succcessful model and escape the looming inevitabilities of marriage, middle age and middle class life.
Their two worlds collide when Elin and her sister Jessica end up being the only guests at Agnes's birthday party, a party her mother insisted she have, though Agnes told her no one would come. Jessica tells Elin in secret that Agnes is a lesbian, and a bet eventuates that ends in Elin kissing Agnes for 20 crowns.
From there it's a rollercoaster of painful teenage emotions and experiences as Elin struggles with her sexuality and Agnes struggles to deal with the peer pressure of being 'outed' and ridiculed by her peers, and the agonising burden of loving Elin, who blows hot and cold from minute to minute.
The actors portray the frustrations and desperations of teenage life with amazing truth. The immediacy and strength of teenage whims and emotions rivals the demands and needs of any two year old - everything is extreme and desires and viewpoints change from minute to minute.
When Agnes's father, wise to her suffering, counsels her that her desperation and angst will pass, that twenty five years on, he, who suffered much the same as she did, discovered that at a school reunion the popular and pretty kids had become unintersting and bland, and he had thrived and become strong and happy, Agnes remarks, "Twenty-five years? That is forever. Twenty five years doesn't exist. I'd rather be happy now than in twenty five years."
Show Me Love captures the sometimes painful experience of being a teenager, particularly, being in love, and being in love with someone your own sex, and the complications that can have. Even if you don't believe in the permenancy of the happy ending, I believe the happy ending was necessary for the resolution of the film, to leave the viewers feeling something positive. As turbulent as teenage live can be, it still, occasionally, has its vibrant "up" moments, even if they do come crashing down later. The resolution of the film on an "up" made the film a joy, rather than a painful experience, to watch.
If you're a foreign film buff, a lesbian/queer film buff, or just want a really good, honest film about teenage life to watch that isn't some recycled Hollywood tripe, then get your hands on a copy of Show Me Love. We found it in Blockbuster video here in Australia, so have a look in your local video store for it, or check online on Amazon.com or videoflicks.com.
Definately more than 'just me' tonight. Probably because we've started writing our Prism: Andrea's World review. We're going at a cracking pace. Written over a page of handwriting already(not including quotations from the book) and we're only 48 pages into a 300 odd page book. It should condense and polish up a lot by the time of the type up and final draft tho, so I don't think it'll be another Les Miserables or Ulysses by the time it's done. Depends how riled up we get. ;o)
Watched Show Me Love (Fucking Åmål) last night. (Contrary to what I'd thought, Åmål is a place, not a person. You can never be sure with these subtitled films. *g*) Elin and Agnes are in their mid-teens, and fretting their suburban teenage lives away in Åmål, a middle-class, suburban town in Sweden.
Agnes is friendless, angsty and has the typical teenage unrequited crush - except she has it for another girl. Elin. She writes her thoughts and frustrations about her crush down in her diary on her computer, toys with self destruction, and resents her mother's confusion at her daughter's lack of companions.
Elin is popular with the shallow, pretty clique at school, and has had plenty to choose from in the way of boys, including the shy, tag-along Johan, but she is unsatisfied with it all. She struggles to break away from the mundane monotony by craving to attend raves, get drunk and take drugs - all things she sees as forms of rebellion and non-conformism. She longs to be a succcessful model and escape the looming inevitabilities of marriage, middle age and middle class life.
Their two worlds collide when Elin and her sister Jessica end up being the only guests at Agnes's birthday party, a party her mother insisted she have, though Agnes told her no one would come. Jessica tells Elin in secret that Agnes is a lesbian, and a bet eventuates that ends in Elin kissing Agnes for 20 crowns.
From there it's a rollercoaster of painful teenage emotions and experiences as Elin struggles with her sexuality and Agnes struggles to deal with the peer pressure of being 'outed' and ridiculed by her peers, and the agonising burden of loving Elin, who blows hot and cold from minute to minute.
The actors portray the frustrations and desperations of teenage life with amazing truth. The immediacy and strength of teenage whims and emotions rivals the demands and needs of any two year old - everything is extreme and desires and viewpoints change from minute to minute.
When Agnes's father, wise to her suffering, counsels her that her desperation and angst will pass, that twenty five years on, he, who suffered much the same as she did, discovered that at a school reunion the popular and pretty kids had become unintersting and bland, and he had thrived and become strong and happy, Agnes remarks, "Twenty-five years? That is forever. Twenty five years doesn't exist. I'd rather be happy now than in twenty five years."
Show Me Love captures the sometimes painful experience of being a teenager, particularly, being in love, and being in love with someone your own sex, and the complications that can have. Even if you don't believe in the permenancy of the happy ending, I believe the happy ending was necessary for the resolution of the film, to leave the viewers feeling something positive. As turbulent as teenage live can be, it still, occasionally, has its vibrant "up" moments, even if they do come crashing down later. The resolution of the film on an "up" made the film a joy, rather than a painful experience, to watch.
If you're a foreign film buff, a lesbian/queer film buff, or just want a really good, honest film about teenage life to watch that isn't some recycled Hollywood tripe, then get your hands on a copy of Show Me Love. We found it in Blockbuster video here in Australia, so have a look in your local video store for it, or check online on Amazon.com or videoflicks.com.