Current mood: moody
Current music: Whatever gets me in the mood
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TOGETHER/TILLSAMMANS (2000) - d. Lukas Moodysson
Pompous Modals
I've got it bad for Lukas Moodysson. Each film has been better than the one before it, and he's on the kind of winning streak that can only be cured with an addiction to uncut Bolivian and toothless STD-factories. Considering the subject of his most recent film, I wouldn't hold out for any kind of 'imminent decline.'
Among the four or five non-Swedes who've seen all three of his features, 'Together' seems to be his most contentious. Which is weird, really, because both 'Fucking Åmal' and 'Lilya 4-Ever' are about much more taboo subjects. 'Together,' about life in a suburban Stockholm commune circa-1975, isn't really designed to offend. In fact, it's almost Karo-sweet. Sure, characters fight, things fall apart, characters fight more, but there's a light touch and you can't help feeling like everything will work out more or less okay - once Signe and Sigvard leave, at least.
What seems to bug everyone about 'Together' is the fact that the characters aren't always likable. They act like children, hold petty grudges, and make no apologies for their behavior. Worst of all, Moodysson isn't apologizing for his characters. If there's anything moralists love, it's flawed people getting theirs, and LM isn't playing that game.
Empires rose and fell between the film's theatrical run and video release (two f#@&ing years), a delay which, on seeing the film again, feels too damned long. Hopefully the wait for 'Lilya 4-Ever' won't be comparable.
*On a side note, I just looked up the year of Franco's death - as the movie starts with the announcement. In the process, I started reading an interestingly-translated bio of the big baddy himself and came across the following, which I thought was nice: His father left the house and his mother was in charge of his education in an environment of pity and pompous modals. He was a boy with a meticulous aspect, obstipated, prudent and smart.
I'm glad that's finally clear.
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