Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

For discussion of Matt Reeve's Film Let Me In

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DavidZahir
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by DavidZahir » Sun Mar 17, 2013 7:43 pm

I think it worked better for me personally for the following reasons:

1. I understood all kinds of nuances simply because the language and setting were my own. The presence of religion, for example, and the more subtle area of how two different societies view heavy drinking. Look at the business with Oscar's father and his drinking buddy--relatively few heavy drinkers in American culture behave like that. They go to bars and get drunk together, or they make a big macho thing out of it--generally. I got a mixed signal, and from others' comments it seems clear that was not uncommon.

2. I preferred the choice of having Abby and Owen entering puberty, having a flirtatious relationship, rather than the sex-less one of Oscar and Eli. This is a personal preference only.

3. The ending was more disturbing to me, and for that reason more dramatic. While LTROI seemed filled with a dark hope, LMI mingled that hope with even more darkness coupled with a more mature little boy who made that choice with wider open eyes. Make no mistake, I loved LTROI. But LMI haunted me more, pulled some of its dramatic punches a tad less.

That is essentially it. I could break down a few more nuances and details, including what I view as errors in storytelling or filmmaking in each (the cats in one film, the deliberate "unreality" of Abby's movements in the other) but those three make up the big ones.
O let my name be in the Book of Love. If it be there I care not
For that Other great Book above. Strike it out! Or write it in anew--
But let My name be in the Book of Love!
-- Omar Kayam

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IDreamtIWasABee
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by IDreamtIWasABee » Sun Apr 07, 2013 6:34 pm

DavidZahir wrote: 2. I preferred the choice of having Abby and Owen entering puberty, having a flirtatious relationship, rather than the sex-less one of Oscar and Eli. This is a personal preference only.
Sneaking into a boy's bedroom in the middle of the night and spooning with him naked isn't sexless. Not in the American film, not in the Swedish film, and not in the book, no matter how many times Eli gets his dick cut off.

There are several other scenes in the Swedish film that carry a gentle sexual energy (though in a more subtle way), like Eli and Oskar touching each other through the glass door and the way they can't quite bring their hands together while sitting on the playground.

The movies are pretty similar on this score, though LMI has a better date scene, it's true.
DavidZahir wrote:3. The ending was more disturbing to me, and for that reason more dramatic. While LTROI seemed filled with a dark hope, LMI mingled that hope with even more darkness coupled with a more mature little boy who made that choice with wider open eyes. Make no mistake, I loved LTROI. But LMI haunted me more, pulled some of its dramatic punches a tad less.
Yeah, it's unsettling to see the little guy choosing a girl he knows will probably leave him (emotionally), or vice versa, but in a bittersweet way it's very romantic.
Ursula was played by a boy in 1961. One day, Eli.

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metoo
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by metoo » Sun Apr 07, 2013 7:17 pm

IDreamtIWasABee wrote: Sneaking into a boy's bedroom in the middle of the night and spooning with him naked isn't sexless. Not in the American film, not in the Swedish film, and not in the book, no matter how many times Eli gets his dick cut off.

There are several other scenes in the Swedish film that carry a gentle sexual energy (though in a more subtle way), like Eli and Oskar touching each other through the glass door and the way they can't quite bring their hands together while sitting on the playground. [...]
Yes, well, whether it's sexless or not is in the eye of the beholder, I guess...
But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me. John Ajvide Lindqvist

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sauvin
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by sauvin » Sun Apr 07, 2013 9:12 pm

metoo wrote:
IDreamtIWasABee wrote: Sneaking into a boy's bedroom in the middle of the night and spooning with him naked isn't sexless. Not in the American film, not in the Swedish film, and not in the book, no matter how many times...
Yes, well, whether it's sexless or not is in the eye of the beholder, I guess...
I saw sexual implication in the LTROI bedroom scene, but no sex or sexuality.
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Eseldorf
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by Eseldorf » Sun Apr 07, 2013 9:40 pm

I thought the point of that scene in both the book and the movie is that even in what should be a blatantly sexual scene, it wasn't remotely sexual at all. The love between Eli and Oskar blossoms at a very important time - old enough to understand and feel love but young enough for their love not to be tainted by sexual desire. It was simple, innocent, intimacy.

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sauvin
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by sauvin » Sun Apr 07, 2013 9:42 pm

Eseldorf wrote:I thought the point of that scene in both the book and the movie is that even in what should be a blatantly sexual scene, it wasn't remotely sexual at all. The love between Eli and Oskar blossoms at a very important time - old enough to understand and feel love but young enough for their love not to be tainted by sexual desire. It was simple, innocent, intimacy.
And I thought that point was made beautifully in LTROI, but not in LMI. The "implication" I saw wasn't in the present (with respect to that moment in time) but in the future as an unturned Oskar starts discovering that "taint".
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Jameron
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by Jameron » Mon Apr 08, 2013 1:16 am

IDreamtIWasABee wrote:There are several other scenes in the Swedish film that carry a gentle sexual energy (though in a more subtle way), like Eli and Oskar touching each other through the glass door and the way they can't quite bring their hands together while sitting on the playground.
I didn't see any kind of sexual energy in that scene at all. I saw Eli testing Oskar's acceptance of her answers to his questions. She answers a question and moves her hand, if Oskar had a problem with any of her answers he surely wouldn't follow her hand.

The scene on the jungle gym was also one involving insecurities over acceptance, nothing sexual that I could see.

.
"For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli’s eyes. And what he saw was … himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love."

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cmfireflies
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by cmfireflies » Mon Apr 08, 2013 2:10 am

Jameron wrote:
IDreamtIWasABee wrote:There are several other scenes in the Swedish film that carry a gentle sexual energy (though in a more subtle way), like Eli and Oskar touching each other through the glass door and the way they can't quite bring their hands together while sitting on the playground.
I didn't see any kind of sexual energy in that scene at all. I saw Eli testing Oskar's acceptance of her answers to his questions. She answers a question and moves her hand, if Oskar had a problem with any of her answers he surely wouldn't follow her hand.

The scene on the jungle gym was also one involving insecurities over acceptance, nothing sexual that I could see.

.
This really depends on if you're a kid or an adult watching the film. If they did the exact same thing as 16 year olds, it would obviously be flirting, but as 12 year olds it's very innocent because the kids don't think in those terms yet. My go to argument to show that to the kids the bedroom scene it is sexless is this exchange when Oskar, finds out that Eli isn't wearing anything:
Eli: Is that gross?
Oskar: No, but aren't you cold?

So, Eli just got into bed with Oskar naked and his immediate thought is "Isn't she cold?" Nothing about lust or even awkwardness over the misinterpretation of lust. So it is sexless for Oskar. The interesting part is whether it's sexless for Eli. Maybe she just did it because her clothes were bloody and wet and it was innocent, or maybe she just knew that the adults she kept for company wanted this for a reward. (That would be very sad, but it would mark when Oskar showed that he was different from people like Hakan.) So it's fairly obvious in the movie that Oskar doesn't think in sexual terms yet and Eli is physically unable to. But it's still a love story. Just set at an age when love doesn't mean sex.

Here is a NSFW picture that demonstrates how children can see things very differently. Kids see 6 dolphins while adults see porn.

http://www.frenblog.com/illusion/dolphin-illusion/
"When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it."

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metoo
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by metoo » Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:27 am

cmfireflies wrote:[...]
Here is a NSFW picture that demonstrates how children can see things very differently. Kids see 6 dolphins while adults see porn.

http://www.frenblog.com/illusion/dolphin-illusion/
Yes, like I said before, it's all in the eye of the beholder!
But from the beginning Eli was just Eli. Nothing. Anything. And he is still a mystery to me. John Ajvide Lindqvist

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lombano
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Re: Let the Right One In vs. Let Me In

Post by lombano » Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:44 am

sauvin wrote:
metoo wrote:
IDreamtIWasABee wrote: Sneaking into a boy's bedroom in the middle of the night and spooning with him naked isn't sexless. Not in the American film, not in the Swedish film, and not in the book, no matter how many times...
Yes, well, whether it's sexless or not is in the eye of the beholder, I guess...
I saw sexual implication in the LTROI bedroom scene, but no sex or sexuality.
Could you elaborate?

I didn't see anything sexual in either bed scene - even though when Abby and Owen go out together I saw two adolescents dating, while when Oskar and Eli go out together I saw two children playing.
Bli mig lite.

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