Pondering the Rubik's Cube scene

[gkmoberg1]

How the novel and the film differ through these first encounters is in intriguing and is a good source for a comparative thread. I saw the film four times before finding the novel, so my view here was built up without having the novel's progression in mind.

[ Yo! major spoilers for the both the novel and film follow... go elsewhere if you've not experienced both. ]

Having now read the novel I find I map it against the movie when I replay it. But I think that permitting this mapping is a mistake. The movie presents a variation, not a condensing, of the novel's story. I agree that the novel's Eli is undecided. The first encounter is longer (in the novel) and this sets things up differently. The second and third encounters, then, play out under a slightly different dynamic. Consider that the novel sets up the scenes a bit differently. There, the dim lighting renders Oskar almost unable to see the cube's colors in front of his own face, nonetheless Eli's exact location or movements. It would thus seem likely that Eli could have nommed him in the novel's third encounter without anyone being able to observe it. Even Eli's noisome hygiene drives part of the sequence. Oh but wait, I'm writing that comparative thread. Hard stop.

Staying with just the movie...

There are some really good points here.

Håkan failed, Eli was on the hunt, but it isnt entirely clear to me as to you that Eli wanted to lure Oskar away from the jungle gym so she could get him. Eli jumped on Virginia in a much more public place than the jungle gym, so (s)he could have got him right on the spot.

I had to wrestle with this. Eli's attack on Virginia is a continuation of the vampire blood lust released by Eli tasting Oskar's blood in the basement scene. (Ah, here's another good scene for a comparative thread!) The film shows an Eli that is in the thrall of the vampire -- up until Lacke kicks here away. This is a different state of being than how Eli is during the "Then go home" scene. The vampire is growling but has not erupted.

The key line for me is "I want to be left alone." Eli is trying to warn Oskar away from her, but Oskar simply does not take hint. Eli does not want to kill Oskar from the get go, but she knows she may not be able to control herself, so Wolfchild's version is convincing in that respect.

Hmmm. I see this as part of her setup. Eli's announcement "So you are back" and then "I want to be left alone" are meant to drive and control the situation. The first statement wakes up her prey to her presence. She needs this so that she can set up the next move. "I want to be left alone" is said to take control and build toward whatever next step can be made to put the attack into motion. Had she wanted to be left alone, she would not have arrived. Right? She has all of Blackeberg to flit about as she awaits Haken's return. I am led to conclude she's arrived only because she wants to ... and that her interest is not in debating control over the jungle gym.

However, twelve year old Eli was also interested in Oskar. This was true even before this scene - there can really be no other explanation for Eli to have come out for their previous encounter. So can't this previously established interest also be at play while Eli is perched behind Oskar?

This is debatable. The first encounter may have been more driven by "What the hell is he doing?" than anything else. The film's first encounter is a standoff. It ends with Eli's declaration that they are not going to be friends. (Yes, and yet another great scene for a comparative thread! Love it!) I don't see any interest in him by Eli in the way I think you are suggesting. Yes, it may have been curiosity that drove her to land atop top of the jungle gym but... I don't see it as anything but a initial skirmish as Eli sizes up her cafeteria options.

I don't think "she" was planning to kill him in the Rubik's Cube scene, but i think she was at her and Oskars first meeting. When she saw him stabbing the tree, she realized that she could use him for her own purpose. When they met the second time, she was interested in who he was and started to like him while solving the rubik's cube, after the meeting when she had time to think.

Yes, I can go along with idea that she might see him good for her purposes!

[Barb]

Interesting question. Was Oskar in danger? Yeah, I think he was, but it wasn't planned.

One of the things I enjoy about LTROI is the interconnectedness of the stories in it, the parallelism, and how one event influences another. I don't think Oskar was in danger the first time Eli shows up. I think Eli was sincere about not being his friend, as if to shoo him away, as he was a temptation. Now Eli is a child who lives in a world of adults, as the kid doesn't go to school or have any contact with kids. I think, if given a choice, Eli would rather nom adults. When Eli senses early on that Oskar was like Eli, I think the child had a "I'd prefer not to kill him, but I will if I get hungry enough" vibe. Then we get Hakan, who seems to sublimate his sexual desires for underaged boys into killing them for another underaged child, which personally I see as a real no-no in the thematic concerns of the movie. He doesn't get Eli blood. Eli is starving. Eli is forced to be a predator.

Eli is off to nom someone. On the way to nom a stranger, Eli sees Oskar. Oskar is insolent but also brave in standing his ground, which tells me if he'd only been abused by one bully, he might have been able to handle it. Every second of what happens next is fraught with tension because Eli has to be wondering if he/she/it can kill someone now that the child has a personality, a puzzle, and knowledge of how to play with it. The issue is and I think it's a huge thematic concern in LTROI is does Eli focus on survival or human contact? Eli picks human contact, even at the price of painful hunger pangs. Her prey now is unobtainable because he's now a person, not a victim. Eli chooses not to be a Hakan, preying on an underage boy. To me, the movie is really on the side of children, as if to say, hurting kids, even just by neglect isn't justifiable. Because I felt that, I knew that Hakan wouldn't last until the end of the film, at least in part because of who he chooses as prey. What about the bullies? They're about to kill a child, led by a child who is almost an adult. They've lost the "protection" of the film because they take joy in abusing an underaged boy.

Do I see a definitive moment when Eli decides not to nom Oskar? No. One of the things I enjoy about Eli is that, no matter how many times I see the film, no matter how good I am at latching onto what is said, how it's said, what isn't said, body language and vocal inflection, there is a part of Eli the audience will never know. There are parts of the child that only another child, only an Oskar, can know.

Or at least it's how it seems to me.

[gattoparde59]

Interesting question. Was Oskar in danger? Yeah, I think he was, but it wasn't planned.

This meeting was not planned, but Eli was on the hunt since she later bushwhacks Jocke.

Could we say that Eli has mixed feelings about all this- she needs to kill someone but she hesitates to kill Oskar . . .?

The mixed feelings are there even in the first meeting "we can't be friends." Who said anything about being friends? It was Eli.

I think the "Oskar stands up to a bully" idea is being overstated. Eli is an odd little girl, and therefore Oskar never sees her as a threat.

The other thing I keep coming back to is that this is a romance story. One of the conventions of romance stories is that on their initial meeting, the pair who are destined to fall in love are hostile to each other (even as they are secretly attracted to each other). That is the case with both Eli and Oskar. This also appears in the novel, although Eli in the novel also appears early on as a femme fatale preying on an innocent boy who is completely clueless about Eli's true nature. This is softened in the movie version.

[drakkar]

Could we say that Eli has mixed feelings about all this- she needs to kill someone but she hesitates to kill Oskar . . .?

This is how I see/feel it (in the film). Also the reluctance to be drawn closer to Oskar (accepting the cube).

[gkmoberg1]

I believe Eli's wake up call as gk put it, happened when she saw first saw Oskar stabbing trees. It was then a seed was planted in Eli's head that this boy could be worth more to her alive than dead. That they perhaps had something in common. After Oskar questions Eli, "What do you mean 12, more or less?" "Don't you know whens your birthday?" "I guess you don't get any presents then." Eli comes to full realization how utterly alone she is and tired of that way of life which is why she weeps over Jocke. If the first meeting planted a seed then it was Oskar's offering an Olive branch which was the Rubiks cube that gave Eli something she never had before, a hope for a friendship without condition with a kindred spirit.

QFT. You see this the same as me.

The "kindred spirit" phrase is exactly how I saw the two of them right from the first viewing. Thank you for putting that in. I had just heard Lucy Montgomery's Anne Of Green Gables a month or two before on an audio cd set, so that phrase was still playing my mind (if you know the story, you'll know what I mean) when I stumbled into my first encounter with LTROI.

[gkmoberg1]

Eli is off to nom someone. On the way to nom a stranger, Eli sees Oskar. Oskar is insolent but also brave in standing his ground, which tells me if he'd only been abused by one bully, he might have been able to handle it. Every second of what happens next is fraught with tension because Eli has to be wondering if he/she/it can kill someone now that the child has a personality, a puzzle, and knowledge of how to play with it. The issue is and I think it's a huge thematic concern in LTROI is does Eli focus on survival or human contact? Eli picks human contact, even at the price of painful hunger pangs. Her prey now is unobtainable because he's now a person, not a victim. Eli chooses not to be a Hakan, preying on an underage boy. To me, the movie is really on the side of children, as if to say, hurting kids, even just by neglect isn't justifiable. Because I felt that, I knew that Hakan wouldn't last until the end of the film, at least in part because of who he chooses as prey. What about the bullies? They're about to kill a child, led by a child who is almost an adult. They've lost the "protection" of the film because they take joy in abusing an underaged boy.

I love this. I've now been pondering this thematic concern you put forward: "Does Eli focus on survival or human contact?" I will chew on this for a while. Across the course of the film she is forced back to this question quite a bit! She breaks from her initial survival mode to having to reconsider this as her friendship with Oskar - I my thinking - takes Eli completely by surprise and turns her world upside down.

[intrige]

Eli is off to nom someone. On the way to nom a stranger, Eli sees Oskar. Oskar is insolent but also brave in standing his ground, which tells me if he'd only been abused by one bully, he might have been able to handle it. Every second of what happens next is fraught with tension because Eli has to be wondering if he/she/it can kill someone now that the child has a personality, a puzzle, and knowledge of how to play with it. The issue is and I think it's a huge thematic concern in LTROI is does Eli focus on survival or human contact? Eli picks human contact, even at the price of painful hunger pangs. Her prey now is unobtainable because he's now a person, not a victim. Eli chooses not to be a Hakan, preying on an underage boy. To me, the movie is really on the side of children, as if to say, hurting kids, even just by neglect isn't justifiable. Because I felt that, I knew that Hakan wouldn't last until the end of the film, at least in part because of who he chooses as prey. What about the bullies? They're about to kill a child, led by a child who is almost an adult. They've lost the "protection" of the film because they take joy in abusing an underaged boy.

Ihave read through them all. I couldn't agree more than do with this one.. And also:

Could we say that Eli has mixed feelings about all this- she needs to kill someone but she hesitates to kill Oskar . . .?

This is how I see/feel it (in the film). Also the reluctance to be drawn closer to Oskar (accepting the cube).

This one. I don't think that in the movie Eli planned to nom Oskar. (Even the nomming idea is new to me..) When she says that she wan't to be left alone, it might be that..Mabye she wanted to take a closer look at him? Now she have, now she begins to loos control, now he can leave. I don't realy think she has too much interest in Oskar in person. I think it's because he is a child, hat stabbs threes. I mean, If I ever saw something like it. I would want to fint out more. And also I think that Eli don't want to nom Oskar because he's too young. But it all goes off track when she sees the Rubik's cube, for shure. You can also see that, if Eli were to watvh min to eat him. She got a nother changse when showing min how to slove the cube. But she wanted to play, to show him how good she was. Children like that. lets face it. We all like that..

Now for the idea that Eli ment to eat Oskar, or.. Wahetver we'l say. drink him? Why she went on the jungle gym in the first place. She clearly is hungry, and even though this view just came to me. I have thought alot about it. And I don't realy see that. As Drakkas said, something about the score in that scene. We don't hear "something bad is going to happend" music. We hear "holdung your breath" and .. I don't know. It's omething injoyable in there too. Don't you think? It's like, you want to, but you can't. And when you are sitting there, and injoying children contact. It realy doesn't fit with your emty belly. She knew it was risky, but mabye she just wanted to take "just a little" look at this kid. See what he was up to. Well.. that all.

[gkmoberg1]

Okay, I am not sure I've convinced anyone into my viewpoint. BUT I hope you consider it next time time you see the film. Which of course I hope happens to you soon.

My first point being that I think she's only there for the ... food. She could have gone anywhere else that evening but she came back to the jungle gym and that little morsel of undefended 12 yr old tasty boy sitting there in the dark. Yummm.

And the second, well, I mentioned this at the start but then didn't dig into it: "The culmination of the event is not that she succeeds in holding onto her humanity but that he awakens her back into it."

See, in my view of the story's progression, Eli is a child stumbling through "life" as she knows it, numbed into the horror of her reality. I see her as "alive" but yet "dead" to it all. The Eli at the jungle gym is shut down as far as being human. But what happens there wakes her back up. Oskar, innocent defenseless little young Oskar, looks the monster in the eye and only only survives but then - i say - trashes her world. He explodes into her life much like a wrecking ball tearing into an old house. She's had however many years to consider all that her 12 yr old mind can work through. Everything has been thought through over and and over thru all those lonely hours of solitude. And now this friendship comes along and gives her something new. Massively new. To the point of it being overwhelming for her. By this view the Eli that moves her hand down the length of his arm in the sleepover scene and twines her fingers into his has completely fallen for this new thing in her life... friendship & Oskar. I bet she's thinking 24x7 on it and can't let it go and doesn't want to let it go. (No wonder Haken's jealous! ) I'll let you take it through the rest of scenes - you get the idea. In summary what the movie does, then, is move from an Eli (who is a monster at the start and still a monster at the end) who is basically dead at the beginning ... to being more fully alive and awake than she ever dared to hope being ... to being willing to actually give it all up - become truly dead - if she can't find a way to preserve this friendship & love. Having her being alive but yet dead in her life at the start makes the movie's horror and intrigue all that much more powerful as Oskar and what Oskar brings blows her over and maker her live.

Or, that's my take.

[drakkar]

Okay, I am not sure I've convinced anyone into my viewpoint. BUT I hope you consider it next time time you see the film. Which of course I hope happens to you soon.

My first point being that I think she's only there for the ... food. She could have gone anywhere else that evening but she came back to the jungle gym and that little morsel of undefended 12 yr old tasty boy sitting there in the dark. Yummm.

And the second, well, I mentioned this at the start but then didn't dig into it: "The culmination of the event is not that she succeeds in holding onto her humanity but that he awakens her back into it."
.......

Mostly agree with you, the point where I am a bit undecided is how Eli approaches the jungle gym. Eli has talked to Oskar before, so it is a possibility she is a tiny bit intrigued by him, and later on after the bleeding we learn that Eli actually remenbered the first words he said (for what it's worth).
And then there is the question about how much humanity Eli actually possessed to be intrigued with. Someting very important happened to Eli on that jungle gym, she was not the same person when leaving it.