Age distribution of characters

[sauvin]

I am unable to remember any character in the movie appearing to be between the ages of 16 and 35. The China Restaurant Society, for example, are all roughly my age; Oskar's schoolteachers and the cop at the beginning of the movie giving a talk to Oskar's class seem to be in their middle 30's at the youngest. And, of course, Hakan, who appears to be somewhere around 60. The remaining cast tend to be children, Jimmy being the oldest who looks to be somewhere between 16 and 18.

Is my memory playing tricks?

If I'm correct, there appears to be a "balance" with respect to age, the youth of the two major protagonists as their relationship develops playing against a backdrop of people who've already entered or are poised to enter the portal to the scary actuarial landscape of heart attack and stroke. However, there's no appreciable buffer zone of people representing the vitality and peak physical strength enjoyed from the late teens to the early 30s.

In LTROI, it seems, you're either growing or you're dying.

[metoo]

I believe this is an accurate image of our society - especially young people are quite age-segregated...

[Sevil Ile]

In LTROI, it seems, you're either growing or you're dying.

Nice observation. I have noticed the bipolarized age distribution before, but never thought of it from this perspective. It is almost as though Blackeberg were a kind of assembly line for human lives; some coming in, some going out, and those already in the machine invisible. I cannot think of a more suitable backdrop for Oskar's symbolic rejection of a drab existence whereby the terms of his life are already predetermined for him, and the next pit-stop might as well be death. The age dichotomy could also be a juxtaposition with Eli who is simultaneously endowed with the vitality of youth and all the affliction of a person who has subsisted in a frozen state with little hope for a better future for far too long.

EDIT: It is also interesting that all the adolescents in the film (Jimmy and Håkan's would-be victims) either die or come very close to dying. Maybe the absence of young adults is another anomaly communicating that Blackeberg is a sick society, similar to what Lacke said to Gösta about the geometry of the place being "off" somehow?

I will have to think about this some more when my exams are over. Anyway, thanks for posting this, sauvin.

[sauvin]

It is almost as though Blackeberg were a kind of assembly line for human lives; some coming in, some going out, and those already in the machine invisible. I cannot think of a more suitable backdrop for Oskar's symbolic rejection of a drab existence whereby the terms of his life are already predetermined for him, and the next pit-stop might as well be death. The age dichotomy could also be a juxtaposition with Eli who is simultaneously endowed with the vitality of youth and all the affliction of a person who has subsisted in a frozen state with little hope for a better future for far too long.

I never thought about it in those terms, either, but the age distribution question popped into my head about ten minutes before it was time to go to bed. What struck me was that the entire segment of the population that accepts the bulk of the responsibility for childbearing doesn't just seem to be "invisible" so much as just plain GONE. People in the missing age bracket tend to be the most mobile; they graduate school, get jobs, get promoted, move around quite a bit. With Blackeberg being a suburb of Stockholm, does nobody in this bracket commute?

I don't remember the novel well at all, but can't help wondering if maybe this is another example of Alfredson's insane attention to detail. Didn't the novel involve things like grocery stores and subways? The movie focused very tightly on the two kids with just enough of the China Restaurant Gang to show how Eli's presence affects the community and provide a foundation for the backlash the two kids have to deal with (Lacke's intrusion). It could be argued that nothing more was needed, and therefore this question of generation gap is meaningless. Still, a scene or two couldn't be included to display a more vibrant and dynamic community?

LMI has a similar gap, but, well, there WAS Virginia to oggle, and teenagers at the arcade to gawp at as they smooched. [deleted], a sidelined Owen got to see a Kenny harassing a budding young woman. LTROI had none of this, even - none of the girls I saw could even begin to think about setting up housekeeping for number of years.

EDIT: It is also interesting that all the adolescents in the film (Jimmy and Håkan's would-be victims) either die or come very close to dying. Maybe the absence of young adults is another anomaly communicating that Blackeberg is a sick society, similar to what Lacke said to Gösta about the geometry of the place being "off" somehow?

Sick? The first thought to cross my mind had been "moribund".

I believe this is an accurate image of our society - especially young people are quite age-segregated...

They're THAT "segregated"?

Edit: 5 Novembre 2011, replaced a "bad word" with [deleted] to comply with renewed restrictions on language.

[metoo]

I believe this is an accurate image of our society - especially young people are quite age-segregated...

They're THAT "segregated"?

I believe the comment is a question, the question mark makes me think so, although I didn't get it. But I'll try to elaborate.

Swedish kids of any age spend most of their time with kids of their own age, and a couple of adults. This is true from when they start at day care until they finish school, or university. There generally are different schools for different age segments. Since the novel and the film watches the society mainly from Oskar's perspective, we see the people he meet, i.e. mostly a few teachers and a bunch of schoolmates. The absence of people of other ages than his own would be quite true to what Oskar would see in his daily life. They exist, but somewhere else.

Of course, both the novel and the film are exaggerations, in reality there would be people of all ages around, Oskar would see them daily, but he wouldn't interact with them, so they don't get represented in the story.

[Nicro]

Good stuff in here. Got me thinking....

[lombano]

There'a another way the demographics in LTROI are skewed, even more than in age: there are, as anything other than extras, no girls at all (no female children or teenagers). There are a few adult women, but no girls. This is also the case in the book, where not a single girl is even given a name. This is less striking in the film, where apart from the leads the bullies are the only kids that aren't just nameless extras, but in the book it felt very noticeable.

[metoo]

There'a another way the demographics in LTROI are skewed, even more than in age: there are, as anything other than extras, no girls at all (no female children or teenagers). There are a few adult women, but no girls. This is also the case in the book, where not a single girl is even given a name. This is less striking in the film, where apart from the leads the bullies are the only kids that aren't just nameless extras, but in the book it felt very noticeable.

This is not quite true, there are some girls in the novel just before the ice hole scene. Jonnny & co would harass these girls, and they then ran to the teacher complaining, and thus "stole" her from Oskar. As far as I remember that would be the normal way of boys of that age interacting with girls, and only the more forward boys did that. Oskar wasn't among these, so he might not have interacted with girls much, if at all. Not until Eli showed up, which makes him seeking contact with her more remarkable.

[lombano]

As far as I remember that would be the normal way of boys of that age interacting with girls, and only the more forward boys did that. Oskar wasn't among these, so he might not have interacted with girls much, if at all.

True, I'm not saying it's unrealistic. It's all very much about Oscar's POV - not Blackeberg per se, but Oskar's world.

[cmfireflies]

sure there are girls in the movie. I think one scratched her leg in the classroom scene while Oskar was looking over the cube and wasn't one of the children who screamed at Lacke's body a girl?