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Show me love (Fucking Åmål)
Threat advisory: High - High risk of entertaining activities
Movie propaganda
Jag ska aldrig mer bli ihop med nån. Jag ska bli celibat.
Elin (Alexandra Dahlström) and Agnes (Rebecka Liljeberg) are two very different teenage girls growing up in the small, conservative Swedish town of Åmål, where everything is the same and nothing ever happens.
When Elin goes to the wrong party, her life of boys, bitchy girlfriends and booze explodes. On a dare, the in-crowd-coolest-girl-in-the-school Elin kisses social-outcast-probably-a-lesbian Agnes to see if Agnes really is a lesbian. Elin's life is transformed.
Show me love is a fresh, funny and tragic look at the claustrophobia and bigotry of a small-minded town and the courage it takes to be yourself. Writer/Director Lukas Moodysson has crafted a contemporary tale of longing, the joy and pain of being in love, the comical and heartbreaking aspects of growing up. It is a universal story of love and understanding.
Persons of interest
- Alexandra Dahlström .... Elin
- Rebecka Liljeberg .... Agnes
- Erica Carlson .... Jessica
- Mathias Rust .... Johan Hulth
- Stefan Hörberg .... Markus
- Ralph Carlsson .... Father Olof
- Maria Hedborg .... Mother Karin
- Lukas Moodysson .... Screenwriter
- Lukas Moodysson .... Director
Cinematic intelligence sources
- Awards and film festivals:
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS - Oscars) 2000: Nominated: Best foreign language film
- Berlin International Film Festival 2000: Best film
- Cinematic Intelligence Agency Trenchcoat Awards 2001
- Guldbagge Awards 2000: Best film, Best direction, Best actress, Best screenplay
- London Film Festival 2000: Sutherland Trophy
- Molodist Film Festival 2000: Best film, FIPRESCI, Youth Jury Award
- Norway Film Festival 2000: Best foreign language feature film
- Rotterdam Film Festival 2000: Moviezone Award
- Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 2000: Won: Most popular film
- NB: Swedish language dialogue with English language subtitles
- Studios and distributors:
Intelligence analyst
Special Agent Matti
Theatrical report
More fun sex from Sweden.
The first Swedish film I ever saw was Bo Widerberg's All things fair, a comment on teenagers growing up and discovering that sex is more fun than homework. Three and a half years later teenagers are still finding that sex is more fun than homework, as are loud music, parties, drugs, raves, clothes, friends and suicide. The difference is... well, the only difference is superficial.
Stig was straight and going at it with his teacher. Agnes is gay and going at it with her social enemy. Big deal.
As a coming out and coming of age flick, Show me love (small-minded western censors would never accept a film title with the "Fuck" word in it) gets down to the nitty gritty of unrequited, unexpected and unacceptable love. (Look at all those "un-" words, aren't they great all lined up like that?) The blindly oblivious parents, the bitchy friends, the angry sibling, the innocent and the wounded parade their understanding or lack thereof for all the world to see. Agnes's personal hell in the back of beyond is as intense as it is cruel, but that's life in Fucking Åmål.
Matthias does a good job as Agnes' straight counterpart, mooning over the impossibly beautiful girl he can never measure up to. When she deigns to root him he falls completely under her spell because they're not a meeting of equals; Matthias gets the not too smart but pretty cute and generally nice guy you'd like to love thing perfectly. Pity for his character that he's such a loser.
Show me love has some strong parallels with the gay teen flick, Get real. Outsider falls in love with insider, helps discover sexuality and so on. the difference is that the Swedes went for the happy ending while the Poms went for the unhappy one. Oh yeah, one's about blokes and the other one's about chicks. they're both good but I have a harder time relating to Agnes and Elin because I'm a bloke. I try hard to be a chick but deep down inside there's just too much testosterone to let it happen. Maybe next lifetime.
If you want to know what it's like to be growing up lezzo in a small town, watch this flick.
Media intelligence (DVD)
- Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
- Languages: Swedish
- Picture: Widescreen
- Special features:
- Trailers: Theatrical
- Subtitles: English
Security censorship classification
MA 15+ (Adult themes, medium level coarse language)
Surveillance time
89 minutes (1:29 hours)
Not for public release in Australia before date
Film: 14 December 2000 - Melbourne, Sydney
DVD rental: 25 January 2006
DVD retail: 25 January 2006
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