Did Alfredson Change Eli's Gender?

[N.R. Gasan]

One of the great things about this movie (as well as the book) is how multi-layered it is; various interpretations can be had regarding various aspects of the story. And each interpretation is equally valid. This topic is one of the best examples. I've personally thought that the story would have been better served had JAL not thrown in this particular plot twist; LTROI could still have been a compelling story had Eli been presented as a straight-forward female. It gets somewhat awkward in the book when it's revealed that Eli was originally a boy. Up until then, Eli has been referred to as "she"; then quite abruptly, Eli is referred to as "he," even though "she" could still legitimately apply. After all, at this stage of Eli's development (being only 12 years old), castration could be thought of as a horrific kind of sex-change operation: Elias, boy-human...becomes Eli, girl-vampire. But upon reflection, I gotta give it to JAL; this plot twist definitely adds significant dimension to the story.

And I think the way Alfredson handled this element was inspired, if not brilliant. He and JAL -- who wrote the screenplay -- approached this in such a way as to both promote discussion and allow each viewer to have his or her own impressions. On one level, Eli is presented in such a way as to be perceived as a girl. Her "I'm not a girl" assertion can be interpreted differently as the film progresses, as pointed out by Wolfchild. And the way the film is presented, it doesn't matter WHICH interpretation the viewer makes; the relationship between Eli and Oskar blossoms just as naturally. The love story develops as such whether or not the viewer has read the book. Even the infamous "crotch shot" -- which pays homage to the book's unequivocal revelation that Eli was a boy as a mortal -- does not change the dynamics of Eli's relationship to Oskar. And remember, without the flashback scene, Oskar does not know of Eli's past; which means he still sees her as a girl. Eli's twirl in the dress is a conscious effort on her part to play to Oskar's perception of her as a girl, even if in the mind of the viewer Eli is now thought of as the castrated boy in the novel. The subtlety of this film is truly amazing.

So in answer to the question "Did Alfredson Change Eli's Gender?", I think what he -- and JAL -- did was much kewler: They left it up to us to decide Eli's gender. :)

[genie47]

They left it up to us to decide Eli's gender.

And It's a damn good mind job. We know Eli thinks of herself as a boy but yet we see her as a girl and use feminine pronouns on her. Makes me believe we like to see the image/identity of Eli as a girl as opposed to the true inner self of a boy.

Makes me wonder if we are all like her past encounters and only the rare few to sees and loves the boy inside are the Oskars.

[TΛPETRVE]

To put things just a bit easier: I guess most of us just don't want to think of Eli as a boy, because it feels forced. She's not a drag queen or tranny porn star, after all, but a perfect girl - with a little error in anatomy. Maybe if Eli was indeed played by a boy and, that said, so blatantly "boy-ish" that you couldn't do else but accept the truth, then we might have come to terms easily. That, on the other hand, would maybe have destroyed the film's magic. Indeed, we just want to see Eli as a girl.

[genie47]

Come to think of it yes, we want to see Eli as a girl and I have to admit most of us do like the boy that is in her heart when it is revealed to us. People might not think it is possible to like a character like this but this movie and novel proved otherwise.

Anyway, back from the IMDB forum. Andreas confirms that Alfredson did not influence Lina by revealing Eli's true gender. So Eli's true gender was not intentionally changed by Alfredson or JAL. So what we are left with is the magnificent protrayal of Eli by Lina which is forever burned into our minds.

[Aurora]

AgainI find that I'm replying to one of your posts, don't take it personally

Basically it's important that you can see physical sex and gender as two seperate entities, neither of which is permanently fixed. Eli was born male and raised as the boy Elias, this obviously has a substantial effect on how Eli sees herself.
However things change Eli is now longer either male (she's a eunuch) or human, so concepts such as 'boy' and 'girl' are just that. She's aware that most people see her as girl and doesn't think that it's important to correct them, most boys take it as a personal insult if they're called a girl. Now clearly she thinks very highly of Oskar and doesn't want to mislead him, so the only course of action is to tell him about her past and what she used to be (Elias) and what she is now (Eli).

The point being that they're (physical sex and gender) not the same due to what has changed.

[genie47]

They are not the same but Eli sees her true inner self as a boy. No matter what clothes she wears, after neutering and even with Oskar as her partner, she still sees this inner self of her as a boy. I don't know how she does it.

EDIT

I think I will cover this idea of gender and sexual reality of Eli in another post since this will be OT. I'll go over to the novel section since we get the most info about her from there.

OK. Got something new that I wrote. Completely new perspective on her sexual identity. Not a boy. Not a girl. Took me a 45min drive to sort of figure it out.

Need input and critiques if any.

[Zhoutai21]

Finally (and I'm sorry if I sound sexist here), Eli runs like a girl.

That run was cute. Reminded me of a penguin waddling. Always brings a smile when I see that scene.

[danielma]

Alfredson even shrugged it off in an interview saying that Eli's true gender doesn't really matter.

To be honest, I thought that was the final point of the book and the final point of Eli and Oskar's story. I thought that was the point of Oskar finally realizing and coming to terms that it doesn't matter what Eli is, that he still wants to be with Eli no matter what she/he is. So I don't see why Alfredson shrugging over the gender is a big deal considering that kind of was the point of Oskar's eventual realisation that it doesn't matter what Eli is.

[jellmoo]

I think that my take can be summed up in three points:

1) I think that a lot of it really depends on the order that you go through the material. I saw the movie first and then read the book. I completely missed the possibility that Eli was a boy when I saw the movie the first time. The "peak" scene was incredibly odd from my point of view, and I honestly wasn't sure what I was supposed to be seeing. The idea that it was castration never entered my head, simply because that isn't castration. The best I could figure at the time was that it was a form of female genital mutilation that I either couldn't quite figure out, or that was limited by the prop used. Because of that, it was a shock to see the revelation when I read the book, but it did make a degree of sense. If I had gone the other way, had read the book first, I might have been disappointed at how the reveal had played out. In this regard, I think that Alfredson took a much more subtle road that didn't necessarily change Eli's gender, but made the topic much more ambiguous, but also more interesting.

2) For me, Lina is Eli. I simply cannot separate the actress from the role, that's how good a job I think she did. Kåre (props to Wolfchild for helping me figure out how to get that funky "å" action) put in a great performance as Oskar, no doubt, but Lina put on the performance of a lifetime. And while Lina may have a slightly exotic look, nothing about it is particularly androgynous. She looked, acted, and expressed herself as a pre-teen girl. Even with the voice-over they did, she does not come across as anything other than female to me. Considering they spent a year on casting, the choice they ultimately went with really didn't cement home the idea that Eli is a boy. If they really wanted to make the point, they would have hired a more androgynous looking girl, or even a boy, though I doubt they would have gone that route.

3) The last point is somewhat intangible. Alfredson went about making the best movie he could with the source material, and obviously this involved some pretty big changes from what was present in the novel, keeping with the notion of story telling, time constraints and budget. I think what we have is really Alfredson wanting to address the point that Eli is a boy, but at the same time wanting to keep it somewhat subtle, and also not really having a whole lot of time to devote to it. He stripped down the story of the book to the point where it really is all about the relationship between Oskar and Eli. Everything else became somewhat secondary. The issue I think he faced was that if he did go with a big reveal, where the audience (and Oskar) is clearly told that Eli was born a boy, that there would naturally be some fallout and soul searching on Oskar's part as he tries to figure out what that means to him. I think that the screen time and resources simply may not have been present to fully work that through, and ultimately, it doesn't really change the story or the nature of their relationship, other than 1 added level of complexity. Given the option, I think that Alfredson made the right call keeping it somewhat ambiguous, and letting the audience pick up what the will.

[sauvin]

When Eli says, "I am not a girl", I think that reasonably you could assume one of three things:

1. "I am not a girl - I am a boy."
2. "I am not a girl - I am a woman."
3. "I am not a girl - I am a vampire."

4a. I am not a girl - I'm not human at all.
4b. I am not a girl - I have no gender at all.

The movie does absolutely nothing to crystallise what she meant when she said "Oskar, I'm not a girl", but she said it with a mix of emotions that's hard for me to disentangle. Sadness seemed to predominate, a profoundly weary kind of sadness, but... wasn't there also resignation and maybe a touch of exasperation? Oh, and just the tiniest little whiff of fear. Leandersson's acting ability shows here subtle, quiet and powerful as I've ever seen.

Eli's sexual identity or "actual" gender isn't actually very interesting to me, so other members of the forum may certainly take me with a very large grain of salt when I argue that maybe Eli's stopped thinking of herself as having gender, partly because she has no "bits", partly because the only idea she'd have of how to use them would be by what she's seen others do (she'd have no natural "feel" for how to use them, in other words) because she's not human and because she's eternally presexual, and partly because it's tough enough just to think of herself as being human at all - and I'd conjecture one would have to "feel" human before one could identify sexually or "feel" that identity.

"Oskar, I'm not a girl. And, you're not a boy. You're a pet rabbit I'm desperately trying not to skin, gut and chuck into the oven for dinner."