Let The Smart One In

[Drugula]

Are we really all dumb? I mean the ones, including myself, who didn't get the "peek" shot scene, the first time they saw the movie.

I read a lot of old topics here about Eli's gender, or Movie Eli ambiguity... http://www.let-the-right-one-in.com/for ... f=2&t=9200

or here: http://let-the-right-one-in.com/woofy/2 ... omparison/ (this page was very helpful to me)

I don't agree with Wolfchild's different statements though:

We have seen that when Eli answers questions (if she answers them at all) she typically answers them with the truth

Eli is shown as never lying to Oskar.

When Oskar ask her :

Where do those rings come from?

I can give you money.

Here. Take it if you like.

You stole this...

...from the people you killed, right?

– lt was given to me.

– By who?

By different people.

Eli must be lying about the money, she obviously stole it from her victims.

She also lies to the nurse, when she asks to see "her father".

In the book, the fact that she lies all the time is that makes Oskar so angry. The result is in the deleted fighting scene.

I found, some days ago THE BEST ARGUMENT EVER on another forum. It's an old topic too started in 2008, ended in 2016: https://www.mad-movies.com/forums/index ... 77&page=17

It's in french which is, by the way my mother tongue.

I translated it for you (It's a lot better than google trad, but please forgive tenses mistakes)

Forum member named "Boudinée" quoted this:

Then regarding her scar, I didn't find out that she must have been a boy despite her reply: "I am not a girl."
But considering her unknown age, she would rather must have been the victim of barbaric rites of female genital mutilation, in the remote past.
With the result of being forced to accept herself as not being a girl anymore.

Then he/she (Despite the avatar, username indicates a "she") replied:

"When we see where and how the scar is located, it can't be seen as a female genital mutilation... most obviously the results of a penectomy/castration. (Note: Emasculation ? Does the word has the same meaning than in french émasculation?)
I don't know what is told in the book though, I didn't read it and I don't want to rely on it anyway.
But in the movie, the fact that she repeats "I'm not a girl." many times led me to think from the beginning (even before the famous "peek" shot scene)
that she was in fact a vampire boy who wouldn't have aged and who'd have kept an androgynous appearance characteristic of childhood.
I don't see why being a vampire would exclude the notion of belonging to a gender.
The film plot, very dark, insists on that and implies without ambiguity an "homosexual" relationship between the children (consolidated by Oscar's insistence to pursue the relationship despite the repeated warnings.)
But also the relationship between the old man and Eli openly points to a pedophiliac relation barely veiled.
All this made me feel particularly uncomfortable throughout the whole movie with an extremely pessimistic ending that left me K.O. on my seat, hardly believing what I've just seen..."

I don't see why being a vampire would exclude the notion of belonging to a gender.

Now that's a very good point! Damn, this girl is smart.

THAT WAS SO OBVIOUS!
Since when vampires are sexless or have mutilated genitals? So, Count Dracula has no penis? Same for Lestat? And what about little Claudia?
Vampires are often shown as being frozen in time when turned, but, they're still in one piece as far as I know. Too bad there isn't a "peek" shot scene when Virginia was turned into one!

But at least, I have an excuse... I started watching the film for the first time with a big handicap: french subtitles were awfully translated!

Thanks to metoo for helping me with swedish and thanks to expert forum members of french language, I corrected and improved the subs a lot, added missing lines and so on.

First the title in french is "Morse"... come on, this is not the main subject...the movie is not about this code.

But here was what confused me from the begining. French does not allow as much flexibility as swedish or english regarding the gender.

We have this grammmar rule about adjectives:

"All types of French adjectives (e.g., descriptive, possessive, negative) agree in gender and number with the nouns that they modify."

Example for you to understand:
43
00:13:08,250 -–> 00:13:11,450
Seriously, where do you live?

44
00:13:11,540 -–> 00:13:17,990
– Next door to you.

– How do you know where I live?

45
00:13:23,330 -–> 00:13:28,370
Just so you know, I can’t be your friend.

Now with original untouched french subs:

43
00:13:08,250 -–> 00:13:11,450
Sans blague, t'habites où ?

44
00:13:11,540 -–> 00:13:17,990
– Je suis ta voisine. = I'm Your Neighbor. But "ta" and the "e" at the end of the word automatically indicates the feminine gender. So, it's like Eli views himself as a girl from the begining!
So, I corrected by: À côté de chez toi. = Next door to you.
– Comment tu sais où j'habite ?

45
00:13:23,330 -–> 00:13:28,370
Je te préviens,
je ne peux pas être ton amie. Same here, Eli views himself as a girl again.

It's sad cause the subs can be faithful enough to swedish with the right words!

In original french subs there is no gender ambiguity at all ! Another simple example: when Lacke says: "That guy over there just moved into my neighborhood. He has a kid."
In french, there are 3 words to translate "kid" without necessarily reveal the gender: "Enfant" (masculine gender = Neutral), "Gosse" and "Môme". They all mean little child, it's gender neutral. Instead, the official sub opted for the word "Gamine" which simply means little girl or preteen girl. And there's a lot of dialogues with no sub at all, even the "morse" scene: S...O...V...G (sleep well) is missing...

I'm done with this work, months ago now. But I recently found this :
https://imgur.com/a/3WEcvQE
Translated:

"This movie is just beautiful... rearding the question "Is Eli a castrated vampire?"
Personally, I was convinced that Eli was a boy before the film insisted on the fact that she's a girl (rather unattractive and her voice is much more deeper than Oskar's). In fact, I was shocked when I learned that was an actress."

Ok, the guy is maybe rude, but you get my point.

It looks like some french people are smart enough to understand it even with bad subtitles and others (like me) feel there is something weird and androgynous about Eli, but can't understand it cause of the translation.
So, tomorrow, I'll see an old friend of mine, very smart, he's a librarian and reads books you can't imagine. I'll give him the film, ripped from my Blu-ray with improved subtitles and I will wait for his review.
By the way, the french edition is far better than the english one. There are lots of bonus: http://cinema.jeuxactu.com/test-blu-ray-morse-9685.htm

I'll post his answer here, later.

[dongregg]

Well, Drugula, I got from the peek that Oskar could see she isn't a boy. In subsequent viewings, I and others tried to see Lina playing Eli as being androgynous. But I gave up. Even Lina in an interview referred to Eli as a vampire girl.

I mainly thought Eli's reluctance about going steady was because she was having the time of her life now that she had a playmate. I think that leaves room for Wolfchild's idea that she only had bad "boy friends" (i.e., adult helpers) so she was also wary about what Oskar was proposing.

I may have the attribution wrong. I read it on the forum a good while ago.

[Drugula]

Even Lina in an interview referred to Eli as a vampire girl.

In this one she kinda hesitates... I can't find it anymore on the net, but here it is: https://imgur.com/a/qUVnOWP

[dongregg]

Good find. Thanks!

[metoo]

Even Lina in an interview referred to Eli as a vampire girl.

This one.

[dongregg]

Thanks, metoo. It's the first interview I watched of Lina. What a trouper. I remember her arm trembling from the cold when she reached for the Rubik's cube!

[Drugula]

I saw the interview with director Tomas Alfredson, scriptwriter John Ajvide Lindqvist and producer John Nordling.
I think it's an exclusive for french Blu-ray release. The english version doesn't have it, neither the american one.
https://imgur.com/a/BNILbLJ

This interview is about half an hour long and it's quiet interesting. It actually answers some questions. I can't share it with you cause of the Copyright... but It's in english with french subs only.
I transcripted some key parts for you:

Tomas about Lina's dubbed voice:
We should feel that, maybe, she would be a boy or something in between. So, I tried to create a more boyish voice.

Tomas and John about Eli's gender:
Tomas:
In the book, it's very outspoken that Eli is a castrated boy. We wanted to show that to the audience because she's saying twice in the film: "If I wasn't a girl, would you love me anyway?"
And maybe the audience would think that she's talking about : "If I wasn't a human being, if I was a vampire, would you love me?"
In the film, I didn't want to be like a story about young gay love. I think it's a story about love over every borders, beyond gender.

John (He speaks very quickly):
And that has been (He stutters a bit here) over very much emphasized this thing with this shot of Eli's body. Which is of course, obviously not a female genital. It's just because it's so short.

Tomas:
When we worked to take that shot, I didn't want to depict the real actor's body. Because then, it would have been a huge problem for her. For Lina to think of that every day, during the shooting process.
So, it is a doll. And we made that scar which is very subtle, and it was very complicated to get it right.

John:
But if you're at all familiar with a female body, you would (laughs) realise that it is in fact not.

Tomas:
Or if you're familiar with the DVD technology, you could push "pause".

John and Tomas about the missing Eli and Håkan meeting:
John:
This aspect over Oskar becoming the new Håkan in forty years or something, that he would become the new Håkan. It never occurred to me, because it's... in the book, it's quiet... it's described that Eli meets Håkan two years before this starts.
Eli picked out Håkan from the gutter more or less, he's an alcoholic, he's been thrown out of his work and everything. Eli picked him out to start a new life, terrible life but still a new life to get on with Eli.
With Oskar, it's completely different matter. This is love. What will happen to them, we don't know. The story ends when he's in the train, you just have to figure it out yourself what's going to happen.
But even when writing the script, when this thing wasn't there, that you don't see Eli and Håkan meeting the first time, it never occurred to me that you could interpret the story in this way.
And then, when I saw the finished movie for the first time, I too got the interpretation: "Oh shit, he might become the new Håkan." (Laughs)

Tomas:
Yeah.

John:
But I think it's good, there's an open ending in that way.

Tomas:
The film is very open in a lot of ways, and most people have very different ideas of what it's all about. And I like that. Too many films today are monologues. Where Filmmakers push it up into your face. This is what is all about and this is what you should think. I'm much more interested in having a dialogue with the audience to suggest different solutions and it's up to the audience to decide what's happening and to evaluate it.

John:
I'd say it's an horror film.

Tomas:
I don't want to answer that. (laughs)

Ok, that's it. Hope you'll enjoy.

By the way I would like to thank member drakkar who pointed out here a very interesting thing: http://www.let-the-right-one-in.com/for ... 1&start=10

He pointed out:

The viewer is left to fill in the blanks and it is easy to watch the end of the movie on the train and say: "this guy probably started out just like Oskar."

I disagree. When Håkan comes home without blood, Eli tells him he has promised to help him. Not something he would say to an old acquaintance.
Unfortunately, these incidences are lost in the english translation

I corrected than line too in my subs. Still waiting for my friend's review. But I doubt he get the fact that Eli and Håkan met 2 years ago anyway.

[metoo]

Tomas:
When we worked to take that shot, I didn't want to depict the real actor's body. Because then, it would have been a huge problem for her. For Lina to think about that every day, during the shooting process.
So, it is a doll. And we made that scar which is very subtle, and it was very complicated to get it right.

Several years ago we had a rather heated debate on this subject, where I maintained exactly this...

John and Tomas about the missing Eli and Håkan meeting:
John:
This aspect over Oskar becoming the new Håkan in fourty years or something, that he would become the new Håkan. It never occurred to me, because it's... in the book, it's quiet... it's described that Eli meets Håkan two years before this starts.

Interesting. John's view apparently is that Håkan and Eli had met two years before the events in the novel. I had estimated just a few weeks, based on the number of killings that Håkan had performed for Eli before the one in Vällingby (two, as stated in the novel), and the number of times Eli feeds in the novel's three weeks (three or four).

This doesn't add upp. Well, I suspect that John didn't scrutinise his text for this kind of details. He probably was more interested in moods and imagery than in consistent facts.

[sauvin]

Metoo, can you dig that "heated debate" up?

[Drugula]

Corrected some mistakes in the transcription