did anyone read the book first?

[DMt.]

I saw the Swedish, UK-subtitled film first, for which I'm glad, because it illuminated the book when I - very shortly afterwards! - got to that, rather than being a disappointment by comparison, which for me anyway is so often the case.

Interesting to note that JAL now sees E&O with Lina's and Kare's faces...a film adaptation doesn't get much more successful than that!

[Stangarlins]

I saw the Swedish, UK-subtitled film first, for which I'm glad, because it illuminated the book when I - very shortly afterwards! - got to that, rather than being a disappointment by comparison, which for me anyway is so often the case.

Interesting to note that JAL now sees E&O with Lina's and Kare's faces...a film adaptation doesn't get much more successful than that!

So true! I watched the movie before and I totally agree with you, every time I read Eli's name in the book I pictured Lina's face, and that's not bad at all, haha. And the comparison didn't disappoint me at all, which is a thing that I normally expect as well, but I was astonished with it, proving me wrong in an awesome way!

[waggy05]

very interesting to read these responses from those who read the book first, saw the movie first, etc.
while I actually saw Let Me In first, then the original film, and then read the novel. I definitely pictured Lina & Kare while reading the book. I still wonder what they would have looked like in my head if I hadn't had their faces in mind already, but I had no problem seeing movie Oskar & Eli during the read

[rgh]

I saw the file LTROI first, then read the book. I fully expected to picture Eli as Lina while reading the book, but to my surprise, a different variation of Eli came to mind. The way I interpreted her in the novel was heavily influenced by Lina's portrayal, but she looked different, was different. The film and novel are complementary pieces of the same story for me, while LMI is another story altogether.

[kaonto]

I read the book in 2-3 days, and watched the movie the same day I finished the book. Then I re-read the book, or at least all the scenes that were in the movie, the day after that.

Actually, I didn't like the movie that much. IMO, it's almost always better to watch the movie before you read the book. I prefer to get the story 'filled out' by the book than to feel that important elements from the book are missing in the movie.

[DMt.]

Although I agree that it's almost always better to see the film of a story before reading it [because of the inherent difficulties involved in compressing a whole book into two hours] I'm astonished to read that you didn't really like the film.

Mind you, I don't think the LTROI film really got to me until the second viewing [although I liked it lots the first time], but then, well, that's all she wrote.

Maybe watch it again, as it's own thing? It is basically an abstraction of the E&O parts of the novel, with just enough of the other subplots to flesh it out a bit.

[kaonto]

Mind you, I don't think the LTROI film really got to me until the second viewing [although I liked it lots the first time], but then, well, that's all she wrote.

Maybe watch it again, as it's own thing? It is basically an abstraction of the E&O parts of the novel, with just enough of the other subplots to flesh it out a bit.

I'm re-watching it tonight, with a friend who's read the book (once) but not seen the movie, and my wife who hasn't seen it or read the book.

[ZWD40]

Immersion
I have watched the film (native, subtitled) first. Watched it 3 times in 3 nights consecutively. This is the important part; that I watched the film in the middle of the night with no distractions. No deadlines to meet, no food, no phone calls, no bathroom breaks, no chores to do. I was totally immersed in the film. Wasn't surprising that I went to bed with LTROI in my thoughts

Read the novel some few weeks later. Read and iirc, finished it the same night that I got it. In contrast to the film, I read the novel with 2-3 major deadlines to meet in under 24 hours. Needless to say, my attention wasn't devoted to the novel.


Expectations
In addition to the depth of "immersion" I allowed myself to sink into the film, I think that my watching of the film with no expectations was another contributor to my preference of the film. I did not know the film was about children or vampires. I had no expectations or preconceptions of the film. The novel on the other hand, I had high expectations for. Naturally, the novel didn't hold as much attraction to me.


Looking back, I think even if I read the novel first, I would've still preferred the film over the novel; primarily due to the mood set by Alfredson, van Hoytema, Söderqvist, and of course the two leads.
Lindqvist's was the line art. LtROI's crew was the filling of a select portion of the line art with colors

[DMt.]

Yes, and the whole damn crew gave it everything they had, and it shows.

[Stangarlins]

Well, I don't know. I try not to compare the book and the novel, even though that's hard, because they are different from one another and, I think they are both great works, different from each other. The movie is one of the best movies I've ever seen and the book is one of the best books I've ever read, and the existence of one doesn't affect the greatness of the other. I watched the movie before reading the book and found it excellent, which made me like the book even more than I would have liked if I read the book first. After watching the movie and reading the book, I watched the movie twice more, and liked both of them even more, because at the same time the book complements the movie, the movie does the same for the book, since I feel differently when I read the book and when I watch the movie.