Lilya 4-Ever
I just saw Lilya 4-Ever. Really affected me. In fact, I would say there's really no further need for art. From here on out -- it's war. Only war.
Guardian Film of the Week: Lilya 4-Ever
Wikipedia Article: Lilya 4-Ever
Rotten Tomatoes Review Page: Lilya 4-Ever
Interview with Lilya 4-Ever director Lukas Moodysson.
Take a chance. It's available from Netflix.
Labels: Lilya-4-Ever, Simple Justice
posted by Christopher Newton at 8:30 AM
9 Comments:
Wow, that looks intense.
I've waffled over joining NetFlix or one of the other mail-order DVD things. While I would LOVE to be able to order films that I can't find here in town, I feel I should support the rental place here in town because we are such a small town, know what I mean? Pour my money into the local economy....but they don't have a very great selection of movies.
What to do, what to do?
Hey Paula - yeah, but how many times can you watch Terminator 3?
Have you checked out your local library? They deserve support too in the form of patronage. I know our library has lots of great old and not-so-old movies. Really interesting stuff I can't get on Netflix or anywhere else.
Currently, I've been watching a great series of 1960s Japanese samurai movies about Zatoichi the blind swordsman. Only a public library would have something as obscure yet cool as that.
However, for Lilya-4-Ever you have to go to Netflix or a big city type video shop.
Lilya is about a teenaged kid in eastern Europe who gets trafficked into forced prostitution. It's the saddest movie you will ever see but it is also ineffably beautiful. You just see her being pushed by circumstances into a funnel from which there is no escape. And she is such a sweet, stupid, headstrong kid who gets everything wrong - it's not a propaganda movie at all. It's art of the first order. I think. I hope you get to see it and tell us what you thought.
I'm in a weird place these days. Maybe it's just a middle-aged phase. I read the reviews of this movie and have no doubt of its' quality and import. But real life gets so horribly cumbersome and, yes, painful sometimes, that I can't see it as entertainment.
Lately I have a need to laugh and do it uncontrollable. The campfire scene in Blazing Saddles comes to mind, as does Peter Boyle singing "Putting on the Ritz" as Frankenstein's monster.
Top on my list these days is Groucho singing "Lydia the Tattooed Lady":
"Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclopedia,
oh Lydia the queen of them all!
For two bits she will do a mazurka in jazz,
With a view of Niagara that nobody has.
And on a clear day you can see Alcatraz.
You can learn a lot from Lydia."
-Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, 1939
Most understandable. Who wants to be bummed out? Last time I was at the library I checked out two movies: Blazing Saddles, and a doc called Lost Boys of the Sudan. Guess which one I watched first?
The trouble is I didn't laugh. Even the campfire scene - I just sat there. Didn't get any pleasure out of it. What's going on? I have two theories. 1. Blazing Saddles isn't funny if you don't see it in a crowded theater. 2. I grew up.
I prefer the first theory, but I don't know - I just can't seem to find comedies that make me laugh any more. My favorite Mel Brooks is To Be Or Not To Be, which is character-driven and written by Ernst Lubitsch, not Brooks.
I think you're right, from now on when I need a laff, which is always, I'm going back to the Marx Brothers. Also Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, and the comics who came up through vaudeville.
Dependable. True blue. Guaranteed laff-a-minute.
To me, naughty words aren't funny, putting people down isn't funny, slipping on a banana peel - now that's funny.
The original "To Be" starred Jack Benny and the sweet Carole Lombard. I think it was 1941 or '42, which would make it old enough for Medicare, right? See, I knew there was some subliminal reason for all this. There always is.
Also, I believe that Mel Brooks will become shortly the comedic poet laureate of our fair country, after he gets past the loss of his love, Mrs. Robinson. When I go back and watch what he wrote with Carl Reiner and Woody and Gelbart back in the Caesar days, I double over in tears.
I shoulda written that in the last comment, but sometimes the comments come faster and sometimes they come slower. I was still laughing about Lydia.
Hello, I must be going.
I'm surprised that the comments on this post turned comic...this movie deserves some serious thoughts! "Entertainment" it ain't - but hey - it's a wake-up call to consider horrors being perpetrated on vulnerable innocents. Yes, it's a movie, but it portrays reality for millions of children around the world. I am very aware of the facts about trafficking, but this movie was still shattering to me, and makes me mad! Mad enough to reconsider my role in "what to do about it." Turning our faces the other way so we don't have to see/think about evil is tempting - but wrong! It paves the way for victory for the perpetrators!
Amen to your anger, sister! Anger that leads to action against evil is righteous anger, indeed!
Note to the Pig: Our library has videos alright, a little shelf of cast-offs from local people's shelves, donated out of the kindness of their heart, I'm sure. Let's see, I could watch Veggie Tales, or I could watch The Apple Dumpling Gang--nothing wrong with those, but that's about it for selection. No art films, nothing to make one think.
I cried for about an hour after i watched this film. Now i'm determined to stop this shit. So no, not entertainment, but it definitely worked.
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