A young girl Katarina from a socially dysfunctional family (the mother is an alcoholic, with whom she has a very strained relationship because of this), accidentally discovers the world of classical music - she was looking for a clip on the Internet and accidentally came across Mozart, who, as they say, struck her in the heart. After this incident, her whole life ceases to suit her, and the circumstances, as on purpose, develop so that again by chance she gets to work in the Philharmonic as an administrator. Well, where is the music, there is the conductor, which she soon becomes obsessed with. He is also interested in her, but he is married. I will not tell you, in the end she still achieves, but in a way that the enemy does not want. But she seems happy herself. In the role of the girl Alicia Vikander, which I remember from the Royal novel. Naturally, there is great music in the film.
Excellent in atmosphericity and clarity picture. Very intuitive, very natural, but at the same time - interesting and painful. I specifically chose the word "painful." The fact is that my experiences while watching the film were miraculously transformed into physical sensations. I really felt a bit nauseous towards the end of the movie. Especially during the bridge scene, when Katarina is looking forward and the background is blurred darkness and lights. Perhaps I reacted so vividly to this evening scene because of the cover of the musical group Lifelover (also, incidentally, the Swedes), which was decorated in the same way.
The story is simple but important. It is always a pleasure to watch the search for yourself and the Beautiful.
What made the main character unhappy? - Life. This smelly, rotting, banal and integral life. In this regard, I very much understand and support Katarina.
The finale is not a disaster, not an explosion, not a suicide, but simply a return to the past. From where he tried to leave and begin to live “superiorly”. But you have to understand that these are dreams. And this movie is unique. The tragedy lies in stability, normality and routine. All these concepts put a lot of pressure on the brain of the dreamer and the aesthete, entering it with their smelly corners, imperfections and other things. . .
A special quote from the film is "Courage is the only measure of life." Paradoxically, Katarina was brave, was (or at least tried to be) adaptive. But in the finale, she is afraid of losing touch with great music, and therefore makes a deal with her conscience. After that, of course, it is rejected with greater force. Left alone again with the “normal” world, which will not save neither the note from Mozart’s Requiem nor Dostoevsky’s book, Katarina smiles empty and dead at us. .
Throughout the second half of the film, this phrase was in my head. I wanted to hug and comfort a poor child. I am about her age and now experience very similar emotions, so I sincerely asked with sincere interest - how will you get out, how will you cope?
I’d like to dismiss the idea of a stereotypical situation – a male scumbag took advantage of an innocent girl; and while I can agree in part with one of the reviews that says the film promotes violence because it presents Katarina’s behavior as normal – I still saw a different idea in the film. And it is that we are in front of a person who needs help. Katarina is totally alone. No one needs, no one understands, caressed only for a while, a child - if not by years, then by internal state. He wanders the streets like a discarded kitten. She has problems with the perception of the world and herself - but social services can not help her, and the family in the face of the mother of problems and psychological trauma only throws up. She can only rely on herself and her experience.
I was struck by the emotionality of this film. Alicia Vikander’s play is not that brilliant, but very sincere (in fact, the actor should live in the role, not play it). I don’t know if the writer and director of this film, Lisa Langset, wrote the story with himself, but it is very similar, because the whole film is saturated with such deep pain that it is unlikely that it could be made by a person who did not survive this (especially without directing education).
As Adam said, real pain is the starting point of human development. Although this is not a pity at all, I do not evaluate Katarina’s actions from the point of view of right/wrong. If the main question of the film - will beauty save the world? - then how the main character saved herself, there is, of course, an evil irony. But she saved as she saved - after all, every living creature in one way or another strives to survive.
P.S.
I also want to celebrate the music. 'Second Life Replay' added to myself and I can't stop listening - he's so depressing, especially the second part of the song that sounds at the end of the film.
A red line passes through the whole picture this phrase, spoken in a moralistic manner.
After the beginning of the credits, the first thought - oh... how difficult everything is.
Till det som ar vackert is a very sad, disturbing and somewhat frightening film. In the center of the events, the girl from a relatively not prosperous family (according to the patterns of Sweden, most likely, not Russia). The content of her life is alcohol, promiscuous sex, rap (rather low-grade pop) and other lumpen points of the society in which, by random will of birth, she was. Her whole life seems frozen in stone. But life is made up of nuances. She heard and imbued with classical music performed by Mozart. The music tore it off, lifted it, slightly shifted from orbit. And immediately she opened the sores and scabs of her former life. Katarina decided furiously to change. And that's where the journey Till det som ar vackert becomes what it was all about. Till det som ar vackert opens a moral crossroads for us. Going clean is not easy. Not everyone can break through the thick ice of existing existence. Situations and people who question every step are knocked down. The mirror of the social layer in which you live, confuses and leads off the right path. Till det som ar vackert is the story of a strong man, a fragile resistant girl who lives her life on the edge and with claws gnaws her place for existence, ignoring external advice, obeying the call of her body, proud, making mistakes and rising again after every stone thrown at her. Many in such cases break down and die, because often to go to a higher level is running along the edge. On the edge of emotions and moral bonds. In its depths, such stories are far from beautiful. However, if a breakthrough happens, then such people run very high. A very powerful force of inertia of their vital spring. Perhaps this is human evolution. And it takes courage.
This movie is definitely worth watching. To evaluate, reevaluate, accept and perceive. It is worth watching, although there is a moment of nausea in places. Nausea from inside out and not covered, naked nerves. Nausea from near reality. No doubt, it doesn't look easy. Obviously, a bucket of popcorn won't do. Popcorn won't fit. And this is very helpful Alicia Vikander. Katarina is played by the actress very subtly, realistically, emotionally. Additional color is added by the camera work (Simon Pramsten). If it is perfect, we are shown a geometrically perfect picture. The home scene is a live camera. The muddyness in the head and mind are clouded lanterns. The flashes of consciousness are a twitchy frame. And so on. And... in addition to all the ambiguous ending.
Gold is not on the surface. Success is 1% talent and 99% diligence. Till det som ar vackert You almost always come through pain and dirt. Can you do that?
The film is remarkable for the acting, close-ups and plot. But I'd like to talk about something else.
Trying to find the keys to the statement of the director and screenwriter Lisa Langset, I could not find the right register. In fact, the drama that is offered to us in form, does not end tragically. Not classically. Well, if the genre doesn't give the answer, there may be hints in the work itself. Pygmalion? Well, in part, but not quite. The theme and tone are somewhat different. There are similarities, definitely. You can say “Pygmalion” in a new way, but it would be too simple.
Everyone paid attention, both the viewer and the critic, to the name of the great Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard. Not by chance. Not only is he directly mentioned by the characters of the film, but the notes of his philosophy are reflected in the unfolding action. It would seem that this is what will open the understanding of the picture. But alas! The Danish philosophy is not the key. More like that. It was not Kierkegaard’s work that was a clue, I thought, but rather some interpretation of it. But which one? And then I came up with a buzzword that, whether you admit it or not, is present in the film from the first frame to the last. We just need to talk it out, get it out of the subconscious. The word is "feminism."
And then everything fell into place. Finally, I began to understand the Langset language. No, not Swedish. Artistic. Her means of expression. There. Remember the word "self" - one of the central terms in the philosophy of Kierkegaard.
What path does Katarina take in this film? The path is also a very important theme of a philosopher from Denmark. The heroine heard the music and could no longer live as she lived. Before that, her life was marked by promiscuous sexual relations, as her mother taught. Like, have fun while you have the opportunity, then it will not. It's a world of low passion. Lust. Sensual and therefore impermanent and short-term pleasure. But Mozart turned everything around in the head of the young heroine. She felt, but did not realize that something was wrong in her life. There is another world, a brighter one. The beauty world. But to come to a place where beauty is produced (museum, theater, conservatory, finally) is not enough. However, Katharina seems happy.
"Courage is the only measure of life." Not quite understanding what her new friend – Adam, conductor – meant, Katarina tries to acquire “intimacy” with the world of beauty by methods of “past” life. The conductor becomes the expressor of her thoughts, and she joins him as she can - sensual passion, sexual attraction. Think about the irony and symbolism of Adam, the first of men, the main of all, the symbol of the very idea of man. And, as befits in traditional society, a woman realizes herself only through a man, only through his ranks, ranks and professions (general, baker, officer, etc.). A woman who wants to join the beautiful, not being able to achieve her (and not even realizing that she can do it in any other way) jumps into the arms of someone who appears to her as music itself, the master of notes himself. She thinks this is the new world.
"Try to be with the present" (quote conditional, but meaning). Adam himself says these words and himself, implicitly, proclaims his falsity (not himself, but the role that the heroine assigned him). He's not music. He's human. One of many. A man with his wife, wishes and other child seats. He cannot become a god for Katarina, an idea of musical beauty. He's not trying. It stays real. By myself. That is, a man with his wife and a child seat in the front seat of the car. And she doesn’t even understand what “intrigue” is. It’s about finding yourself in a new world. That's everything to her. That is why Katarina clings to this connection.
In order to buy, you have to give. Another quote that Katharina didn't understand, but that excited her. The book of Kierkegaard that Adam gave her, she did not read immediately. After all, all the responsibility for the knowledge of the “new world” she shifted to her beloved teacher. When she broke up, she took her seriously. That’s probably why she decided she was worthy of her job because she understood something very important. It is independent of being involved in the beautiful. She's already worth it. And he can speak on equal terms. It doesn't quite work out, but understanding is gradually coming.
In one of the key scenes, Katarina becomes indignant and pushes Adam out of a window. Another symbol. She refused to personalize her sense of beauty, to objectify. And here, watch your fingers, Katarina finds her self. It is itself the present, it is its own vehicle into the world of its ideals. It is not for nothing that Adam in the last minutes of her life says to her: “You must realize your world not in your head, but in reality.” That is, it is not enough to feel the beauty, you need to abandon it as something outside of us and independent of us, and to find reality, in yourself, to find the beauty of yourself, in what you realize in the world. Roughly speaking, stop consuming your beautiful dreams, and become a creator. It is not for nothing that Katarina, as it were, sums up the interim result by rationalizing her position: “We need to be constructive and consistent.” Get out of the world of passion and dreams. From a world of sensual and impermanent. The world of suffering.
And sweets. The name Katharina has the same root as the word catharsis. Remember in Ostrovsky Catherine - a ray of light in the dark kingdom. That's it. Katarina - purity, or in the case of the film Langset - "purification".
Thus, Kiergegaard’s interpretation is relevant even in the 2010s. In this case, for the understanding of a woman herself as a person, as a “self” that does not require expression in anything but herself. A moment of adequate feminism by Lisa Langset.
The film is about the desire for “beautiful”, about the struggle of the main character for a place in the sun and herself. She has problems with the closest people: with her mother and boyfriend, with her job.
But something happens: the heroine hears the music of Mozart and suddenly realizes that it is time to change her life, finds a job in a concert hall, enjoys the same music and falls in love.
It would seem that everything is fine and good. Only now one thing is embarrassing - is falling in love with a married man, hysterical and stupid attempts to get him, knowing that it will destroy his family - is it sublime? What about the pursuit of beauty? For some reason, in the film, despite the loud title and beautiful annotations, the emphasis is still on a typical love story, of which there are thousands. Empathy for the main character immediately evaporates as soon as the love line appears.
The only thing I liked was the good performance of Alicia Vikander and Samuel Fröhler and the pleasant classical music.
She made a lot of mistakes in her life and still makes mistakes. There is no life experience and nowhere to gain, because the environment in which it lives cannot teach good things.
The girl is in a vicious circle and there is no way out. But the girl knows how to learn and understand something immediately makes the right conclusions.
The feeling of beauty acts as a criterion and the girl grasps this thread.
She is attentive to words. In particular, she takes the information coming from her scum teacher very seriously, uses it practically and returns the teacher to his lesson. His wrongness, cruelty and cynicism destroyed him. The death, which can be called an accident and the natural reaction of the girl, restored justice.
Everything turned out so simple and natural. A triumph of justice, which, under all these institutions, should not have taken place.
There are many levels of understanding: the irrevocability of the word; music that played the role of a gun against a gunman; an inner sense of beauty, more important than the knowledge gained.
Classical music is unique, you won’t listen to Mozart and say yes to something similar. You may have similar feelings and experiences from completely different compositions. But this is a separate topic. In this review, I want to talk about the beautiful and awakening film Towards Something Beautiful.
Swedish director Lisa Langset is not very fertile in her field and I honestly confess not to have watched more than one of her films, but also in order not to spoil the impression of this film probably until I will not. The film was very deep and meaningful.
Katarina, a young pretty girl with obvious problems in anger management and a bunch of psychological “features”, grew up like this thanks to her marginal mother. One day, in search of some “pop” clip on a video hosting, she accidentally comes across the magical “Requiem” of Mozart and her whole life turns upside down. She wakes up, all the feelings she used to pour into aggression are now flowing from her eyes, tears. She gets a job at the conservatory, where she is waiting for a meeting with a conductor and an instantly flared passion. Catarina will be able to recognize new feelings and cope with them or destroy everything and herself. I highly recommend you watch this movie.
God, how beautiful Alicia Vikander is. I’ve seen her in movies before, but I’ve never been so enchanted by her. Previously, the images were not hers. Katarina in her performance is indescribable, from the first frames. Judging by the filmography of the director, she also appreciated the talent of Alicia and she starred in almost all her films. Katarina with her soul throwing, hopeless feelings, struggles and experiences overwhelmed her so much that she almost went mad - this is indescribable! That's why we watch movies. Not a pious conductor played by Samuel Fröhler aka Adam. A lot of people would consider him immoral, and I found an excuse for him, and it's undeniable when it comes to creativity. So Samuel was able to convey the meaning of Adam’s act without a direct explanation. He already understood that love and passion are fleeting, and music is eternal. So what can we talk about passion?
Honestly, although I am a music lover, I avoid classical music because it raises too many feelings inside, and for sensitive people (such as me), it is fraught with constantly red wet eyes and an eternally “registered” handkerchief. After the film, I listened to Mozart and read his biography, I believe that the film was not only fascinating for me, but also under the impression I expanded my horizons. There aren't many such paintings now. The film is now among my favorites, and I will gladly recommend it to my friends, I know not many will like it, but it is worth every second of your life.
I would like to add that the topic of crazy girls is my favorite. This film supports the theme and looking at Katarina I thought who is worse than some crazy with a cold weapon or torn into millions of pieces unarmed little girl.
Propaganda of murder as a means to achieve their goals
7 out of 10
For the talented actors in the first place. For violent emotions that do not subside for 2 days after watching.
The film was disheartening.
On the one hand, the good intentions of the main character in the face of the incredibly talented Alicia Vikander deserve high praise. It causes respect and in a good sense envy, showing the perseverance of character and "masculinity", in which lies the main message of the film.
On the other hand, there is a terribly primitive depiction of the honesty and decency of women and dishonor and of man’s “courage” from the point of view of women. Feminism is all over the place.
The story, it would seem, in a sense, about unrequited love, but not everything is so simple. He is a classic representative of the man-goat, who does not mind a fleeting romance with a young beautiful girl while his wife is on a business trip. He deserves some kind of punishment and in the end gets what he deserves. It's over for him.
A woman does worse. As an accomplice to adultery, she reserves the right to control the life of another person. What angered me was that it was taken for granted in her situation. Even thoughts are expressed, something like moralizing that in order to achieve something, you need to act. No level of elevation of the goal can justify such an action.
Some kind of violence propaganda.
When love for the beautiful leads to the unforgivable
The musical illustration for the Swedish drama Towards Something Beautiful in 2009 (there is a second version of the name “Purity”) is the Seventh Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. Classical music is something that a young girl named Katarina (Alicia Vikander) loves very much. Once under the notes of the rehearsal orchestra, she enters the theater, where, by coincidence, using confessions of a fervent love of music and even deception, she receives a place as an intern-operator of telephone calls in the theater. The young girl is happy, because she is right at the distance of an outstretched hand to something beautiful. Once she even manages to meet the conductor of the orchestra Adam (Samuel Fröhler). They have a passion, Katarina feels even happier, although she and Adam have a big age difference, but what, because he is a real genius and also loves classical music! But Katarina's sudden happiness soon shatters: Adam is not such a good person after all.
“To Something Beautiful” is the first joint work of the world-famous actress Alicia Vikander (at the time of filming she was only 21 years old) and director and screenwriter Lisa Langset. Later, four years later, Vikander will again play for Langset in the film “Hotel”, and for 2017 the premiere of their third work, so far known under the working title “Euphoria”, was announced. Returning to “Something Beautiful”, I must say that the young Vikander, for whom the role in this film was the first in a full-length feature film and the first main one. For her performance, she received the Golden Beetle award - the Swedish equivalent of the Oscars. This is the recognition immediately after the debut of Vikander happened. She really was extremely emotional, sensual, graceful in the picture; her character changed from a usually living girl to a sharply planned from happiness to a pit of disappointment. You worry about her, and when you see her open heart metaphorically, you hate Adam.
Indeed, against the background of Katarina, the hero of actor Samuel Fröhler is a real bastard: he fell in love with the girl, played with her and left, so not only that he broke up with her, he also wanted to fire her. Yes, Adam simply trampled the poor thing and what happens at the end of the film (this secret, of course, I will not reveal) is like retribution for all of Adam’s misdeeds. But still there are questions to Katarina, she can be condemned, and maybe someone understands. In general, “To something beautiful” will make you not only empathize with the main character, feel all the drama of circumstances, but also make you think a little. So the tape of Lisa Langset can be called intellectual with some conventions. But you can not call a musical, after all, classical music is like an integral component, but rather it is here as a character, without it, there would not be this tragic story that played out in the walls of the Stockholm Symphony Theater.
With such a strong emotional impact, secondary personalities become almost invisible when viewed from Alicia Vikander and Samuel Fröhler. This, perhaps, is not a mistake Lisa Langset, but rather flaws in the game of the other participants in the action. For example, there is a character in the film of Katarina Matthias’ boyfriend (Martin Wallström). He loves TV talk shows and is not fascinated by classical music, but he still loves Katarina. It seems like a well-written character, but Martin Wallstrom, with all his efforts to make it extremely dramatic, he turned out to be somewhat dry and even very standard. Could add something from himself and actress Josephine Bauer, who played Birgitta, the mother of Katarina. They have a very strained relationship, once everything comes to a serious conflict, but the essence of this relationship, their background and influence on the character of both heroines is still minimal. Here you can say your “fe” to Lisa Langset, but it seems that Josephine Bauer could not get to the height of expressiveness of feelings, like Vikander and Fröhler.
"To something beautiful" - it is very good to present a modern Swedish drama school, so if you are not embarrassed by such films and you want to join the diverse manifestations of cinema, then this film can be recommended. You can also recommend it with the condition that in it her first major role was played by Alicia Vikander, not so long ago became a star, and it will be interesting where she started. And we can say on the example of “To something beautiful” that Alicia has a strong dramatic talent.
7 out of 10
This film is so good that I have already repulsed the eloquence.
Sometimes you sit in front of a screen and pray that this time you'll see something real, so slightly flattened, like an inconspicuous flat brass ring, but alive. Like the wind. The wind is colorless, and on the whole quite dull, blowing itself and blowing endlessly; but I think without it we would be dreary.
Maybe because I’m not very familiar with Scandinavian cinema yet, I like all the pictures I watch, and I’ve just sat down to watch them. Well, I've already had two. The first was Norwegian, and it is the same – cold-rectile and with very silent actors.
Vikander doesn't get bored. With her very small range of emotions on her face, she is not stretched, but rather correctly tense - in any case, stiffness, directness, like that of a stubborn stick that does not want to break, shows Katarina from her special, almost post-war-syndromic side. You'll know yourself at twenty. When teen maximalism is already, thank goodness, behind us comes the next, no less problematic black-and-white phase, and everything goes to hell. He no longer wants to go into details. At twenty, you suddenly feel forty. I want to take Mozart and face him because everything else is sick.
The film is very straightforward, it is very monochrome in style, it has a lot of classics, which, contrary to popular belief, does not go to everyone in a row under any conditions. To really penetrate and become a connoisseur is really very difficult. To feel this light on the face, which occurs in Vikander, when her heroine renounces the disgraced reality for a while and gives herself a minute to enjoy the music. From school, I remember that in fact, when these Alicias bring you and your class to a concert and forced to “join the beautiful”, if not the fate of you to become a classic gourmet, then there is a residue for a long time. Classics can be pompous and loud and push you out of your own body, like the world of Adam, the conductor. And you want something elegant, slender and at the same time beautiful, tearful music of the highest standard - as an idea of the reality of Katarina. She is not a fantasist or fanatic, not an infantile namra, but a fighter with rising ignorant platitudes. When she yells at her boyfriend for watching American sitcoms, your brain realizes that these claims are superficial, selfish, they are like a fork against a tsunami. But in fact, in the society where we, in our time as we live, only such forks keep us afloat - maybe they are plastic, not like in good houses where the whole exemplary family lives by the code of piety; maybe we have nowhere to sleep and we cry out all our eyes at night - but at least we don't watch American sitcoms and can sincerely smile in conservatories.
P.S. I admire Katarinin’s pragmatic approach to solving problems with men.
The keys to this film are the books and the music. Ekelof is a Swedish poet whose love is inextricably linked to deep suffering. It is no coincidence that his poems anticipate the beginning of their romance.
To suffer is difficult
To suffer and not to love is difficult.
To love and not to suffer is impossible.
Loving is difficult.
And also his quote "... For only impractical, by and large, is practical "
Kierkegaard, whose book fell into Katharina’s hands, placed above all else not only courage, which is often mentioned in the film – “the measure of all actions in life”, but also passion, which is above reason and reason, above any “abstract” reflection.
Interestingly, the maestro himself, reading Kierkegaard, remained at the lowest stage of spiritual development - the stage of the layman (according to the typology of the same philosopher). The average person lives like others: he tries to work, start a family, dress well and talk well. He follows herd instinct. He goes with the flow and comes to terms with the circumstances, not thinking that he can change anything in his life. He just doesn't know he has a choice.
The conductor’s annoying remark about the musicians of his orchestra, who complain, “Maestro, I have to go home, I have a laundry planned...”, in fact, does not contradict his own perception and attitude to life, in the end we see that the conductor himself does not go far from this worldview. And the words, “Oh my God, laundry is our way!” sound like the sad irony of the denouement of this story.
In general, there are a lot of references in the film. Pierre Bourdieu, apparently also one of the conductor's favorite authors, believed that culture plays a key role in the preservation and reproduction of social inequality. That is, culture divides, and only a select few can join its heritage. The echoes of this will sound in the last chord - the final conversation of the main characters.
And during the film, it was thought that perhaps in youth people are more open, emotional and courageous - capable of greater emotional response, emotional maximalism than in adulthood.
Alicia Vikander incomparably conveys the depth of feelings and perception. Most of all I liked the moments when she listened to music, in her eyes there is just an abyss. I was struck by the natural sensitivity of this girl. And it was interesting whether a person at such a sufficiently mature age can overcome the socio-cultural gap, having an innate sensitivity to beauty. Despite all her flaws, I was on her side throughout the film. The ending is interesting. I recommend it.
It's a wonderful movie. Alicia Vikander plays super, especially for her age, very emotionally, transparently, forgetting you’re watching a movie.
The film does not fit into the standard template of Hollywood cinema, a good, but not pretentious variety of characters. You look at the actors and say to yourself “I believe.”
The plot line is predictable, you seem to anticipate the next moment, but at the same time it periodically immerses you in some bright turns, alternating positive and negative moments.
The philosophy of the film is very interesting, in fact, the perception of classical music is available to everyone, although not everyone finds time to study these works. It is the study, because unlike pop culture, it is essentially not related to the fast carbohydrates that have eaten and earned brain diabetes. Classical music is like an exquisite dish, of which there are a lot, but which you need to try more than once to understand its essence, all its shades of taste, notes. The girl was lucky, she accidentally immediately came across one of the works of Mozart, which immediately hurt her, and then... more. In life, we are surrounded by obsessive worn-out famous works of great composers, which, despite their masterpieces, cause rejection, like a dish that you were fed in childhood. But it is the little-known works that catch on, which are written as if only for you, and not for everyone.
Moral, which is nice, is not in the movie. Philosophy exists, but morals, morality, and secret meaning do not exist. What makes the movie different from Hollywood?
I will not call the film a masterpiece, but I recommend it for evening quiet viewing.
10 out of 10
The film tells the story of a young girl who does not know how to manage her emotions, hates her mother, despises her boyfriend. Everyone says she needs help.
The character of the heroine is well revealed in the film. We see her relationship with her mother. How difficult it is for them and where they come from. We see what Katarina was like before music came into her life. We see those relationships in which she is desperate.
But that's part of it. The main topic is another one.
The turning point in Katarina’s life is the acquaintance with Mozart’s music. The girl decides to change her life. But it's not that easy. Instead of changing her mind, Katarina decides to get rid of the people she hates by swapping them for a “beautiful,” sublime conductor. But is he ready to take Katarina?
Turns out not. He has his own life, family and career. The only thing that matters is the music.
Of course, it makes the poor thing miserable. She gave up everything. But I didn't find anything. It's only music that keeps her going. Did the music really bring it to that point?
The plot of the film is somewhat reminiscent of B. Shaw’s play Pygmalion. But in fact, the story unfolds in a way that would be difficult to imagine.
“Courage is the only measure of life” Kerkiegor
These words become the main motive of the film. The story of purification becomes a story of power. But the force is terrible. Katarina sees everything in her own way.
Now she has a purpose. But is it courage to achieve what is desired, stepping over yourself and others?
The film, seemingly a simple story about the miraculous influence of classical music and everything sublime, turned out to be an interesting psychological drama. The question raised in the film makes one think not only about the truth of the beneficial influence of “something beautiful”, but also on a large scale, about good and evil.
In the Swedish city of Gothenburg and in its not very prosperous province, under the divine sounds of Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and other creators of beauty, a strange story unfolds, filled with ill-being, alcoholism, mental ill health, everyday life and, something elusively high, which, inexplicably, drowns out all the above.
It so happened that Katarina, an ordinary young girl of what a million, looking for some stupid clip on YouTube, accidentally stumbles upon Mozart. Who could have thought that Wolfgang Amadeus would forever change her life, become the culprit of fateful events, make you reconsider your attitude to loved ones and move on, of dubious nature, feats. But that's what happened. It all begins with an obsessive listening to the classics through the MP3 player, continues - by going to symphonic performances and trying to acquaint a tall guy who, although he would prefer a concert of talents on TV, but, I must give him credit, tries to support the interests of his beloved. And the beloved, being a passionate nature, craves a more intimate acquaintance with the beautiful, which prompts her to secretly enter the building of the concert hall, and miraculously get the job of an administrator, because when you strive for beauty, it is attracted to you. And before a girl from a disadvantaged environment, the gates to a new life filled with meaning and beauty open. Soaking in the atmosphere of her hobbies, Katarina receives the favor of a person who seems to represent a collection of everything pure and high. Against the background of this trembling love for the shell, woven from quotes, paintings and musical tracks, other people who do not have such hobbies become disgusting to her nausea. My mother is a crazy alcoholic. Life outside of work appears before Katarina in a different, syro-poor light. But alas, all good things do not last forever, behind the white stripe is a gray, new, wonderful world showing its rottenness. And here, the main thing is not to lose yourself. Having lost everything, it would seem, the music remains with the heroine - sublime and beautiful. In addition, one of the inhabitants of the wonderful world once inadvertently said that “pain is the starting point of human development” and this phrase, along with another, about courage, will give Katarina the strength to live on.
The ending of this strange film will not leave anyone indifferent, in it the expression “beauty requires sacrifice” received a lively atypical embodiment. Moral lovers should pass by, because it is difficult to find a less moralistic film, if one of the characters achieves purification, then in a very outlandish way. Perhaps the picture only erases some stereotypes like that the beautiful is not always good. Readability, obedience, the ability to insert a smart phrase at the right time - only the ostentatious side of a person. And yet, after watching, there is no doubt that beauty is really a “terrible force”, at least Katarina’s mysterious smile in the finale clearly hints at new amazing feats in the name of something beautiful.
«Courage is life`s only measure» Soren Kierkegaard
“We don't have all the time in the world. You shouldn't waste life so the only thing that happens is that your pussy gets slack. The first time I heard Mozart was on YouTube. That's almost a year ago. I was searching for some stupid clip and suddenly I was captivated. By the music. They can take their cocks and their ugly lives and say what they want. I don't care. I'm not there anymore. In some bloody way I'll escape all this and get to the other side. To where it's more real than this dreadful reality. To where it's... beautiful
This is the debut film directed by Lisa Langset, but already it shows the depth of the author’s personality.
Katarina is a simple girl. She has an alcoholic mother and a boyfriend in whose apartment she lives. She works in the school cafeteria. She's 20. All she wears is jeans, a gray T-shirt and a black jacket. She's not interested in anything. She has no hobbies. The only thing she cares about is her Facebook page and what she'll eat for dinner. But one day, while searching for some YouTube video, she stumbles upon a recording of a Mozart concert. Now the story of Katarina begins.
She keeps listening to Mozart. On the bus, outside, at home. One day she sneaks into a concert hall and watches rehearsal. She's getting caught. Katarina is already awaiting punishment, but she is offered the job of a secretary.
And her work slowly becomes everything for her.
She constantly listens to rehearsals of concerts, trying to understand why she is so attracted and mesmerized by music, but can not. But Katarina clearly feels the strength and beauty that she carries in herself.
Lisa Langset poses the question: what will change in us if we read at least one book by Dostoevsky or listen to several concerts by Mozart?
I didn’t expect that going to something beautiful would be like a concert. But it is. I probably only went to the movie because I saw the words “Sweden” and “Mozart” in the abstract. In addition to Mozart, we hear the original music of the film. And that's the only reason I'm willing to put ten.
Another great detail is the close-up plans. Now there are very few actors who can work in close-up. And here the facial expressions are shown in detail. Every emotion is reflected on our face and we are given the opportunity to enjoy it. And this speaks not only about the abilities of the director, but also about the talents of actors who are capable of such a strong play.
For me, this film was a revelation.
This girl clearly has something to dream about in terms of everyday well-being. But familiarity with sublime classical music opens up a completely different life alternative. From now on, she wants to live in a beautiful world. In any capacity. The heroine strongly follows his attraction. And she's not determined.
A lively and dramatic story with an erotic canvas and philosophical overtones. That's just obsessively flickering in the film the name of Kierkegaard on closer examination is nothing to do. Closer to the Taoists with the idea of the dialectical opposite of the instincts for “soft” and “hard”, “flexible” and “fragile” – in other words, “to life” and “to purity”.
"Solid" and "clean" win the movie. There are natural victims among the “soft” and “dirty”, i.e. the living. And looking at the inspired face of the heroine in the final, you believe that these victims are not the last.
Very vivid in form and content explication of the idea of the cruelty of idealism.
7 out of 10