Show Me Love (film)

Infobox Film
name = Show Me Love


caption =
director = Lukas Moodysson
producer = Lars Jönsson
writer = Lukas Moodysson
starring = Rebecka Liljeberg,
Alexandra Dahlström,
Mathias Rust
music =
cinematography = Ulf Brantås
editing = Michal Leszczylowski
Bernhard Winkler
distributor = Sonet Film
released = October 23, 1998
runtime = 89 minutes
country = flagicon|Sweden Sweden
language = Swedish
budget = SEK 9,000,000
gross =
amg_id = 1:173729
imdb_id = 0150662

"Show Me Love", originally titled "Fucking Åmål", is a 1998 Swedish film directed by Lukas Moodysson. The film is centred around the lives of two seemingly disparate teenage girls who begin a tentative romantic relationship. The film was universally re-titled for English audiences, after some media outlets refused to promote the film due to the profanity in the title.Gareth Griffiths, An Åmål State of Mind, in "City + Cinema: Essays on the specificity of location in film", Datutop 29, 2007.]

For writer Moodysson, it was his directorial début in a full length film. Starring in the lead roles were Rebecka Liljeberg, as Agnes, and Alexandra Dahlström, as Elin. The film received a generally positive reception" [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/show_me_love/ Show Me Love (1998)] ." "Rotten Tomatoes"] and won four Guldbagge Awards (Sweden's official film awards) at the 1999 ceremony. Its international awards include the Teddy award at the 1999 Berlin Film Festival.

The Swedish title refers to the small town of Åmål in south-western Sweden. Only a few scenes were actually filmed in Åmål, [Robert Wangeby, ”Smygpremiär på Fucking Åmål”, Provinstidningen Dalsland, 13.10.1998] but these ended up being not included in the final version: the main shooting took place in the nearby town of Trollhättan, location of Film i Väst's (the company that produced the film) film studios. [" [http://www.filmivast.se/vgrtemplates/RegRightColumn____10900.aspx About Film i Väst] ," "Film i Väst"]

Plot summary

The film tells the story of two girls, Agnes and Elin, who go to school in the small town of Åmål in Sweden. Elin is outgoing and popular, but finds her life unsatisfying and dull. Agnes, by contrast, has no real friends and is constantly depressed. Agnes has a crush on Elin, but cannot find any way to express it.

Agnes's parents worry about their daughter and try to make her happy. Her mother decides, against Agnes's will, to throw a 16th birthday party for her, and Agnes is afraid no one will come. Viktoria, a girl in a wheelchair, shows up and Agnes shouts at her in front of her parents, telling her they are only friends because no one wants to make friends with either of them.

Elin arrives late at Agnes's house, mainly as an excuse to avoid going to a different party, where there will be a boy she wants to avoid. Elin's older sister, Jessica, who comes with her, dares her to kiss Agnes, who is rumoured to be a lesbian. Elin fulfills the dare, and then runs out with Jessica, only to soon feel guilty for having humiliated Agnes.

After having gotten drunk at the other party, Elin returns to Agnes's house to apologize. She even manages to persuade Agnes to return with her to the other party. It is on the way to the other party that Elin shares her real feelings about being trapped in Åmål. On impulse, Elin persuades Agnes to hitch to Stockholm (a five-hour journey); a car even stops and agrees to take them. It is while sitting in the backseat together that they first kiss 'for real'. The driver sees them and orders them out. Elin discovers that she is attracted to Agnes but is afraid to admit it. She pretends to be in love with Johan Hult (Mathias Rust). Elin and Agnes eventually show each other's feelings at the end of the film, where, after a climactic scene in a school bathroom, they decide to literally "out" their relationship to the whole school. The film ends with Elin and Agnes enjoying each other's company sitting in Elin's bedroom and drinking chocolate milk.

Title

All of the English-language releases of the film use the title "Show Me Love", which lacks the English-language swear word "fucking" as seen in the Swedish title. [" [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004YKR3 Show Me Love (1998)] ," "Amazon.com"] [" [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1391983947 Lukas Moodysson Presents] ," "Amazon.com"] [" [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/show-me-love.shtml Show Me Love] ," "BBC Four"] " [http://www.madman.com.au/actions/catalogue.do?releaseId=3162&method=view Show Me Love] ." "Madman Entertainment"] " [http://www.strandreleasing.com/product_details.asp?id=43 Show Me Love] ." "Strand Releasing"] " [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00005KCA6 Show Me Love (2000)] ." "Amazon.co.uk"] According to Moodysson, the problem with the original title started when the film was Sweden's candidate for the Academy Awards, though it was eventually not chosen as a nominee: the Hollywood industry magazine "Variety" refused to run an advertisement for a film with that title, and thus American distributor Strand Releasing asked for a new title to be chosen. Moodysson took the new title from the song at the end of the film, by Robyn.

The film was also distributed in other countries using titles without the profanity, such as "Raus aus Åmål" (Get out of Åmål), "Descubriendo el Amor" ("Discovering Love"), "Amigas de Colégio" ("School Friends"), "Láska je láska" ("Love is Love"), and "Покажи мне любовь" ("Pokazhi mne ljubov"' = "Show me Love").

Reception

Critical response

The film received the highest audience figures for a Swedish film in 1998-9, with a total audience of 867,576, and a total audience for the whole of Europe of 2,100,000. [ [http://lumiere.obs.coe.int/web/film_info/?id=8161 Lumiere data base on film admissions released in Europe] .]

"Rotten Tomatoes" gave the film a 90% positive rating.

Classification boards

Strand Releasing released the film in North America where it was given an "unrated" certificate. Momentum released the film in the United Kingdom, where the British Board of Film Classification gave the film a "15" film certificate. Madman Entertainment released the film in Australia, where the film received a "MA 15+" film certificate. In Sweden (like the rest of Scandinavia) the film had a "11" film certificate. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0150662/ Show Me Love at the Internet Movie Database]

oundtrack

The film's soundtrack was released through Columbia Records. It features song from the film, including its title song Show Me Love by Robyn. The songs in the film consist of both English and Swedish language lyrics. Swedish band Broder Daniel, who contributed three English language songs to the movie, released an EP entitled "Fucking Åmål".

Awards

*Amanda Awards, Norway: Best Foreign Feature Film (1999)
*Atlantic Film Festival: Best International Feature (1999)
*Teddy Award: Best Feature Film (1999)
*Bodil Awards: Best Non-American Film (2000)
*European Film Awards: nominee, Best Film (1999) [ [http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/htm/4Nominations1999.html European Film Academy: Staff und Structure ] ]
*GLAAD Media Awards: Outstanding Film (Limited Release) (2000) [ Tiina Rosenberg, "Out of the National Closet. Show me Love". Journal of Theatre and Drama, vol. 7/8, 2/2002.]

References

External links

*
* [http://www.fuckingamalsts.com Fucking Åmål scene to scene]
* [http://www.madman.com.au/actions/trailer.do?method=view&videogramId=445 Film trailer (1998)] en icon
* [http://fucking-amal.virt.cz Portal-like fan site] , in English and Slovak.
* [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:LfQ_yX4-4csJ:www.columbia.edu/cu/swedish/research/fu_am.pdf Original script] , in Swedish
* [http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/s/show-me-love-script-amal.html English subtitles] , translated script