| Show Me Love | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Lukas Moodysson |
| Produced by | Lars Jönsson |
| Written by | Lukas Moodysson |
| Starring | Rebecka Liljeberg Alexandra Dahlström |
| Cinematography | Ulf Brantås |
| Editing by | Michal Leszczylowski Bernhard Winkler |
| Distributed by | Sonet Film |
| Release date(s) | 23 October 1998 |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | Sweden |
| Language | Swedish |
| Budget | SEK 9,000,000 |
Show Me Love is a 1998 Swedish film directed by Lukas Moodysson. Its original Swedish title is Fucking Åmål. The film is centered around the lives of two seemingly disparate teenage girls who begin a tentative romantic relationship. The film first premiered outside Sweden at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival under its original title. 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:[1] 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. Distributors in other native English speaking countries then followed suit.
For writer Moodysson, it was his directorial debut in a full length film. Starring in the lead roles were Rebecka Liljeberg, as Agnes, and Alexandra Dahlström, as Elin. The film received an overwhelmingly positive reception[2] 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 central Sweden. Only a few scenes were actually filmed in Åmål,[3] but these were 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.[4]
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The film tells the story of two girls, Agnes and Elin, who attend 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's reclusive life, and try to be reassuring. 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 friends only because no one else will talk to them. Agnes, overcome with anger and depression, goes to her room and cries into her pillow shouting that she wishes she was dead, while her father tries to soothe her. Viktoria leaves and Agnes's family eats the food made for the party. Elin arrives at Agnes's house, mainly as an excuse to avoid going to a different party, where there will be a boy (Johan) (Mathias Rust) 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 becoming drunk at the other party, Elin gets sick and throws up, while Johan tries to help her and ends up professing his love to her. Elin leaves Johan and the party, only to return to Agnes's house to apologize for how she acted earlier. And in doing so, Elin stops Agnes from attempting to commit suicide. She even manages to persuade Agnes to return with her to the other party. On the way, Elin shares her real feelings about being trapped in Åmål, and asks Agnes about being a lesbian, and believes that both of their problems could be solved by leaving Åmål and going to Stockholm. On impulse, Elin persuades Agnes to hitchhike to Stockholm, a five-hour car journey away. They find a driver who agrees to take them, believing them to be sisters who are visiting their grandmother. It is while sitting in the back seat together that they first kiss "for real". The driver sees them and, shocked at the behaviour of the two 'sisters', orders them to leave the car.
Elin discovers that she is attracted to Agnes, but is afraid to admit it. She proceeds to ignore Agnes and refuses to talk to her. Elin's sister Jessica sees that she is in love and pushes her to figure out who it is. To cover the fact that she is in love with Agnes, Elin lies, pretending to be in love with Johan, and loses her virginity during a short-lived relationship with him. Elin eventually admits her feelings at the end of the film, where, after a climactic scene in a school bathroom, they are forced to 'out' their relationship to the entire school. The film ends with Elin and Agnes sitting in Elin's bedroom drinking chocolate and Elin explaining that she often adds too much chocolate until her milk is nearly black so then she must fill another glass with milk and mix it, and that her sister Jessica often gets mad that she finishes the chocolate. The film ends with Elin saying "It makes a lot of chocolate milk. But that doesn't matter."
The original title of the film (Fucking Åmål) also caused problems in other countries, and so alternative, neutral names were chosen by local distributors: Raus aus Åmål ("getting out of Åmål"), Descubriendo el Amor ("discovering love"), Amigas de Colégio ("school friends"), Láska je láska ("love is love"[5]), and Покажи мне любовь (Pokazhi mne lyubov, "show me love").
Even before the film was completed, it created controversy in the town of Åmål itself. Local politicians campaigned to get the title of the film changed because they argued that it would show the town in an unfair way, and even undermine the town as an economic centre.[1] Further pressure was brought on the makers of the film, the Film i Väst film studio, who are partly financed by Swedish local authorities, including Åmål. However, the local complaints had no effect on the content or release of the film. Since the release of the film the town of Åmål has even tried to embrace the publicity generated, despite the fact that the town's name is missing from the English title. Still, in the early 2000s the town founded the pop music festival "Fucking Åmål Festival".
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.[6] However, some reports outside Sweden incorrectly stated that in Sweden the film had even outgrossed the Hollywood film Titanic.[7] In fact, Titanic had over twice as many viewers as Show Me Love in Sweden in 1998.[8] Based on 39 reviews collected by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of critics gave Show Me Love a positive review.[2] The film is among the top ten of the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.[9]
The film's soundtrack was released through Columbia Records, and consists of songs in English and Swedish language. Swedish band Broder Daniel, who contributed three English language songs to the movie, released an EP entitled Fucking Åmål.
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