Pure (2009)

Waste of time

Very Cool!!!

Load of rubbish!!

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I came across this movie on Netflix streaming. It is the first feature movie for Alicia Vikander, for it to succeed she must turn in a masterful performance and she does. Most of the language is Swedish, with English subtitles.The original Swedish title translates to "To that which is beautiful".Alicia Vikander, about 20, is Katarina. Her character is established early when we witness her chasing and wrestling to the lunchroom floor a school boy who was calling her names, 'slut' among them. This established two things, she had a reputation for sleeping around and she had a quick temper. She lives with her young boyfriend who seems like a nice guy but their lives are bland, watching the telly and playing video games. One day Katarina is on the computer and quite by accident comes across a youtube video with Mozart music and she seems to be transformed while listening to it. She is calm and happy. Then she decides to walk into the city's concert hall one day to find the symphony is rehearsing. It seems she has fallen in love with a music she had no idea existed.While standing around a lady with the symphony mistakes her for someone interviewing for a job as a receptionist and switchboard attendant. With no qualifications at all she makes up a story that her mother had been a concert pianist in Australia, named Kelly Clarkson. But she died when Katarina was only 2. Struck by her story she was given the job on a trial basis. She turns out to be a model, efficient employee.Just past halfway in the movie a song is playing on the soundtrack, lyrics:I killed myself today, For second life replay, I killed myself todayI had too many lives, I did it to survive, So I killed myself todayBut somehow I'm not dead, I'm still inside a head, To testify what's real When truth is to believeAnd that sort of sums up the story here, Katarina needed to kill the old self to reinvent a new self that would be happy and productive.Good movie, I really enjoyed it and the performance of Vikander.SPOILERS: The director of the orchestra was Samuel Fröler, 50-ish, as Adam. He takes an immediate liking to Katerina and she is flattered that a great (in her eyes) musician would pay attention to her. At a social their eyes meet, he motions for her to follow him, they consummate their passion. She goes to his house, they sleep naked, they act like young lovers. But then his wife calls, she is traveling in Italy with the children. He was just using this young lady, barely more than a girl, for his own entertainment, to be discarded when the novelty is gone. Or his wife returns. She doesn't give up easily, Adam instructs that she be fired, she has to be taken out forcibly. After a concert she sneaks into Adam's office, she says she wants her job back. He toys with her, asks her to dance to get her job back, then laughs at her. When he lights up a smoke and reclines on the sill of an open window we know that she will push him out, to his death in the street below. The movie ends with her being re-employed and working with the youth audience outreach. And she is happy.

About music? Or what, exactly.Glam? Music is an art form.To make a film about music, one should respect the subject and performers within the confines of the script.Pretty faces do not music make.Nor does production values film make. Scripting is story, production is canvas,direction is product.Any musician would see, any at all, poor research on behalf of the writer(s).Go for it with gusto next time, practice, practice, practice.Makes perfect.It is with dull merit that I had to include more lines than needed to get this review submitted. So be it. This film does not express what it tried to say, but follies about with faces and drama.

Awful film - not one star only, because of some good acting and some good cinematography! Artsy-fartsy story about classical music and poetry as well as (the film-makers want us to think) love. A conductor has an affair with a 31-year-old younger receptionist, and they actually want us to think that it's romantic and beautiful. When he talks about music, art or literature, it's nothing less than ridiculous. I'm a musician myself, and if I ever worked with a conductor, speaking such nonsense, I made sure that either he or I quit the job. I don't know towards what kind of audience this picture is directed, but it certainly won't satisfy people who know anything about art or classical music, and is very unlikely to convince viewers who don't - unless they pretend that they do. I'm afraid, there's plenty of those, since the film was quite a success.

I caught this movie at our local film festival and found the film fascinating. It tells the story of a young girl Katarina, beautifully played by Alicia Vikander, coming into her own maturity after being exposed to timeless music and poetry. Through abit of courage, she lands a job as a receptionist in city's music center, gradually giving her the skills and independence she needs to succeed in life on her own terms. Her reality is ugly at times, with a mother who is messed up and suicidal. She depends on the men in her life to give her the necessities in life. But soon we see her stronger side, longing for this new reality of beauty and poetry missing from her old life...but it's not that easy, and she does things that are wrong, terribly wrong...A conscience, though, is not a luxury she can all afford. I think the director wants us to take pity on Katarina. Katarina, I think, doesn't want that.Alicia Vikander is wonderful in the role. She reminds me of a young Sandrine Bonnaire. This is a star-making film for her and I'm looking forward to what she's going to do next.