Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 5:42 pmSorry if I'm hogging the board but this thread has been a rich seam of thinking. Just putting in an original thought. I do feel the Agnes poem was a lost opportunity. Even allowing for the necessity to keep within a 90-minute time boundary, I would have been inclined to trim back some of the incidental characters interactions to allow room for this plot development.
Perhaps Elin could have exited with a hard copy of the poem, perhaps admiring it after her revisit to Rebecka? Elin is getting to an age where she can begin to see through the deceit of bogus ''Italian'' suitors and discriminate the fawning of characters like Camilla as exaggerated flattery. To have such an unsolicited expression of affection could have been a solid rock in her unstable world.
I could imagine her asking Agnes about the poem (maybe during the bridge scene) and who it was about, and Agnes rolling the dice and telling Elin it was dedicated to her. I believe this would have cemented the bond on a more practical level.
There is very little physical evidence of ''token'' objectification (apart from the yearbook photographs) which often is a key feature in such intense girl-girl relationships. (examples include the handkerchief in ''Picnic at Hanging Rock'' and Marie's theft of Floriane's throwouts in "Water Lilies, stories set 100 years apart).
I think the ''poem'' would have been an opportunity to set down a marker in their relationship.
Perhaps Elin could have exited with a hard copy of the poem, perhaps admiring it after her revisit to Rebecka? Elin is getting to an age where she can begin to see through the deceit of bogus ''Italian'' suitors and discriminate the fawning of characters like Camilla as exaggerated flattery. To have such an unsolicited expression of affection could have been a solid rock in her unstable world.
I could imagine her asking Agnes about the poem (maybe during the bridge scene) and who it was about, and Agnes rolling the dice and telling Elin it was dedicated to her. I believe this would have cemented the bond on a more practical level.
There is very little physical evidence of ''token'' objectification (apart from the yearbook photographs) which often is a key feature in such intense girl-girl relationships. (examples include the handkerchief in ''Picnic at Hanging Rock'' and Marie's theft of Floriane's throwouts in "Water Lilies, stories set 100 years apart).
I think the ''poem'' would have been an opportunity to set down a marker in their relationship.
Agnes has to have someone even lower down the pecking order to put her life into the doomy relief necessary for her to contemplate suicide. I just thought the poem was a good way of making a segue between Agnes and Elin. We are not really offered a convincing explanation why Elin, the social star, would risk everything i.e. her social standing , for a fling with Agnes which she would otherwise be savvy enough to keep as a dark secret, I feel.
)
Yay! I'm not sure of the legal arrangements, guess its a bit like a ''dowry'' but my parents are up for negotiating a financial deal to see the back of me.