Festivids reveal #5 of 5: "She Walks in Beauty" (Let the Right One In)

[bironic]

Title: She Walks In Beauty
Fandom: Let the Right One In
Pairing: Eli/Oskar
Music: by Sissel Kyrkjebø and Nicholas Dodd, adapted from the poem by Lord Byron
Length: 2:07
Summary: All that's best of dark and bright / Meet in her aspect and her eyes.
Content notes: Blood, brief gruesome injury, underage relationship.
Thanks: To anoel for cheering me on on Twitter, even though she didn't know this was the vid I was struggling with.
Physical notes: I don't think any.
A/N: A treat for quizkwatsh for festivids 2016-2017. I'm sorry this turned out more Eli/Oskar than just Eli. Originally posted here.

This vid took four or five tries to make, including a couple of afternoons where I was ready to throw the whole thing out the window. Despite that, and even though I hadn't expected the middle sequences to feature so much linear narrative, I'm glad it finally came together; I'd been wanting to set this source to this song for a while and to try to play up the haunting quality of the refrain, the mix of horror and allure bundled together in Eli's character. I wonder if it worked for people, since the original post didn't get much feedback.

Personal favorite parts are the opening clip, Oskar making up his mind and hugging/accepting his new vampire friend as the music swells, and the cute "grr"s at the end. I had hoped to make that arm-stroking clip quite long, overlaid on the attacks, but I couldn't figure out how to do it the way I envisioned. Oh, well.

In other news, I thought this vid had "bironic" written all over it, but no one guessed me for it at the guessing post. Or rather, no one took a guess at all for it. Maybe because few people watched it? IDK. Stealth achievement unlocked?

She Walks in Beauty from bironic on Vimeo.

LYRICS

She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes

Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies

She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies
(x3)

Comments

[mific]

This is an excellent distillation of the movie, which was creepy and haunting (and really Scandinavian!). I love the focus on Oskar and Eli here, as they were my favourite part of the movie which was a tad too dark for me overall. The final scene is so great, and the music and poem are perfect.

[bironic]

Thank you for the feedback! Those final clips from the DVD extras were just so cute, and in fact encapsulated the uncomfortable combination of cuteness and horror/violence so well, that I wanted them to be in the vid somewhere; glad they worked for you.

and really Scandinavian

LOL, quite so. I wonder what the American remake is like. I liked the original a lot and so was not super interested in giving the new one a try... Have you seen it?

[mific]

No, wasn't aware there was a remake. Weird all these remakes of Scandinavian movies or TV. "Oh the Swedes/Danes/Norwegians have made x, so being bankrupt of ideas, we'll do it again only properly. Kids're cute, that'll sell okay."

[bironic]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Me_In_(film)

I'm still mad they remade the Millennium series "because David Fincher was clearly the superior director" over the perfectly good Danish guy who made the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo adaptation. On the other hand, it's box-office proven that English-language remakes do better in U.S. box offices than foreign films, so my snobbery < capitalism.

festivid

[sasha_feather]

This is lovely and unexpectedly sweet. The song is great.

Re: festivid

[bironic]

I am so glad you think so! I can't tell if the vid is sweet or horrifying (probably a mix?) so I relish all reactions. :)

Re: festivid

[sasha_feather]

I haven't seen the film so I'll just assume she's killing bad people, therefore it's sweet and pure (I realize it's probably not) :D

[shallowness]

This was really powerful - the music worked well for the yearning and the admiration and the horror. The vid bought out the tenderness and the violence in their connection.