LTROI-Film

We are first introduced to the bullies through one of their hands, or more specifically through Martin's tapping finger.

Although we don't literally see Håkan's hand on a window, the film still finds a way to weave him into a theme of hands and barriers.

Lacke too takes part in symbolic use of hands, although with him the symbolism seems to be much less complex and evocative. It has already been mentioned how is hand toying with Virginia's wrist restraint symbolized his contemplating the barrier that Virginia's vampirism placed between him and her. Symbolically he was touching Eli, who had put the barrier of death between he and Jocke, and then between he and Virginia.

I had always liked the way that JAL's screenplay played with the idea of portals becoming barriers and barriers becoming portals. In the very first scene we see Oskar reflected in his window, an image of the lonely boy superimposed upon the world beyond the window. The window holds them separate. In this shot we see that the window, which should be a portal to the world, instead acts as a barrier.

Virginia is not destined to fair well in this film. Her purpose in the plot is to serve as a trigger to action for Lacke and also to provide a contrast versus Eli about how she deals with being a vampire. This being the case, her prospects were grim from the outset.

Second Meeting

It is in the scene of Oskar and Eli's second meeting on the jungle gym where the film really introduces the visual theme of the hands telling a parallel story. Eli is hungry. She wants to nom Oskar, but also she is interested in him and doesn't want to hurt him. When she first shows up behind Oskar, she is undecided about what she will do. When she becomes interested in the puzzle, Oskar holds it out and offers it to her.

My musings about how hands and barriers are used as a visual theme in Let the Right One In. This is not fiction. Ii just posted it to demonstrate how text can be broken up into chapters and how images can be used in the text.