Lukas Moodysson wrote and directed this disturbing and controversial allegorical drama. Eric (Björn Almroth) is a teenager who lives in a shabby flat with his father, Rickard (Thorsten Flinck). Eric spends most of his time holed up in his room, blaring industrial music in order to drown out what's going on around him. Eric has just cause to be a bit disturbed by his surroundings -- Rickard is an amateur filmmaker specializing in extreme sex videos, and he's taken over the living room, where his
emotionally disturbed friend Geko (Goran Marjanovic) and a blank young woman named Tess (Sanna Bråding) are "starring" in his latest project. As shooting progresses over the course of several days, Rickard and his cast lose track of the outside world and become increasingly desensitized to their own decadence. As the sexual play becomes more and more extreme, edging into violence, Eric feels no choice but to intervene. Both celebrated and criticized for its unflinchingly explicit sexual content, Ett Hål I Mitt Hjärta (aka A Hole in My Heart) received its North American premier at the 2004 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
The question is: do we need to be hauled through scene after scene of drab, dehumanized behavior so that we may see, or at least hear, humanity restored at the end?
Moodysson comes on like de Sade crossed with Godard, yet by locking us outside of his characters, he fails to make them even contemptuously compelling.
It's a mystery what the Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson thought he was up to in A Hole in My Heart, a movie teeming with ugly images and grotesque behavior.
It's harrowing to watch just how far these four actors are willing to go to bring Moodysson's vision to life, and their dedication commands respect, even as it dares you to keep your eyes on the screen.
The degradation inflicted on the characters in Moodyson's A Hole in My Heart is also inflicted on the viewers... an excruciating and appalling experience.
Probably the most pointless and irritating watch since Gummo. The film has nothing to say, or anything entertaining to offer. We are assaulted by a stream of unconscious, disgusting visuals. The film is also mindlessly repetitive and just becomes like a scratched CD of some cheap erotica. Moodysson ventures into the
world of the experimental, but instead, just insults everyone's intelligence. Art has to say something, and if it wants to depict the harshness of humanity, there should at least be some sort of emotional focus point. Without the emotion, it's just three people in a room, being disgusting.
I think Lukas Moodysson has been a little misunderstood in this film. A hole in my Heart was quite badly received which I think is quite unfair but I think he's probably got over it by now. All great artists are misunderstood when they are producing their best work. He has shown us he can do uplifting comedy/drama and
character based films excellently in Show me Love and Together. He can also knock us for six with powerful portrayals of poverty, humiliation & depression and somehow turn them into beauty (Lilja 4-ever).
Here, he tackles a nasty side of human behaviour in an experimental way. I say experimental, I believe he knew what he was doing 100% of the time! I would urge people to watch the short film A second hole in my heart in the DVD extras, as Moodysson pokes fun at himself, the critics and the audience. I think only he could get away with it too!
This is a disgusting film and I probably won?t watch it again. Although I believe this should be put on the school syllabus, as it?s a very important film with an important message. If I watch it again, it will be because I'm about to film my own movie and it is a great place to get inspiration for young filmmakers. Not his best film but maybe his most important (although I can see why people don't like it) It might make you think twice the next time you download some nasty porn film (you dirty sod!)
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