PURE

Sweden, 2010, 97 minutes, Colour.
Alicia Vikander, Samuel Froher, Josephine Bauer, Martin Wallstrom.
Directed by Lisa Langseth.

Pure offers the portrait of a 20-year-old Swedish girl. And, she is strikingly played by Alicia Vikander – indicating what a significant screen presence she would be in the coming decade, at home in Sweden, internationally and in American blockbusters.

She plays Katarina, who has moved away from her slatternly mother, although she has been involved with men in her late teenage years. She now lives with Mattias, a very ordinary man who does not fulfil her hopes and ambitions, especially when by chance, on YouTube?, she comes across Mozart’s music.

She goes to a concert, Mattias is bored, and then goes to the Concert Hall where she applies for a job as a receptionist and is taken on. This transforms her, being effective in her work, befriended by the conductor who offers her a book to read and some Kierkegaard quotations, from the woman in charge of hiring, from the handyman who helps her with the equipment. And she is able to hear more and more music, observe rehearsals.

Complications arise when the conductor takes notice of her, takes her for a meal, is sexually attracted and they begin an affair while his wife is on holiday in Italy. This transforms Katarina, she is more alienated from her mother, wants to break with Mattias. However, she is naive and does not realise the conductor will break off the relationship as soon as his wife returns.

Katarina is very edgy, losing her temper quite often – and, when she is sacked from her job by the conductor, seems to be stalking him, her anger has a dire consequence for him. Interestingly, it has no dire consequences for her and she resumes her life, reconciling with her mother who is in coma in hospital. However, given Katarina’s behaviour, the audience will wonder what her life would be like after the film ends.

1. The title? The life journey of Katarina? Personal purity? Music? The impurity of human beings, despite the creativity and music?

2. Sweden, the city, homes, bars? The concert hall? The concert area, reception? Offices?

3. The musical score, the classics, performance, in concert, recordings?

4. Katarina’s story? Alicia Vikander? Young, her past at school, her mother’s influence, prostitution, with older men, her reputation, her later being taunted? Her wanting to change? Living with Mattias? His ordinariness, drinking, television, popular music? His boredom at the Mozart concert? Her listening to music, discovering it on YouTube?, going to the concert, being rapt? Her clashes with her mother, moving out? Not wanting to live like her? The decision to apply for the job? The talking with the sympathetic boss? The caretaker and his help with the machines? Answering the phone, enjoying the work? The encounter with Adam, his kindness, the quotations from Kierkegaard, lending her the book? Her bewilderment but her reading? The chief and her reading the poetry? The transforming of Katarina’s life?

5. Katarina clashing with her mother, and her mother finishing in hospital? The clash with Mattias, with her friends in the pregnancy? The attraction to Adam, the encounters, sexual relationship, his affair? The effect on her? Transformed? Continually phoning him, his wife returning, his breaking off the affair? The time at the pizzeria and their conversation? Her return, his wanting her to leave? The effect on her? Stalking him and his resentment? The decision that she should be sacked, the regrets of the chief? The possibilities of her organising programs for young people appreciating music?

6. Adam, his skills, conducting, tantrums? Kindness towards Katarina? The affair, the pizzaria, at home? Cutting off the affair? His music, skills, ambitions? Insensitivity? The applause for his concert, sitting on the windowsill, Katarina and her anger, pushing him out?

7. Katarina, walking out, not being blamed or suspected about the killing? Visiting her mother, weeping with her? Her new job, the children? Her competence?

8. The effect of this experience on Katarina? Her mental balance? A self-confidence? The future?