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Posted October 14, 2011 to photo album "People in Film | Tomas Alfredson"
From absurdist comedy to social commentary musicals, from teen horror to scintillating spy dramas, Tomas Alfredson is a director who truly defies limitations of genre.
Tomas Alfredson | The Right Breakthrough
While FOUR SHADES OF BROWN established Tomas Alfredson as a major name within the contemporary Swedish film scene, his 2008 LET THE RIGHT ONE IN made the rest of the world take notice. His surprising and sensitive take on the vampire movie became a huge international success, as audiences connected with the poignant tale of awkward teen Oskar and his friendship with Eli, the shy girl next door who hides a dark secret. But as Roger Ebert, echoing fans and fellow critics, noted, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN “is a "vampire movie, but not even remotely what we mean by that term.” Kim Newman at Empire agrees that “LET THE RIGHT ONE IN actually is all about the relationships, but it’s as dark a horror tale as was ever” made by Hollywood. Indeed the story, which Alfredson read as a best-selling novel, hit him at a very personal level. As he told FirstShowing.com, “It was the love story that is so unsentimental, this story about the bullied boy. I guess I had some periods when I grew up, when I was bullied, and I think that was the thing that struck me the hardest or hit me the hardest.” In adapting the book with novelist John Ajvide Lindqvist, Alfredson never really thought of it as a genre piece. As he told IFC, “I'm totally ignorant about horror films in the world. I just went into this work 100 percent, and tried to do it as sincerely as possible. ...I try to [look at] art or listen to music to inspire myself, but I didn't look at other horror films for this work.”
The World's End
We Steal Secrets
Closed Circuit
The Deep
The Place Beyond The Pines
Greetings from Tim Buckley
Admission
Promised Land
Anna Karenina
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Brokeback Mountain
Lost in Translation
Pride & Prejudice
The Pianist
Gosford Park