 | Monday 7th February, Reel Cinema, Andover Start time: 8:00 Release: 2010 (Cert 15) Director: Daniel Alfredson Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist and Lena Endre The attendance at Andover Film Club hit another new record in January with over 100 people in the audience for the monthly presentation. This month’s movie choice is “The Girl Who Played With Fire” (cert 15), to be shown at the Reel on Monday 7th February. The film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. It tells the story of magazine publisher Mikael Blomkvist, who has made his living exposing the crooked and corrupt practices of establishment figures in Sweden. When a young journalist approaches him with a meticulously researched report of sex trafficking and people in high office who abuse underage girls, Blomkvist immediately throws himself into the investigation. This result is a truly gripping story of intrigue and murder. Introduction Given On The Night, By Sue Mowforth 2nd part of Stieg Larsson trilogy. The 1st part – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we showed in November and it proved to be very popular. It told the story of a journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, searching for a woman who has been missing for 40 years, and how he was helped by a young computer hacker called Lisbeth Salander. In this second part of the Trilogy, Lisbeth's chief enemy from first story initiates a revenge strategy which sets the ball rolling for this film. To some it may come as a surprise to see modern Sweden is not so clean, nor respectful of human rights as the image usually presented to us. Stieg Larsson’s three novels show us a country stained by trafficking of young girls from eastern Europe, involving high political representatives, policemen and Russian spies. He called his whole trilogy Men who Hate Women. The international versions of the books and films have been marketed under different titles presumably to make them more sellable. I don’t know how many of you have read all three books - maybe you haven’t read any. It’s always a quandary when a film is made from a book - which to do first – read the book or watch the film? You can fit a lot more into a book and this is no exception. There is simply too much background information from Stieg Larsson’s novels to cram into three films, so if you haven’t read this book some bits of the film may seem confusing. Another reason for confusion is that a lot of explanation is missing from the film because originally, all three books were shot for Swedish television in six 90-minute episodes. Late in the game, it was decided to give The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a theatrical release, albeit in a shortened version (half an hour was chopped off), and when that became the highest-grossing Swedish film of all time, the other two chapters received the same treatment, with the uncut versions held in storage until spring 2010. In the case of this second film, 60 minutes went missing in the TV-to-cinema transition, and unfortunately, it shows. For example, early on in this film, we see our computer hacking heroine, Lisbeth living in a very expensive and grand apartment in Stockholm, with very little explanation about how she could afford it. In the first film, there was only a token mention of how Lisbeth hacked unbelievable sums of money from the crook’s accounts, and why it was OK for her to do it. So the reason for all her wealth couldn’t really be explained in retrospect in this film. Nor is it really clear in this film that Lisbeth has inherited her mother's apartment but doesn't need it and that is the reason she gives it to her friend and part-time Lesbian lover, Miriam Wu. The Girl who Played with Fire has had less favourable reviews than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The Director and Production Team are different from the first film and the budget was significantly lower. Whereas The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo looked really polished with breathtaking, widescreen shots, some of the cinematography in this film looks positively amateur. And because as I’ve just mentioned, an hour's worth of footage was removed, the whole thing feels a bit rushed, particularly in regards to new characters who are hastily introduced and then dispatched just as quickly. Bit of a shame considering the success of the first film. Rapace has to show Lisbeth's character maturing through each of the three films. She has seen her mother before she died and had a friendship with Mikael and she has started to trust him. She now has money and has traveled around the world and seen different cultures, all life affirming stuff giving her a different perspective on herself and those around her. She is growing into a woman now instead of the young girl of the first film, so her personality is changing and we start to see different sides of her. Rapace’s acting is a mesmerizing portrayal of a highly unusual adolescent gradually emerging from a troubled background. One particular treat in this film (if you enjoy that sort of thing) is an amazingly good kick-ass fist-fight. I haven’t seen it myself yet, but I’m told that it’s really, really good and knocks the socks off typical Hollywood fight scenes. And for those of us who aren’t Swedish and therefore probably don’t know him, the one-time Stockholm street fighter Paolo Roberto is actually playing himself in an extended cameo role as the boxer. That’s it. Let’s watch the film. |
The Girl Who Played With Fire - February 7th
