I’m still apologising to my mother for my behaviour at a family Christmas a few years ago; days of kindness and food preparation went into making it a magical experience for us and our young kids, and I missed it all.
I was there in body, but lying on the couch with my head in a book I just couldn’t put down. I’m sure anyone who has read The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, the enthralling first book in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, will appreciate I couldn’t do anything else until I’d discovered who killed Harriet.
I later ploughed on through The Girl Who Played with Fire, but by the third and final novel, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest, the love affair was starting to fade. Thankfully the Swedes turned the Trilogy into a series of gripping, hard hitting films that gave the stories the quite severe edit which, in my humble opinion, the books also needed.
Thanks to Rialto Channel, this weekend you can knock off the whole series with the Millennium Trilogy marathon, starting on Friday 21st October at 8.30pm.
It may be best to do this before we’re subjected to the Hollywood remakes which are coming soon. It’s no surprise Hollywood has quickly moved to take this Swedish cinema phenomenon and turn it into a global money making machine - after all, that’s generally the reason for a remake. And while many of us don’t think twice about subtitles, the reality is a large part of the movie going audience does. A translation into English and a recognisable name attached means a Hollywood studio can release the film to a far wider audience, with a potentially far bigger commercial return.
It’s not always a bad thing, think The Magnificent Seven, The Ring, Insomnia, and the Swedish horror Let the Right One In (although it’s faithfulness to the original brought critical acclaim but average American box office success). There are, of course, many examples of films that didn’t go quite so well, the Tom Cruise driven Vanilla Sky and Madonna’s Swept Away are typical examples.
Who knows how Daniel Craig will fair as journalist Mikael Blomkvist in the Hollywood version, but with director David Fincher (The Social Network) at the helm there’s hope. Niels Arden Oplev, the director of the original films, made his feelings about the remakes clear in an interview with Word and Film website. “The only thing that’s annoying to me is that the Sony PR machine is trying to make their Lisbeth Salander the lead Lisbeth Salander. That’s highly unfair because Noomi (Rapace) has captured this part and it should always be all her. That’s her legacy in a way I can’t see anyone competing with”. Little known American actress Rooney Mara, who had a small part in The Social Network has been cast as Lisbeth instead.
Whatever the case, best to see the original Trilogy while you can!
Enjoy,
Francesca