-Brian Mendonca
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Columbia, 2011) directed by David Fincher is made on the book by the same name written by Swedish author Stieg Larsson (1954-2004) and published in 2005. The detective novel is unputdownable and the film matches its intensity.
It is no secret that women often have to suffer the worst kind of sexual violence today; to the extent that they are blackmailed for it. The movie shows Lisbeth Salander, assayed by Rooney Mara, first as victim then as victorious, against those with sick minds. The unrelenting violence is shown to follow a pattern when Mikael Blomkvist, the investigator, played by Daniel Craig, chances upon a series of murders of young women across Sweden which are linked to the book of Leviticus in the Bible.
The music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross references a diversity of styles and periods. This layering in the soundtrack powers the movie forward and gives a glimpse of the vibrant music scene in Sweden and its influences. I was thinking of ABBA and Bjorn Borg - icons of my youth.
Throughout the movie Lisbeth is defined by the music chosen to accentuate her various avatars. One of them is Ain't Fit to Live Here (2012) by the Swedish hard rock band Graveyard. The opening credits roll to a take on Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song (1970) invoking the Norse God Valhalla and 'the land of the midnight sun.' It was composed after the band's trip to Iceland the same year.
Western classical music is represented in the sonata in D for trumpet and strings by Italian baroque composer Alessandro Stradella (1643-82); and Edward Elgar's Lux Aeterna. Belefegore's All that I Wanted steps up the pace at Salander's dive.
Each of these selections of music signifies something. Stradella playing in the background of a family reunion signifies the placid certainties of family life; 'Ain't Fit to Live Here' typifies Salander's difficulty to conform to society's expectations. Mel Torme The Christmas Waltz (1992) sets the languid pace to hint that Christmas is in the air. The mood is reinforced with 'O Tannenbaum' / O Christmas Tree by Per Ohlson later. When Mikael heads to Hedestad, 'The North Pole,' four hours from Stockholm, to take up his new assignment, A New Chance (2007) by the Swedish synth-pop duo A Tough Alliance plays in the background.
Khoma is a Swedish post-rock band from Umea, Sweden. Their cover Guillotine is a surreal piece set in the woods. When Michael visits Martin and Liv the eerie sound of the wind whistling disturbs Martin. Taken by Trees (2009) by Annanass heightens the suspense. When Salander's screen shatters, it is the Gothic music of Clan of Xymox's In Your Arms Again which provides the lament. Sometimes the choice of music is so eclectic that it cannot be found on the web - like Ulvers's 'In the Red.'
The guard at the Vanger archives whiles his time listening to Tankar Vid 50 (1997) by Swedish singer Bjorn Afzelius famous in the 70's. In a grotesque parody of reality, Orinoco Flow by Celtic New Age musician Enya plays while the killer gloats over the exploits.
The movie scores over the book in its spectacular panning of its gorgeous icy locales and the ominous beauty of Hedestad - the brooding island where the Vangers live. The occasional greeting in Swedish maintains the cultural specificity of the novel, set as it is, in the Stockholm of 2006.
'You will be investigating thieves, misers, bullies, the most detestable collection of people you will ever meet. My family,' observes the patriarch Henrik Vanger with malicious glee. Richard, Henrik's brother, is a Nazi sympathizer and dies in 1940. He used to regularly beat Gottfried, Harriet's father who dies in 1965. Isabella is Harriet's mother and lives on the island. Harriet's brother Martin too lives in his own house on the island but when the camera gives us a shot of the place it is mysteriously shrouded among trees.
Henrik's brother Harald 'is another Nazi' by Henrik's admission. He and his daughter Cecilia live on the Hedeby island but are not on speaking terms. Anita, Cecilia's sister, is an investment banker and lives in London. They were all cousins of about the same age as Harriet - when she disappeared on 24 September 1966 when she is all of 16. The flashbacks in sepia recreate the scene in slow motion and allow the viewer to be present at the scene of the happenings.
The pivot of the story is the unsubstantiated claim by Blomkvist, an investigative journalist with the Millennium magazine in Stockholm, Sweden, which accuses Hans-Erik Wennerstrom, a magnate, of diverting state funds meant for industrial development in Poland to an arms deal with the Ustase - a Nazi-like organization - in Croatia. The scale of the novel is global.
When Henrik hires Mikael to find Harriet he also offers to provide evidence to nail Wennerstrom. Dirch Frode is Henrik's go-between who sets up the deal.
Discarded by the world, Mikael struggles to find faith in himself. Estranged from his wife, owing to his affair with his Erika Berger, co-editor at Millennium, Michael settles in, in his spartan room in Hedestad on the lip of the Baltic sea and tears pages - somewhat theatrically - from Kurt Vonnegut's collection of essays En Man Utan Land /A Man Without a Country (2005). His only friend is the cat which turns up at his window - and which later pays the price. Part of the mis-en-scene, the cat highlights the pure connection of the animal world with the depraved one of humans - it even offers its paw to shake hands with Mikael.
Lisbeth Salander is a loner too. In trouble for being anti-social she has a history of confinement due to violent behaviour. For this reason she has been assigned an ageing guardian, Mr. Palmgren, who unfortunately is rendered a vegetable due to a fall in the first scene. The way the camera cuts from the hospital to the train as the VO (voiceover) continues is just one instance of the slick editing.
Lisbeth has certain gifts. She is a biker and loves leather jackets. She is a hacker and a tech geek. In a digitized world, that is an incredible advantage. She works as a sleuth to do undercover jobs for Dragan Armansky. Since she is a ward of the state all references to her on the web have been sealed. That helps. She has a photographic memory. It's better not to see the dark side of her because, as she puts it, 'I am insane.' Retribution is her thing. Lisbeth is bi. Her beat is mostly like Shena's Electrosexual.
Palmgren's replacement from the social welfare department is Nils Erik Bjurman who uses his position to take advantage of Salander - with unimagined repercussions. The dragon tattoo is seen for the first time after the encounter with Bjurman and Graveyard - a leitmotif - playing in the background.
On her way to a Bible camp in Skelleftea, Mikael's daughter drops in to see her dad. It is she who decodes the numbers on Harriet's diary as references to the book of Leviticus. Mikael checks with detective Morrel about how one of the murders took place and his worst fears are confirmed.
As the noose tightens around the killer, Mikael finds himself under fire for being too close to the truth. It is perhaps pyrrhic that the sordid saga begins an ends with an accident.
'It's hard to believe that the fear of offending can be stronger than the fear of pain,' muses Martin.
Towards the end of the movie the entire idea of institutionalization is debunked. In an extreme close-up shot Mikael asks Salander 'How come a 23-year-old is a ward of the state?' She replies, 'I'm mentally incompetent and cannot manage daily life.' This from a person who is one of the best investigators in Sweden and who has just saved Mikael's life with her ingenuity. 'Since when?' Mikael probes. 'Since I was 12.' replies Salander proceeding to give the reason. The horizontal shots, rather than vertical, suggest the lopsided view of society to incarcerate females who do not conform.
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