Wednesday 18 August 2010

Euroescapism

Caroline Proust et al in Spiral, Noomi Rapace in The Girl who Played with Fire

Browsing online cheap-offer DVDs of continental European films and TV series, I came upon Engrenages (Spiral), a French TV policier which had passed me by when shown on UK TV, since I don’t have a set, but whose blurb was immediately attractive. Cutting-edge stuff in the style of the best US cop shows, apparently, and unique of its kind in France. I ordered the DVDs of Series 1 at a ridiculously low price and was hooked. Series 2 arrived in today’s mail. So that’s the escapism quota for this week.

But then I read about this weekend’s London preview of The Girl who Played with Fire, second film in the trilogy that began with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. So here comes a mega weekend of on-screen EuroCrime.

My enjoyment of this stuff will always be slightly queasy: horrific violence as entertainment is not a concept to be swallowed unproblematically. But, oh, the genre games, the sexual politics, the terrific acting and spiffy camera-work, the languages, the intercultural similarities and differences – it all offers so much subtle and absorbing deliciousness.

2 comments:

Dick said...

I must chase up the series. I read rave reviews somewhere else (Sunday paper?) and now you've tipped the balance.

marja-leena said...

Like you, I abhor the violence of the genre... yet, yet, you tempt me.

Curiously, I just read a long article in the NY Times about Stieg Larsson's partner, his estate and possible future yet unpublished books and movies. I've yet to read any but may succumb.