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.
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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.

18 August 2010 at 22:53
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Curiously, I just read a long article in the NY Times about Stieg Larsson's partner, his estate and possible future yet unpublished books and movies.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.

19 August 2010 at 20:25

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