There hasn’t been much on TV lately but last Saturday I happened upon the ‘Sword of Honour’ dramatisation of Evelyn Waugh’s semi-autobiographical trilogy by the BBC. It was so good I missed most of Saturday watching it. The weather was bad I think, so not much loss there. BBC's series of 20th century British novelists included an interview with the hideously reactionary old goat, Evelyn Waugh, but it didn't put me off his books. They gave my ex and I much pleasure and amusement back in the 60’s and I’d had it in mind to look out for some early editions to add to my library (the greatest pleasure of being a retired secondhand bookseller is being able to buy exactly what I want for myself with no thought to resale potential!) Saturday evening I ordered the DVD and shelved the book project for another day.
Amazon have this way of landing suitable flies on the water to tempt the prized catch and their automated fly for me was Anthony Powell’s ‘Dance to the Music of Time’ so I bought that too.
I will still buy the books - honest!
The other new DVD in my collection (not tickled up by the previous searches needless to say) was ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.’ I’ve watched it twice already and am puzzled by the need for an american version. This seems to be a faithful rendering of the novel and the casting is excellent. I like hearing the original Swedish language though and I know some folk can’t be bothered with subtitles. I’m ready to be scathing about the Hollywood effort - bet it’s sanitised, that Salander is merely pretty (the actress looks that way) that they entirely miss the subtleties of her character.
Neither of my daughters will watch it because of the violent rape scenes. I completely understand their feelings; although the scenes are not more than a minute long there is no mistake about what is happening. They aren’t for titillation alone - the criticism of most who haven’t read the novels or seen the film. They are essential to the story (the whole story, not the first novel/film alone) and very necessary to the creation and revelation of the complex character of Lisbeth Salander who has been badly damaged, has developed a hard shell, but remains somewhere quite able to tell good from evil and is, in her own way soft hearted, unlike some anti-heroes who become merely harsh, ugly and unlikeable. Because she’s who she is she gets her own back in wonderful ways that have me out of my seat cheering.
What is and is not acceptable reading or viewing for one person and not for another is interesting in itself. I can’t abide ‘action’ films with lots of gratuitous, cheerful, even funny, violent deaths and virtually no story. I hate romantic comedy - it makes me squirm. I couldn’t watch ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ knowing the truth to be so much worse. I dislike jane Austen. Now there’s a thing. Our Jane? What’s to dislike? Well, it’s the spiteful women. They give me the creeps, the shivers and the nightmares. I consider them so much worse than rapists. They ruined other women’s lives in a way that a rapist could only do if the raped woman had to return to the cruelty of her judgemental sisters (it’s not only men that condemn such women). Jane A shows the very tip of the hideousness that was a woman’s lot in her day and it gives me asthma just to think about it.
I hated one film so much I’ve forgotten it’s title. It’s the only film I can ever remember not watching to the end. One of my daughters can watch it with interest and it got good reviews. It starts quite pleasantly with a child’s fantasy world in which she meets the usual characters, then suddenly becomes the real world in which her mother dies and her stepfather is revealed as a Fascist.. I think that’s how it goes. A freedom fighter was imprisoned then killed in cold blood along with his mother who had tried to hide him ... and I switched off.
So, to go back to my defence of the Millennium trilogy (or myself) I like to be able to identify with a character who is going to get retribution, as Salander does in spades. It isn’t pretty but I need justice to be done, and if possible to be seen to be done. If I were to identify with any of the Greek Olympians it would be the Eumenides, the Furies, who follow wrongdoers until such time as they pay for their evil one way or another. In my fantasies I might hunt down those who prey on the innocent. Salander is a brilliant creation. Without her weirdness and courage and focused intelligence Blomkvist’s story would be good but it would lack all the fire that makes it individual and unrepeatable.
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