Whilst I was on my recent cruise I re-read Stieg Larsson's MILLENNIUM trilogy, and when I returned I bought a copy of the DVD of the US-produced version of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO.
I enjoyed this tremendously, and when I tried to find out when the next book in the series was going to be made into a film (THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE) I discovered that all three of the books had already been made into films in 2009 by the Swedish film production company Yellow Bird in cooperation with the Danish film production company Nordisk Film. Furthermore I found out that extended versions of the films were available as a boxed set for less than £15.00 ... so I bought the set and I have watched all the films over the last few days.
The Swedish versions come with an option of subtitles or dubbed English, and I chose the latter. This seems to have been done quite well, and I barely noticed the slight discontinuity between people's lip movements and the dialogue I heard.
Overall I think that the Swedes made an excellent job of turning the original books into films, and although some of the sub-plots have been removed and one or two characters have been slightly changed, they have retained the essential story and atmosphere of the originals.
I enjoyed this tremendously, and when I tried to find out when the next book in the series was going to be made into a film (THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE) I discovered that all three of the books had already been made into films in 2009 by the Swedish film production company Yellow Bird in cooperation with the Danish film production company Nordisk Film. Furthermore I found out that extended versions of the films were available as a boxed set for less than £15.00 ... so I bought the set and I have watched all the films over the last few days.
The Swedish versions come with an option of subtitles or dubbed English, and I chose the latter. This seems to have been done quite well, and I barely noticed the slight discontinuity between people's lip movements and the dialogue I heard.
Overall I think that the Swedes made an excellent job of turning the original books into films, and although some of the sub-plots have been removed and one or two characters have been slightly changed, they have retained the essential story and atmosphere of the originals.
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I saw the first two Swedish movies, then read the books and then saw the third Swedish movie. I then watched the whole Trilogy version on Netflix and it was quite good. I think the extended scenes added a lot to the film. I have yet to see the American version. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the remake of Le Femme Nikita.
ReplyDeleteSean,
ReplyDeleteI think that the extended version of the Swedish-made first film is better than the shorter US-made version. I will probably watch the US-made versions of the second and third films when they are released, but I suspect that I am much more likely to watch the Swedish-made versions again in the future in preference to the US-made versions.
All the best,
Bob
Due to a weird twist of fate I can apparently understand spoken Swedish. This was discovered when I got sick of an ex girlfriend looking for her socks and told her where she'd put them. At that point she noticed she had forgotten to speak English that day.
ReplyDeleteAlso: watching the first movie with my current girlfriend's mother and her then 12 year old brother was an experience I never want to repeat.
Arquinsiel,
ReplyDeleteI have heard of this phenomenon, but never met anyone who could naturally understand another language. (I did once meet someone who had been born in India, but who had left at the age of two. They never knew that they had learnt Hindi whilst as a child until years later when they happened to overhear – and understand – a conversation in their local corner shop between the owner and his wife.)
The first film in the trilogy does cover some rather difficult topics, and it must have been quite embarrassing (to say the least) for all of you to have watched it together.
All the best,
Bob