Dragon Tattoo Comes To America

Noomi Rapace who plays the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I finally got a chance to see the “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” the other night and despite all attention the book and movie has garnered lately, I was completely surprised and engrossed by the film. I have not read the book so I did not know what to expect.

It wasn’t  a fast-paced film like so many American crime-action films tend to be, but yet a very captivating undertaking that delves  into the dark side of modern Swedish society.

The performances were first rate, especially that put on by Miss Rapace, as she was very convincing as the hard-edged computer hacker named Lisbeth Salander.

I was surprised to learn that the director was from nearby Denmark. Niels Arden Oplev has been around Scandinavian TV and film for a while, but his stint as director for “Dragon Tattoo” ought to put him on par with the other world-traveling Danish film director, Lars von Trier. In fact, according to the NY Times article cited above Mr. Oplev is buying a house in the “states”, so keep an eye out for his name to appear in association with future American film projects.

And then there is the American version of  “Girl With The Golden Tattoo”, which is still in the casting stage. The director has been named. He is David Fincher and the lead role of Lisbeth Salander will go to a British actress named Carey Mulligan.  No idea to when filming will begin, but the eventual release date is tentatively scheduled for 2012. David Fincher is a well acclaimed director, whose last release was “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, but the choice of  Ms. Mulligan has to be a bit of a surprise, as her previous roles have portrayed very different characters.  Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how the British actress deals with her new challenge and how the American version comes out. Mr. Fincher has some gritty and somber films to his credit, so it will be fun to see how he deals with doing a foreign repeat.

Niels Arden Oplev, the director of "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo".

The Swedish version of “Dragon Tattoo”, so far has taken in over 2 million dollars worth of sales. Not much for an American film, but  respectable for a sub-titled foreign film, especially one that is not French. The other two parts of the Millenium series will be released with English subtitles later this year.

Looking At The Earth

Earthrise; Credit: Apollo 8, NASA

Earth day has gone and passed, but no reason I can’t revisit the holiday and take a look at all the NASA imagery that has gone down and speculate now these pictures of earth from the great beyond might have had a picture on the unique holiday. Don’t forget earth day is 40 years old and some of these pictures go back almost as far.

Bright Sun and Crescent Earth from the Space Station; Credit: STS-129 Crew, NASA

Here’s a recent picture of one of the space station again courtesy of NASA. This picture kind of shows how are ability to make ourselves at home, while spinning around the earth has improved. For now there are at least a few individuals manning the beautiful yet lonely outpost in the sky.

Earth from Saturn; Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

And now a view of earth from Saturn taken from the Cassini space probe which is probably well on its way to Neptune. Our space probes may be reaching out, but the humans seem trapped here near the planets.

And finally we have a crescent earth at midnight.

A Crescent Earth At Midnight; Credit: GOES Project, GSFC, NASA

War Dances

War Dances by Sherman Alexie

Several weeks ago I walked over to my local library branch and checked out the new literary effort by Sherman Alexie. Considering this was just a few days after he had received the prestigious Faulkner/Pen award, I was surprised to find that the book was still on the shelf, but there it was. I guess I should draw some kind  of conclusion about the reading habits of people in my hometown, Portland (ME) or the popularity of Alexie or the importance of the award, but I don’t know what to say so I’ll let in go.

However, the book was a very interesting read and perhaps a bit of a disappointment after having recently read The Autobiography of a Part-time Indian. For those who enjoy good old-fashioned storytelling, then “Autobiography” might be just the book for you. It’s an engrossing story and it is easy to speculate how this recently published novel might have swayed the jury.

Stylistically, War Dances is just the opposite. It is a mixture of poems and short stories that jumps all over the place in location and meaning. Still the seemingly unrelated potpourri of written material comes across very well and still gives the reader a lot to ponder and enjoy.

After having read the book, I was a little puzzled that the book earned an award. Not because of its content, but for the reason that the text covered so many different events. I guess some modern juries are more willing to take a chance with unorthodox writing than I realized.