Fincher's dark, dreamy "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

When I first heard that David Fincher -one of the great modern directors- was going to tackle Stieg Larsson's hugely popular pulp novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I held my breath. I mean here's a book that was already adapted as a movie earlier last year in its native tongue of Swedish (My Review can be found HERE) & didn't really need to be followed-up as an American remake. Little did I know Fincher would change things up quite a bit here and make something that is competently watchable even though it does give us a certain sense of deja vu.

Listen up, this film ain't perfect but what Fincher does is consequently change the material he has at hand with his own uniquely dark spin on goth girl power. Rooney Mara gives the female performance of the year as Lisbeth Salander and she is Fincher's muse throughout this movie's close to 160 minute running time. Fincher shoots her with such a keen eye for detail that the murder mystery plot that surrounds the movie is only second to our fiery heroine. It's a character study. Fincher knows Salander is the central interest for viewers and he quenches our thirst.

The eye popping opening credits are hard to describe. Computer cables, naked bodies and dark blood are showcased throughout as Trent Reznor's scorching remake of Zeppelin's Immigrant Song plays in the background. I saw it as a warning to audiences to beware and know the whiplash that is coming, if you can't handle the loud, heavy metaled credits you won't be able to handle the film itself which features rape and graphic violence. Reznor's incredible score follows up the masterful work he did in Fincher's The Social Network late last year.



This is also very much an auteur movie all the way through. Fincher frames his shots and lights his lighting much in the same beautifully obessive way he did in Zodiac and The Social Network. For Fincher, every shot counts, every gesture by Mara is key but -unlike Zodiac- there aren't clues that lie in every frame (a kind of let down for me) just incredibly nasty people that deserve much bad will.

Who are we kidding here, this is pulpy, cryptic stuff that the late Larsson concocted a few years ago in his Stockholm suite. It was bound to rub critics and audiences the wrong way and Fincher knew that all along. The film's flaws show, the sense of deja vu I was talking about earlier is very much present. Fincher can't change everything and has to lay bare with important plot details that have appeared in both the books and the Swedish movies. I can deal with that, cause my heart is with Mara -an incredible talent- and the heart and soul of this nasty movie. I fell in love with the girl and her dragon tattoo.

"Dance, Girl, Dance"/Feminist Cinema Pt 1

Director Dorothy Arzner’s Dance, Girl, Dance is a feminist narrative, about women in a male-dominated society, made in male-dominated film industry. It encompasses ideas and a language that was well ahead of its time & although the film is conventional, one cannot help but notice the importance this movie has had on an audience that was ignorant to the rights a woman should have. In fact, I took Maureen O’Hara’s Burlesque-hall speech to a packed audience of hollering men as a brave indictment and condemnation of a male dominated society that hadn’t totally advanced in Woman’s rights issues. Arzner’s camera focuses on the faces in the crowd, astonished by the display of courage Ohara’s Judy O’Brien puts forth with her case. It’s a stunning scene that stands up in a film that I admired more than liked.

Arzner is not only condemning the actions of the people on screen but also that of the audience watching her film. I truly believe that to make a film such as this one in 1940 must have taken a lot of backing from producers, then again the message is subtle and never entirely drawn out. Arzner doesn’t mean to give a lesson and just lets her characters do the talking for a change. I loved the way the film’s conventional narrative took on ballsy, important issues of the era. Lucille Ball’s Bubbles/Tiger Lilly gets fame and fortune by playing the whore, whereas Ohara’s good girl Judy struggles to find a place in a world dominated by men and those that want their women in scantily clad clothes & acting dumb on stage. The latter-day acclaim this film has won in its advanced feminist angles is reminiscent of Douglas Sirk’s 1950’s melodramas, with their dark messages hidden underneath glossy colors and characters that are more than meets the eye.

However, hidden messages notwithstanding, Arzner’s film is conventionally made and not entirely essential. The problem I have is that Arzner’s films—at least those I’ve seen—simply aren’t anything to get excited about. There’s always something interesting to catch or glimpse at, but stylistically, she has never been someone to brag home about. Dance, Girl, Dance started out strong but quickly became routine as it went along in its “girl tries to make it big in the city” conventions. I appreciated what she was trying to convey and the walls she was trying to break in her feminist themes but one comes out of the film thinking more about the layed out groundwork & themes than the actual story. As a piece of Hollywood history, it’s a real beauty but as a source of entertainment I’ve seen much better.