Favourite movies with Daniel Alfredson

Just a few stories ago I interviewed Swedish director Daniel Alfredson about his films The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest. Of course I also quizzed him on his favourite movies and this was his short, but sweet, answer:

"The simple answer is Stanley Kubrick, he is a favourite director of mine, I love most of his work and I tend to come back to most of his work often."

The Girl Who Played With Fire is out now and you can watch my video review of it here.

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Fighting fire with fire

When Swedish filmmaker Daniel Alfredson started making the second film in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire, he knew he was working with hot property.The books have become international bestsellers and the first film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, a global hit. With the inevitable Hollywood remake on the way and Oscar buzz surrounding actress Noomi Rapace for her portrayal of Goth hacker Lisbeth Salander, it’s hard to imagine there was ever any trouble getting the project off the ground. But that was not always the case according to Swedish director Daniel Alfredson (above).
“When we started out it was in such an early stage that the success of the novels wasn’t there yet,” he says.
“It was a Swedish project and our only hope to do it was to finance it as a TV series and then it also became the films.
“We worked with the same cast and crew during the same shoot, and we had two scripts – one for the show and one for the film.
“It was complicated and I haven’t ever done anything like that before.
“But on the other hand it was the only way to do it . . . we didn’t know that they’d be a huge success.
“We thought we could find an audience in Northern Europe and that that was the only thing we could manage.”

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo found an audience worldwide and, despite being in Swedish, took over $100 million at the global box office. Alfredson says although it came as `a surprise’ to him, others involved with the project were more optimistic.
“I know Niels Arden Oplev, who directed the first film, was very confident.
“He said to me `this is going to be huge and a big success’.
“But I was never that confident because Swedish is such a small language.”

If the hype surrounding the second film is anything to go by, it seems The Girl Who Played With Fire will be just as successful. The film delves deeper into the past and motivations of the film’s heroine Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) and Alfredson says this is one of the many reasons he was drawn to directing it.
“The thing I loved about the books is the character of Lisbeth Salander, because when I read the novels in their very early stages I was fascinated by her,” he says.
“I hadn’t seen her before on screen.
“I was intrigued by her and her vulnerability, but she’s still being very strong.

"I fell for her.”
Alfredson says he and his leading lady Rapace (above) shared strong ideas about the character, who is one of the more original on screen heroines to date. He says Rapace was `fearless as an actress’ to take on the role of the bisexual, Goth, computer-hacker who has a dark and mysterious past.
“As you know, at the end of the second film Lisbeth’s stepbrother and father bury her and her hand shoots up out of the dirt as she climbs to the surface,” he says.
“We were filming that scene very early in the morning and it was cold and we only had 20 minutes to do it.

"So I said to Noomi that she should go home, go back to Stockholm and rest, we can get someone else’s hand to do it.
“She said to me `no, it’s Lisbeth’s hand, I’m playing Lisbeth so I’m going to do it, it has to be Lisbeth’s hand.’
“Then she crawled down into that tunnel and that’s actually Noomi’s hand you see in the film.
“She’s very determined and that’s the image I have of Noomi as an actress.”

Critics too have had that perception and already there is a flurry of talk surrounding Rapace’s chances for a best actress Oscar nomination. Although he has `no idea about how that stuff works’, Alfredson says it would be `fantastic’ if the Academy Award talk come to fruition.
“She would be worth it,” he says.

Alfredson also directs the third and final film in the trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, which is to be released later this year. He says that as a fan of the books he has tried to stick with the sense Stieg Larsson creates in each saga of the story.
“I believe the first novel is a mystery drama in the way that it’s pace and the second one is more of an action drama.
“The third one is a courtroom drama and we have tried to show that with the dialogue and tried to speak to that when we were doing the film.
“It’s a way of being true to the novels.”

As for the novels, Alfredson (on set below) says it is a tragedy that author Stieg Larsson suffered a heart attack and died before he could ever see his works published and witness the phenomenon they have become.
“I think it’s so sad really.
“I never met Stieg.
“I read the novels before they were published, just a few months after his death.
“I wanted to ask him so many questions about the stories and about Lisbeth.
“I know he was writing a fourth novel and I’m curious to see what happened to Lisbeth and how the story goes.
“But I guess we will never know.”The Girl Who Played With Fire is out on Thursday, September 23.

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Stop, drop and roll

In April audiences were first introduced to one of modern cinemas most powerful and captivating heroines - Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Now, only a few months later, Lisbeth is back and being framed for murder in The Girl Who Played With Fire.
This is the second film in The Millennium Trilogy based on Stieg Larsson's hugely popular novels and continues to follow the tone and pace of the books.

After using her computer hacking skills to make off with millions of dollars from corrupt business man Hans-Erik Wennerstrom, Lisbeth (Noomi Rapace) is living abroad on an exotic island. She quietly returns to Sweden where journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) is investigating a sex-trafficking ring that soon begins to link to Lisbeth's past. But after being accused of a brutal double murder, Lisbeth goes on the run while Blomkvist works to clear her name before she takes justice into her own hands.

While the trilogy continues the story of Lisbeth in detail, each book has a different tone. For instance, the first is a thrilling drama, the second an action drama and the third, a courtroom drama. Director Daniel Alfredson maintains that formula to great effect, pumping in more action, big-budget thrills and violence into this second outing. The intelligent story also remains intact, however, what is missing is the subtle use of suspense and building-dread which made The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo such a brilliant piece of filmmaking. That's not to say there isn't plenty to impress the viewer this time around. Alfredson has made a fantastic, edge-of-your-seat movie that is powered by the Oscar-worthy performance of Rapace and a strong supporting cast in Nyqvist, Yasmine Garbi, Lena Endre and Hans Christian Thulin. In a nice touch that stays true to the book, Swedish ex-boxer Paolo Roberto plays himself as a friend and former training partner of Lisbeth. Did I mention he’s delicious? Well, he is.

But this film is all about Rapace, who continues to bring this fiery and original heroine to the big screen in a way that has enthralled audiences worldwide and launched her international career. The Girl Who Played With Fire doesn't quite live up to the first film, but it's a worthy sequel that gets close enough.

It is out in cinemas next Thursday, September 23 and stay posted for my exclusive chat with director Daniel Alfredson next week.

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Swedish film not so neutral

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is based on a hugely popular series of books, the Millennium trilogy, by Swedish investigative journalist Stieg Larsson.Unfortunately just days after handing over the manuscripts, Larsson died of a heart attack at the age of 50 and never lived to see the global phenomenon his books have become or the equally superb film adaptation.

The story follows disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) who has been hired by Henrik Vanger (Sven-Bertil Taube), the head of the powerful Vanger corporation, to solve the disappearance of his niece Harriet 40-years earlier.During the investigation Blomkvist wades deeper in to the intricate web that is the Vanger family and he takes on board the skills of brilliant young hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace). As the pair begin to piece together the clues surrounding the mystery, they uncover a series of gruesome murders.
Fans of the book would be no doubt be wary of any film adaptation, as history has showed us book-to-movie projects rarely work. This is the exception. The Lord Of The Rings exception if you catch my drift.

Larsson's novel is no fairytale, examining freedom of speech, sexual abuse, the justice system and violence, all the while painting Sweden as a corrupt and chauvinistic society. The film maintains the complexity and choreographs the moments of suspense, action and genuine terror perfectly.

As Lisbeth, Noomi Rapace emerges a true star. She pours her heart and soul in to the character who is no doubt the most refreshing movie heroine since Clarice Starling or Lt Ellen Ripley. Even those two wouldn’t have been able to drop the c-bomb as convincingly as Salander. In the same way Marion Cotillard took out the Oscar for her part in French film La Vie En Rose, Rapace should be a shoe-in for the best actress Oscar come 2011. She is fierce and vulnerable at the same time, while managing to allude to the many layers of her character.
With Swedish subtitles and from a team of relatively unknown filmmakers and actors, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has not lost any of its meatiness in the transition from paper to screen. It is not an easy film, its criticisms are unflinching and its violence graphic. Yet the pay-off is worth any of the horrors you see and its two and half hour running time goes by in a flash. Director Niel Arden Oplev has made a stylish movie and the best compliment it can be given is it lives up to the brilliance of the book.

I know it’s early days yet, and what I’m about to say may soon become redundant with Kick-Ass’s release in a few weeks, but this is by far the best film of the year…so far. If I were the star-giving type I would give it everything I had and then a few pinched from the sky above me.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo opens tomorrow.

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