David Fincher. Director of classics Fight Club and Seven. Director of multiple academy Award winner The Social Network. Director of great films Zodiac and Panic Room. Director of um... other films, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alien 3 and The Game.
But now comes Fincher's remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo:
Why remake a film from 2009? Because it's Swedish, subtitled and you've got to read it! Like Let The Right One In/ Let Me In and Infernal Affairs/ The Departed before it, this is another Hollywood cash-in to piss off fans of the original and delight people who don't read films.
Wierdly, Fincher's even kept Swedish accents in this one. Rooney Mara looks as though she may be as cool as Noomi Rapace when playing icon Lisbeth Salander but still, isn't this completely pointless to people who can read?
This is an outrage! Why must Americans remake anything with foreigners in it? Can they really not stand the sight of the rest of us?
But Fincher's a legend, a genius, a perfectionist. Does this mean he wants to perfect the 2009 Swedish version? Is he going to put his own stamp on it? Is he going back to the source book? It doesn't look like it. It looks beautifully shot (as you'd expect from Fincher and his obssessive and controlling collaborations with cinematographers) and the score sounds like a treat (continuing his collaboration with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). But the original was dark enough and I can't see how much darker Fincher can make it. The poster is sexed up from the original and the cast look great but no better than the original cast.
With all the projects Fincher has circled in the past, including Fertig and Rendevous with Rama, it seems a shame to be wasting all us Fincher fans' time on a pointless remake. I hope this wasn't the biggest pay cheque. I hope this is Fincher trying to bring us something fresh out of a story he thought needed to be told perfectly. I hope this lives up to the promise of the trailers and finally gives us some indication of why it needed to be remade!
So right!Why remake it?!!!It is just plain insulting!Why not try and educate yourself America? Why not appreciate another culture's film making skills!It just reminds me of when the Americans renamed "Harry Potter and the philosphers stone" to "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone" Teach your children a new word? Why would you want to do that?? Educate yourself by watching a foreign film? Why would you do that when you can remake it in English? I hate the blatent sexing up of her character in the poster as well, this is totally shameless advertising. Watching this advert you could have just been watching the original film so what is the point?If you hate subtitles you can watch the film dubbed anyway so that is just not an excuse.
ReplyDeleteDubbed sucks even more than subtitles. Give it a chance.
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