Let Me In, Subtitling, and a post without a point.

Oh hello – is this blog still on?

Apparently it is. Anyway, we’ll just gloss over the several months that have passed since my last post and pretend it was due to me being really busy and having much better things to do (neither of these things are true).

Anyway, 2 separate events inspired me to return to the bloggaging thing – needless to say, both film-related.

The first was my viewing last night of Let Me In, the remake of the truly excellent Swedish horror film, Let the Right One In, which I previously blogged about here, and indeed here, when it made my list of “Top Five films of all time, beginning with the letter L” (pithy, hey?)

Given my love for the original, I was hesitant to watch the English-language version as in the past these have inevitably disappointed (yes I’m looking at you Vanilla Sky, The Ring, etc, and who can forget, Vin Diesel taking the lead in the English remake of Kurosawa’s Rashomon. Oh, I may be remembering that last one incorrectly. Remembering…Rashomon… see what I did there *ahem*.

But due mainly to the persuasion of the genial and all-knowing twitter guru Ken Armstrong who had also shared my love for the original and had then gone on to enjoy the remake, I added it to my Lovefilm list and it landed on my doormat yesterday. (It didn’t actually land on the doormat – the postman handed it to me, but it seemed a better turn of phrase and something a normal person would write. (I’m just realizing now why I haven’t blogged for ages, I kind of get distracted by other thoughts and then the paperclip eats the stapler etc)).

And my verdict on Let me In? Well, I was ambivalent, in the true sense of the word. On the one hand it was atmospheric, superbly acted throughout, the story was gripping, and the interesting themes of the first film were all there. If I had never seen the first film I would have been really impressed by this unusually intelligent mainstream horror film.

But..but..But

On the other hand, I HAVE seen the original and although the remake was faithful, it was almost TOO faithful. Very little changed. There’s some slight alterations to the story’s focus but all the memorable scenes (bar one) from the first film are played out in Let Me In, but in EXACTLY the same way. Some scenes even appear to be a shot by shot copy, and reminded me of what Gus Van Sant did with his shot by shot remake of Hitchcock’s Psycho. Yes, there’s nothing wrong with this film taken on its own merits, but I can’t take it on its own merits. It’s like me handing over a manuscript of Crime and Punishment that I’d typed out and saying I’d written it. Yes, it would still be a literary masterpiece, but a COPY. (don’t think about that analogy too much – it doesn’t hold up to great scrutiny)

I guess my point is I just can’t see the point of making Let Me In. Or more specifically, I can see the point of making it, but am frustrated that that point exists. I am troubled that the majority (and it does seem to be a majority) of cinema audiences just will not entertain the thought of going to see a film not in the English language. Yet even as I write these words, the success of Passion of the Christ (not a word of which was in English) and Avatar (containing subtitles) jump into my head, immediately disproving my theory. So is it foreign films that are the problem? Will audiences not accept a film unless it’s been made in the US or UK? I don’t know the answer to be honest, and this is fast becoming a blog post without a point (there’s a theme developing here about why I shouldn’t blog).

Anyway I said TWO things inspired me to write this post and the other was the trailer I saw at the cinema on Friday for David Fincher’s version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Again, my heart sunk, it has to be said. For judging by the trailer (and I’m aware of the danger of judging solely from the trailer), the shots in that film seemed exactly the same as those in the Swedish version of the film. Maybe in the longer cut that will not turn out to be the case and at least in Fincher there is a director who generally does interesting stuff with his material, but again it struck me as to the waste, almost, of spending all that money remaking a film that was perfectly acceptable to begin with, when the investment could be spent on bringing new stories to the screen.

Following these two events, I spent the early hours wondering what the Swedes have ever done to us that makes it such torment to sit through a film in their language, following the subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Is it ABBA’s fault? Tomas Brolin, perhaps? Maybe a dislike of herring? Or is it, as I have always suspected, all the fault of Magnus Magnusson?

What’s that – he’s not Swedish, you say?

He’s ICELANDIC?

But this was my big “I’ve started so I’ll finish” ending.

This is why I don’t write many blog posts – sorry for wasting your time.

See you in December.