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Kvinden i buret (Danish): film of book

  Tags: Film | Danish | Book
 Language Learning Forum : Music, Movies, TV & Radio Post Reply
montmorency
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Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 1 of 4
20 August 2014 at 6:05pm | IP Logged 
A local cinema of which I am a member announced a preview of the film version of Jussi
Adler-Olsen's "Kvinden i buret", and it is on general release soon in the UK. They
seem to have given it the same title as the US version of the book "The Keeper of Lost
Causes". (It was called "Mercy" in the UK).

(For anyone who doesn't immediately recognise the title(s), it was the first in the
"Department Q" series of novels).

Members can apply for a free ticket to the preview, so I hope I can beat the rush.

From the description in the PR email I was sent, I fear they may have made some
critical changes from the book, but I will wait until I have actually seen it before
commenting further.
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Doitsujin
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 Message 2 of 4
20 August 2014 at 8:55pm | IP Logged 
I've just had a look at the official trailer, and it looks like they've incorporated all major plot points.

Danish trailer with English subtitles

It's also already available on DVD in the UK.

Edited by Doitsujin on 21 August 2014 at 8:54am

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montmorency
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Speaks: English*, German
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 Message 3 of 4
21 August 2014 at 2:33pm | IP Logged 
Doitsujin wrote:
I've just had a look at the official trailer, and it looks like
they've incorporated all major plot points.

Danish trailer with English
subtitles


It's also already available on DVD in the UK.


Thanks Doitsujin. Looks like it's been out for longer than I realised!
(Maybe the cinema in question is late catching up, or this is a second run. I don't
exactly keep my finger on the pulse of the film world).


One of my worries was that the email I was sent was referring to Assad as "a young
cop", which is not the way I interpreted his character in the book (he had been a cop
in Sysria or wherever, and indeed may have been more than a cop ... there were hints of
that with maybe more to be revealed in later books). But the fact that he was being
employed (initially) in a rather humble role in the police station I took to be a
slightly subtle comment on Danish attitudes to immigrants.

There was also some suggestion in the email that it had been jazzed up a little to make
it more like a Hollywood action movie, which would have been quite unlike the book. But
I should not pre-judge. :-)

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montmorency
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2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
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 Message 4 of 4
25 August 2014 at 3:13pm | IP Logged 
*** Spoiler Alert ***

*
Do not read if you don't want to know how the film differs from the book
*

*

*

*

&

Well, I got my free ticket (many thanks to the Phoenix, Oxford, part of the Picture
House group).

It's true that most of the plot points were there.

Inevitably in a film adapatation some of the details are going to be lost, and that was
the case here, along with some of the subtlety and humour.

The main difference to my mind was the characterisation. In the book, Carl Mørk is
portrayed as someone who is physically over the hill as well as whose career is in
tatters. There is no way that Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Mathias Borch in Forbrydelsen 3) could
have been seen as over the hill. Assaad too is a lot younger than his book character.

The film is not without some dark dry humour, but it was much less in evidence than in
the book. I think they were definitely going for a dark "The Killing"-type vibe (the
film was physically very dark as well, which I found a bit wearing.

Another significant difference is that in the book, it was Assad who persuaded Carl to
take an interest in the Merete Lynggaard case. All Carl wanted to do was sit in the
basement, smoking, drinking coffee (even Assad's), and surf the internet.

I suppose film leads just have to be that bit more glamorous.

Not such a bad effort, after all, even if I would have put in more laughs (even tragi-
comic ones) and more light, and also made more of the politics, which is there in the
book. I'd give it 8/10. (IMDB scorers only give it 7.1).

EDIT: I just read some of the IMDB reviews, and it seems to be divided into people who
love it, and those who don't get Scandi-noir and therefore hated it.

Unlike some of the reviewers, I didn't like the title much, but I didn't like the
British book title either, or particularly the Danish book title :-) But I think it was
inevitably going to end up with the same title as the American book, since I suppose
that's the international market they are aiming at.



Edited by montmorency on 25 August 2014 at 7:19pm



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