Happy Birthday Phryne Fisher!

According to Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, today (21 December) is Phryne Fisher's birthday. Last year, I wrote an entry about her similarities to the Norse goddess Freja who also seems to have been connected to the winter (or for the Australians, summer) solstice.

I have written so much about Phryne on this blog over the past 1½ years and I am sorry if you think I repeat myself, but I love her too much not to write another post about her.

A couple of days ago I celebrated my second Essiversary. 15 December 2015 was the date when I watched The Babadook for the first time. That film became deeply personal to me and Essie is so wonderful in it, that I straight away became a big fan of her.

I found Phryne sort of more as a secondary person to Essie, but I love her just as much. She is such a wild, beautiful, wonderful character that you cannot help loving her. There is a big reason why an entry about her was the first one I published on this blog.

For such a happy person as Phryne it fits very well that she was born on the, to Australians, brightest day of the year (Here in Sweden it's the darkest.). The series is set in 1928 and in a way, Phryne is a personification of the decade, not least of the popular image of the time period.

In Swedish we even call it Det glada 20-talet (the Happy 20's). Despite the image that this provokes, the 1920's was not totally happy, a fact that both the TV show and Kerry Greenwood's books deal with very well. There is an ever-present, sort of collective, PTSD sense to pretty much all the characters and the world that they inhabit. The First World War lingers despite having been over for ten years.

Phryne also has a very dark past and there certainly are dark sides to her, which I explored in my latest two blog entries about her (They can be found here and here if someone is interested.). However, she never lets them affect her very much. She is very much her happy self most of the time and I love her for it.

Another aspect that ties Phryne to the solstices is the fact that she works as a light in other people's lives. She takes in Dot and Jane and also makes Jack far more happy than he seems to have been in quite some time. She also sheds light in her crime investigations.

This summer, I created Phryne and her "family" out of Legos (They have their own Instagram account that can be found here.). Last week I made her Lucia when I let the Lego gang have a Lucia celebration. You can see her here to the left. Lucia is a light festival that is tied to the winter solstice in Sweden, therefore it fits for Phryne to be Lucia.

Happy Birthday Phryne! You are the female superhero we all need in our lives!

Phrack, a kickstarter video and romanticized farewells

As I said in my previous entry, I am taking a course in Ethnology this semester. I felt a need to broaden my perspective of the notion of culture that I hope to make a PhD in archaeology about one day. The course has proved to be very good even though the sort of shallow time frame of the subject has me confused from time to time. If you are used to thinking in a time frame that is often thousands of years, it is definitely a challenge to limit it to the last 200. I still love it though and the literature has given me inspiration for a lot of different blogposts. Unfortunately, it has also given me less time to write them.
Anyway, on 15 September Every Cloud Production, the production company behind Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries started a Kickstarter campaign to finance the upcoming Phryne film Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears. I have to say that I am more excited and positive towards it than I was back in November last year when I wrote a post about my thoughts and feelings about a continuation of the franchise. My worries are still intact, but I have faith in them to make it good, so I did pledge. Not least because seeing Nathan Page talk to Essie Davis in the video they made for the campaign made me realise just how much I miss seeing them together.

The video was awsome. I love how Nathan is both himself, Jack and the fans of the show in it. (And before you say anything: I actually love how he looks! I think he looks like a Viking!) It starts with him looking at the end of Death Do Us Part and then he berates Jack for letting her fly away from him. When Fiona Eager and Deb Cox tells him about their plans for the films including all the foreign lovers, he seems to get a bit offended until Fiona reassures him that Jack will go after her and that Phryne cannot do anything without him.

After explaining about the Kickstarter campaign, Nathan calls the director Tony Tilse who tells him he should really talk to the most important person of them all, so of course Nathan calls Essie too and I love to see them talking to one another. I have seriously missed seeing them together and it put a smile on my face when they said that they missed each other. Yes, I am so in love with both of them. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries is my biggest nerdiness at the time and I am proud of how nerdy I am!

Now you probably wonder what all of this has to do with my Ethnology class. Nothing at all, even though talking about the so famous Folkhemmet concept which the course has made me realise has been more influential to the Swedes than I think we often understand and want to admit, has had me thinking about Phryne and I have felt a need to compare what the course literature says about Sweden in "the Phryne era". However, my thoughts about Folkhemmet and how it all has me thinking about Phryne deserves its own blogpost soon, but not this one.

Instead I want to focus on something I read in one of my course books Kulturanalytiska verktyg by Billy Ehn and Orvar Löfgren (2012). In chapter 4, they describe an ethnological survey at a train station and brought up how they are often used in films for dramatizing farewells. This has created a romanticized version of those farewells and my mind immediately went to the end scene of Death Do Us Part.

I love how Nathan berates Jack for just letting Phryne fly away and it is very much a typical farewell scene (at an airfield instead of a train station though). However, I feel like there is a twist to the scene that a lot of other, similar ones lack.

"Come after me Jack Robinson!" 

~ Pryne Fisher

I cannot recall that I have talked about how Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries often takes a somewhat cliché subject and twist it a little before, but the last scene of Death Do Us Part belongs in that category. Phryne is about to leave which, from what we know about Phryne, is typical behaviour for her (I have talked about it here.). When Jack turns up to say goodbye however, Phryne immediately jumps out of the plane to run up to him.

To me her asking him to come after her is a testament to just how much her mismatched Melbourne family in general and Jack in particular has come to mean to her. He wants Jack in her life and their kiss seals the deal that he will obey her. The scene and the episode, end with Phryne flying away with her father. However, the scene is not as dramatical and Jack does not shed any tears. Instead he stands calmly on the ground looking at her as she disappears in the plane, a small smile lightening up his face. To me it is proof that he sees it as a beginning and not an end.

Essie's Swedish Name Day

Back in December, I made an entry about Nathan Page's Swedish name day and, of course, I had to make one about Essie Davis's.

The Swedish calendar say it is Ester today, which is Essie's real name. Ester/Esther has a Hebrew origin and it means star which fits perfectly for Essie. Over here in Sweden, one can actually be named Essy too. That is a Finnish/Samish version of Esther and the name of my grandfather's sister.

Justin Kurzel - Assassin’s Creed

Today marked the first time I saw Essie Davis on the big screen in Assassin’s Creed. Her husband, Justin Kurzel, was the director and Michael Fassbender played both main characters Callum Lynch and Aguilar de Nerha.

Callum lives in the present and is a criminal given the death penalty but later wakes up in a medical institution where he gets involved in Sophia Rikkin's (The daughter of a knights templar.) experiments where she tries to find a solution to all the violence in the world by collecting the assassins from the Middle Ages and using their genetic memory.

I have not played the video games and this might be why I found the plot very confusing. The part I did understand though felt rather intriguing and I think the film could have been longer so it had time to dvelve into more detail of the genetic memory and the film would also have gained a lot from exlplaining Sophia's reasearch and the reasons and logics behind her science and experimentations on people. The non-linear storytelling would also have benefitted if the film had more time I think. As it was now, it jumped far too quickly between different time periods and places and made it feel rather messy.

The visual style was beautiful and the actors were all rather good. It also had more women than I would have guessed and they were also quite diverse. I also thought Sophia was far more interesting than Callum. I would have liked to get to know much more of her background. The film does not really solve any plot points either and the ending feels made for a lot of sequels to follow it.

Essie Davis as Callum's mother

Cinema tickets

It is pretty obvious from this blog that I do love Essie Davis! But I am not sure I would have seen Assassin's Creed at the cinema if I had not had free tickets. If she would have been the lead, I would not have hesitated for a minute, but she is in it far too little for me to go straight to the movies to see it. I am glad I had a free ticket I needed to use before Wednesday and therefore got to see it and because of Essie I would probably have seen it at some point. Essie is in less then ten scenes and has only two or three lines in the entire film, so definitely too little Essie! It felt like a vaste of her talents by her husband, but I am still very thankful that they do both have their own careers away from each other. There are a lot of times in relationships between famous actors/actresses and filmmakers where this is not the case and you end up wondering if the actor/actress only got the role because she/he was sleeping with the director/producer/etc.



Picture from here and here.

My first Essie-versary!

One year ago today I saw The Babadook for the first time and Essie Davis became my favourite actress. And what a year it has been! Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries I found through looking up what Essie had done more in late February this year. The rest is history so to speak.

Essie is such a great actress! I love her so much! She is my real superhero!




If you want to use my collage: PLEASE ask me and credit me! I am proud of something I have made for once!

Jennifer Kent - The Babadook

Essie Davis in The Babadook

The Babadook is an Australian horror film by Jennifer Kent and was also the first time I (consciously) saw Essie Davis who plays the main character Amelia.

Amelia is a single mother and has a six year old son named Samuel (Noah Wiseman). She was widowed when her husband died in a car crash while they were on the way to the hospital when Samuel was born. Samuel is quite difficult and gets expelled from school for bringing his homemade weapons. One day the mother and son find a book about the Babadook and start reading it. This is when you can say that all hell breaks loose for them.

Like so many others have done, I really enjoyed this film. I enjoyed that it left a lot to the imagination of the audience and did not use jump scares so much. I also enjoyed how psychological it was. I found the film scary from time to time, but the main feeling I had was sadness. I felt so sorry for Amelia and her son. They were pretty much isolated from the rest of the world and most people were quite mean to both of them. It is also a very beautiful film.

Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman in The Babadook

I can go on and on about how much I love Essie Davis as an actress (but I will not). I think she is amazing and as I said before, this was the film where I discovered her talents. If I had not read it I would not have thought that she was the same actress as is playing Phryne Fisher who I discovered because of this film, but who I today love even more. Noah Wisman is also wonderful! At first you get really angry and irritated since Samuel is very annoying, but as the film moves on and Amelia starts to get more and more insane, you start feel sorry for him.

I see the film more symbolically than literally and this might be why I was more sad than scared. To me it is a very good exploration of depression and repressed feelings. It shows a single parents struggle with life and a difficult child while suffering from sleep deprivation. I myself, grew up with a single mother and I can guarantee I have had many ups and downs throughout my life.

The film also reminded me of an episode in my hometown a couple of years back: A depressed single mother lost welfare help and first kept her two young sons home from school and then drowned them in the lake.

Essie Davis in The Babadook

Depression is really terrible. It changes everything inside you to an extent that is not entirely obvious to someone who has never been affected by it. Most often, you do not realise that you are depressed until it is too late. It is a hard condition and takes a long time to get better. The Babadook strives towards the light though. The ending is quite happy even though it also shows that the monsters do not go away all together.


I borrowed the pictures in this entry from the official Babadook site and I hope that was okay.

My Heroines: The Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher

In this first "real" entry I want to talk about one of my newest heroines: the Honourable miss Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis). She is the main character in the Australian TV series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, which is based on a series of books by Kerry Greenwood. I have understood there are some differences between the TV series and the books in considerations to both characters and plots. This entry will however be entirely about the character from the TV series, because unfortunately I have not had the opportunity to read any of the books (yet).

It seems that both versions of Phryne Fisher's "adventures" are quite popular in a lot of other countries throughout the world, but none of them have been given the attention they deserve over here in Sweden. The TV series is broadcasted on somewhat obscure channels, which probably contributes to this lack of interest, but not even sites like tvdags.se have talked about it that much other than a shorter article that does not say much about the show or its characters other than comparing it to Downton Abbey. There does not seem to be any interest in the third season either. It has neither been shown on TV nor is it up on Swedish Netflix. This is all a shame since it is such an amazing show!

The series is about Phryne Fisher (played by Essie Davis) who in the first episode arrives back in her native Australia, after having spent many years in England, to prevent the man in prison for kidnapping her little sister Jane (but who has never admitted to the crime) when they were children being released. Phryne is a wealthy lady after having inherited money and a title after the First World War, but has grown up very poor. She loves to dress up in fancy clothes (Her costumes in the show are amazing!) and jewellery, but because of her upbringing, she is not at all cheap! She understands what it is like to be poor. She often helps out friends, family (or other people she meets) if they have economic difficulties.

Phryne as a character is headstrong, independent, hedonistic, quirky, kind and somewhat reckless. She enjoys solving crimes and starts helping the police. In the course of the series, she develops a “special” sort of relationship with Detective Inspector Jack Robinson.

Jack is first married to Rosie Sanderson, but they get a divorce at the end of season one. It is clear, early on in the show that he and Phryne have a total attraction to one another, but Jack is quite shy and probably afraid of getting hurt and therefore is not exactly willing to commit to Phryne. It is also clear that Phryne is not going to wait around for him to make a move.

Phryne: “So, do you want to come have another look at the body with me?”

Jack:      “Is that an invitation?”

Phryne: “Well, I could wait all day for yours.”

~ Episode 3x1, Death Defying Feats

Phryne loves men, but is never dependent on them. She has sexual relations with various of different partners and is not ashamed to admit it. Jack does not handle this very well and is often openly jealous, but he understands that it is a part of who Phryne is and that he cannot change it. (Probably some of this contributes to his fear of commiting to her.) I also think that this sexual side of Phryne is really well portrayed in the show. It is always shown from her perspective (because it is totally her show!). This gives her an opportunity to be sexual, without being sexualized.

Phryne and Jack

One aspect I especially like about Phryne as a character is how "feminine" she is allowed to be. In popular culture of today (especially when it comes to the mystery genre), so called "strong women" are often masculinised. Lately I have started wondering why only those characters are enhanced in feminist debates. Actually creating female version of the stereotypical "macho man" does not really help women or society to become more equal. In this perspective, so called "female" characteristics are still given a lesser value than "male" ones. There is nothing wrong with being caring, loving, helpful and showing empathy towards others. Actually I think we need more characters with these characteristics (both male, female and other types of gender).

These characteristics does not prevent Phryne from enjoying a wilder side of life either. Actually she is often seen doing traditionally "male" activities such as flying an airplane, participating in a car rally and being physically active. She also seems to know quite a lot about sports such as (Australian) football, tennis and boxing. Besides all of this, she owns a pistol (golden and with a pearl handle) and keeps a dagger in her garter. This is really what makes her a whole person and not just a stereotypical "tomboy" or "girly girl" and a big reason to why she means a lot to me.