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.

Disney - Zootopia

I recently watched Disney's animated film Zootopia and I can seriously not understand why it has not got more publicity, not least over here in Sweden. The film is seriously very good and extremely thoughtprovoking. It is an interesting take on "multiculturalism" and go against "racist" stereotypes.

The film centers around Judy Hopps who becomes Zootopia's first rabbit cop. Zootopia is a city where all types of animals (predators and pray) live in harmony. Or should I say, pretend to live in harmony... On a closer look, however, things are not as harmonious as they first appears. Predators are kidnapped all over the city and Judy teams up with the nice, somewhat criminal fox Nick Wilde to solve the case. They both also need to face the prejudices others have about their spieces and the villain might just be a wolf in sheep clothing...

The theme of the film is a really interesting and fits extremely well into the politics of today. Not least questions about biological differences in spieces that are living together. It is all about fighting racism and living together in peace even though you are very different. It is also about how outcast "people" might be made prejudice just because they feel left out and powerless. The film also shows that it is a choice how we deal with this powerlessness.

I really wonder why it has not got any more publicity and I think the reason is the over-exposure of Frozen, which the film actually jokes about quite a bit. I like Frozen just fine, but this film deserves to be acknowledged and praised, not least because it deals with topics that we really need to discuss more. This is why I can overlook the (too common) use of Stone Age as something savage.


Image borrowed from here.

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: Ronja rövardotter

In this third entry to My Heroines series, I stay in Astrid Lindgren's universe. I have a hard time not loving her books. They have meant so much to me since I was very little and Ronja rövardotter (Ronja the robber's daughter) (1981) and Madicken were both among the first books I read all by myself. Madicken has already got her own entry on this blog and this will focus on the character of Ronja.

Ronja is born in the Mattis castle a stormy night when the harpies (That is the translation I have seen for vildvittror.) roamed the sky. She is the daughter of the robber's cheif Mattis and his wife Lovis. Mattis loves his daughter right from the very beginning and is kind of over-protective, but at the age of about 11, Ronja is free to roam the Mattis forest around the castle on her own. He tells her to beware of certain things however and Ronja spends her day watching out for those things. She also meets a boy called Birk Borkason. He was born the same stormy night as herself in another robber's castle. As his name indicates, he is the son of Mattis's archenemy Borka. However, Ronja befriends him and the start playing together in the forest.

Skalle-Per: "Mitt hjärtas fröjd och glädje. Vart är du på väg?" ("My heart's delight and joy. Where are you going?")
Ronja: "Jag ska gå och akta mig för att trilla i älven." ("I am going to beware of falling into the river.")
Skalle-Per: "Och var ska du göra det då?" ("And where are you going to do that?")
Ronja: "Ja, jag måste ju göra det vid älven om det ska vara någon nytta med det." ("Well, I have to do it by the river if there will be any point to it.")

Vildvittror

Ronja is kind of a Romeo and Juliet type of story and can definitely be viewed as fantasy even adults can enjoy. Reading it now as an adult I did have a totally different view of the story's focus then I did as a child. When I was little I always saw Ronja and Birk friendship as the main focus, but nowadays I kind of think that it is more Ronja's relationship with her father that is most important.

Astrid Lindgren seldom wrote about "traditional" heterosexual love between an adult male and an adult female (There are exception for example in Samuel August i Sevedstorp och Hanna i Hult, which is a biographical story about her parents love.). It is obvious that Ronja and Birk love each other, but it is never openly addressed. They call each other sister and brother and their love seems to be totally asexual and there is never any pressure for them to marry. I think this is natural since they are both 11 and I have always had a hard time thinking many people (either boys and girls) think about getting married so early. I certainly did not. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, Ronja and Birk do not commit suicide. Instead they work together to make their fathers stop fighting.

"Du barn, i de där små händerna håller du redan mitt rövarhjärta. Jag begriper det inte, men så är det." ("You my child, you already hold my robber's heart in those small hand. I don't understand it, but it is the truth.")

~ Mattis

Mattis and Ronja

The lack of "traditional" heterosexual relationships in her stories, does not mean that they lack love all together. Quite the contrary! They are full of love. Lindgren's focus on the children means that the love she portrays is types that is closest to them: the love of a sibling or a parent (or parental figure). The latter is especially true in Ronja rövardotter and the love between Mattis and Ronja is probably one of the strongest in her authorship. It seems to be so strong that it physically hurts them from time to time and the most emotional parts of the story are about them and the love they share.

The fact that Mattis and to a somewhat lesser extent Lovis is fully fletched characters, important to the plot makes them quite unique in Lindgren's authorship. You can argue that the adults in Emil in Lönneberga and Madicken are ever present in the story, but not at all to the extent of Mattis and Lovis. In fact, most of the time the parents are put in the background even though it is evident that they do care and love their children.

"Ta av dej min skinnrem först", sa Ronja och reste sej. "Jag vill inte vara hopbunden med dej längre än nödvändigt." ("Take of my leather strap first", said Ronja and rose up. "I don't want to be tied to you longer than necessary.")
(---)
"Nej, det förstås", sa [Birk]. "Men efter det här är jag kanske bunden till dej ändå. Utan rem." ("No, of course", [Birk] said. "But after this I might be tied to you anyway. Without the strap.") 

The settings in Ronja are kind of characters in their own right. The Mattis castle is the first milieu we encounter as it is where Ronja grows up. Symbolically enough, it is split in two by the lightning the night she is born (as it turns out, Birk is also born that same stormy night), creating a deep gorge in between called Helvetetsgapet (the Gap of Hell). Ronja goes up to the top to "beware" of it (as Mattis has told her to) and meets Birk for the first time. He and the other Borka robbers have just moved into the part of the castle not occupied by the Mattis's robbers since the knights are after them in their own castle and forest. Ronja and Birk spend their first meeting jumping across the Gap of Hell and one of the foundation stones for their firendship is when Ronja saves Birk when he has fallen down into the gorge. Like her emotions throughout the book, she thinks that she will literally split in two.

The symbolically gap is also important when Mattis kidnaps Birk in a desperate way of trying to get Borka to leave the Mattis castle. Ronja becomes so angry with him, yelling that she has no objections to him stealing money and things, but he cannot steal humans. She then throws herself across the Gap of Hell, letting herself get caught by the Borka robbers. This is a huge betrayal to Mattis and when Borka says that they now can switch children, he gives Birk back, but tells him he does not have a child anymore. Up until this point the castle has provided Ronja with comfort, security and stability, but the quarell with her father takes all that away and Ronja feels entrapped. Therefore she flees out into the second important setting of the book: the Mattis forest.

Mattis and Ronja

The forest to Ronja is freedom. Mattis lets her loose on her own to roam free there and it is where she grows and develops into an independent and confident human being. It is also there she is free to elaborate her friendship with Birk, far away from their fighting fathers. After the kidnapping incident, Ronja and Birk set up camp in the bear cave in the forest, but with time it becomes evident that the danger of the forests prohibits Ronja to be fully happy. The winter is lurking around the corner and she needs the stability and comfort of the castle (and Mattis).

Rumpnissar

I have always loved Ronja. Like Madicken and most of the other Astrid girls, she is allowed to be independent, strong and confident. I think it is sad that most people consider Astrid Lindgren to be only a children's author. The books are still interesting for adults and can give them much better understandings of the world and themselves.

Mattis and a harpy

Fun fact: The costumes in the Swedish film from 1984 was inspired by the Bayeux Tapestry.
In the Swedish film, Ronja is played by Hanna Zetterberg.

My Heroines: Madicken

My Heroines is one of the series of posts I intend to have on this blog. It will be about females I have at some point in life looked up to in one way or another.

The inspiration for this, I have taken from Samantha Ellis's book How to Be a Heroine: Or, What I've Learned from Reading Too Much (Or in Swedish, since I read the translation: Mina hjältinnor. Eller vad jag lärt mig av att läsa för mycket.) that you can see over here to the right. (I will probably talk more about this book in later posts.)

In her book, Ellis talks about the female literary characters that have influenced her in life. Even though I am Swedish, I too have read many of them. I like how Ellis tells stories from her life in relation to the characters and how they have influenced her. Her book really made me inspired to tell you about my own heroines.

As might be pretty obvious based on my first post in this serie about Phryne Fisher, I will not limit myself to my childhood heroines. I still pick them up from time to time. Even though Phryne is a character from a book serie, I still haven't been able to read any of Kerry Greenwood's books about her. Therefore I will also include characters I have picked up solely from TV shows and films as well. I intend to analyse them and their books/films/TV shows, but I will use seperate entries also for only presenting them. This because there might be people who has not had the chance to meet them yet. Phryne, for example, is not so well known to a Swedish audience and the girl I want to dedicate this entry to is probably mostly known to the Swedes. Her name is Madicken and she is the main character of two books by Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren: Madicken (1960) and Madicken och Junibackens Pims (1976).

Illustration by Ilon Wikland

Madicken lives at Junibacken with her parents Jonas and Kajsa, her little sister Elisabet (generally called Lisabet) and their maid Alva. The family also has a dog named Sasso and a cat called Gosan. Madicken's real name i Margareta Engström, but everyone calls her Madicken. It's only when she has been naughty that people call her Margareta (so it actually happens pretty often...). She is seven years old and just about to start school when we first meet her.

"Stolts jungfrun på Junibacken, hon har ett ädelt hjärta"("The fair maiden at Junibacken, she has a nobel heart")

~ Farbror Nilsson 

Madicken takes place during the First World War. She comes from a quite wealthy family, her father being the editor of the news paper. "Like other girls", she plays with dolls, wears pretty dresses and collects nice things (the super nice ones, she calls salighetssaker/things of bliss). But never let you be fooled by those traits! She is probably the most badass 7-year-old there is!

Astrid Lindgren climbing a tree

Madicken was the nickname of Astrid Lindgren's best friend for nearly 80 years (up until Madicken's death in 1991): Anne-Marie Ingeström (married Fries). But some of her traits, book-Madicken probably borrowed from Astrid too. Among other, the fascination for climbing!

"Du är inte klok Madicken!" ("Madicken, you're mad!")

~ Lisabet

Madicken really seems to love climbing. In the first book, we are told, she usually climbs on top of the woodshed and walks on the roof to pick pears from the neighbours's pear tree. Later she and Lisabet have a picnic on that same roof and Madicken, being fascinated by airplanes wants to try to fly with an umbrella like the neighbour boy Abbe has told her they do in the war (It is their understanding of a parachute.). She goes to pick up her father's umbrella and jumps of the roof... It does not end well and she ends up with a concussion.

"Var glad att du lever! Det är så många som är döda." ("Be happy that you live! There are so many who are dead")

~ Linus-Ida

In the second book Madicken ends up walking on a roof again. The much poorer girl in her class, Mia, challenges her to walk across the school roof. Madicken wins and Mia steals the wallet from the headmaster.

But it is not only roof Madicken climbs up on! She also loves climbing in trees and on the mother's birthday, the whole family end up having picnic in trees because of some young bulls chasing them.

"Den ungen har aldrig haft förstånd att vara rädd" ("That child has never had sense enough to be scared")

~ Kajsa Engström

Besides all the climbing, Madicken can also punch you in the face if she wants to and she makes up a boy called Rikard to blame for whatever mischiefs she is up to in school. She is often described as being more like a boy and/or like her father than a girl. Lisabet, however, is described as similar to their mother. She is much calmer than her older sister and is often just dragged along on whatever mischeif Madicken is up to at the moment. But that does not mean she cannot be caught up in trouble herself. For example, she gets a pea stuck in her nose and hitchhike on a strange man's sleigh ending up in the middle of the forest. She collects naughty words which she says in the closet... but sometimes those words tend to get out of the closet too. Especially when the snobbish, proud and rather rude wife of the mayor is around.

Lisabet hinner ändå säga vad hon tänker till borgmästarinnan, när hon går förbi henne. (Lisabet still has time to tell the wife of the mayor what she's thinking as she passes by her)
"Nu var du allt bra dum!" ("Now you were really stupid!")
(---)
"Du fick inte säja att hon var dum, även om hon var det. Gå nu och säj till henne att du är lessen för det." [säger Alva] ("You cannot say she was stupid even though she was. Go say that you are sorry for it." [says Alva])
(---)
Då ropar [Lisabet] med sin gällaste röst: (Then [Lisabet] shouts out in her most high-pitched voice:)

"Jag är lessen för att du är dum!"  ("I'm sorry that you are stupid!")

~ Madicken of Junibackens Pims

Madicken's closest neighbour is the 15-year-old boy Abbe Nilsson. He comes from a much poorer family. He bakes pretzels which his mother sells at the market and his father is lazy and often drunk. Madicken has a huge crush on Abbe, but since she is seven, it is unrequited. He treats her more like a little sister and sometimes plays rather cruel pranks on her. Once he tricks her into believing she can see ghosts and another time he tricks her into thinking she has sold Lisabet into slavery. Abbe has lots of adventurous dreams like boarding a ship or becoming a pilot. Because of his family's lack of money he is probably never likely to fulfill them, but Madicken lets him fly in an airplane at the air show instead of herself.

Madicken is not just headstrong and adventurous. She has a big heart and a strong sense of justice. She tries to help out wherever she can. The books are filled with social commentary and despite her growing up in a wealthy family, she thinks and cares a lot about the poor. Her father is a good role model in this. When his wife is worried that Madicken hangs out to much at the Nilsson's house, he tells her that he wants his daughters to understand that not everyone is as wealthy as they are. In the second book, it becomes evident that his wife actually shares his opinions. Kajsa invites Alva to the mayor's formal ball, much to the wife of the mayor's chagrin and when Mia's lice find their way onto Madicken's head, she takes in Mia and her little sister Mattis, to get rid of the lice on all girls.

However, Madicken stands for some of the strongest social issues episodes herself. One is when the Nilssons do not have money to pay their loan to the factory owner Lind, Mrs Nilsson sells her body to the doctor. This so he can do whatever he wants with it after her death. Madicken worries about it, because she knows Mrs Nilsson wants a good funeral. At the same time as this happens, Madicken wins money at a lottery. She uses it to buy back Mrs Nilsson's body.

The other episode regards Mia. Her family (Her single mother and Mattis.) is really poor and Mia does not bring lunch to school nor does she and Mattis get any christmas presents. In the beginning Mia is much like an antagonist to Madicken and they fight a lot. Once physical and even if Madicken wins the fight, Mia manages to punch her on the nose. As said above does Mia challenge Madicken to walk across the school roof. On their way up, they go past the headmaster's window and Mia steals his wallet. She gets caught and is supposed to be spanked by the headmaster.

"Det kommer du att tacka mej för en gång", säjer överläraren. ("You are going to thank me for it", says the headmaster.)
Och hennes kamrater ska få titta på, säjer han, så att de lär sej hur det går för den som stjäl. (And her friends vill watch, he says, so they see what happens to those who steal.)
"Det blir en hälsosam läxa för er alla", tror han. ("It will be a good lesson for you all", he thinks.)
(---)
"Böj dej framåt", ryter [överläraren]. Mia böjer sig lydigt, och så kommer rottingen vinande och träffar hennes magra stjärt med en fasansfull klatsch. Inte ett ljud hörs från Mia. Men alla i klassen snyftar, och fröken håller handen för ögona. ("Bend over", [the headmaster] roars. Mia bends over and the cane hits her small bottom. Mia does not make a sound. But everyone in the class sobs and the teacher holds her hands in front of her eyes.)
Överläraren höjer rottingen igen, och då är det verkligen någon som skriker. Men det är inte Mia. (The headmaster raises the cane again and then there is someone who screams. But it is not Mia.)
"Nej, nej, nej, nej, nej", skriker Madicken med tårarna sprutande ur ögona. ("No, no, no, no, no", yells Madicken with tears running from her eyes.)
Överläraren tittar argt på henne, nu kom han av sej. Handen med rottningen sjunker ner, det är som om han tänkte efter. (The headmaster angrily looks at her. Now he lost his concentration. It looks as if he thinks for a moment.)

 ~ Madicken och Junibackens Pims

To understand this scene properly, one needs to understand the role Astrid got in Swedish politics over the years. She was probably one of the most powerful non-politicians in Sweden during her lifetime. She was very opinionated, standing up for both human and animal rights and even made the Swedish Social Democrats lose an election back in the 1970's. Anyway, Astrid was very clear that she did not like the idea of spanking children. One of her most famous quotes is: "Man kan inte piska något i barn, men man kan smeka fram mycket ur dem." ("You can never whip something into a child, but you can caress much out of them."). She is very anti-violence in general, which is evident in her authorship. Madicken grows up in somewhat of an idyll, but there are people like Mia who manages to break through it. This episode is among the strongest ones I think. It shows the conseqences of violence in a child and Madicken shows strengh in her ability to call the headmaster off.

Astrid won a German peace prize back in 1978 and used her acceptance speech to share her view of spanking, which was still legal in Germany at the time. I will most likely be telling you more about Astrid in future posts on this blog, because she has meant so much to me throughout my own life. This post I will, therefore, conclude with that speech:

In the films, Madicken is played by Jonna Liljedahl.