I just saw the film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and although this is not a review of the film, I will saw it was a very well-made film, though less stylized than I was hoping. Rooney Mara was fantastic, playing sometimes very subtle discomfort and sometimes a very subtle joy. For such an extreme character, she was mostly played subtly. Daniel Craig also didn't disappoint, but still had his British accent. Cinematography-wise was good, but I don't recall it standing out to me. Perhaps it wasn't supposed to?
What I really want to talk about, and perhaps my favorite part of the movie, was the opening title sequence. It's like nothing I've seen before. Maybe I've been watching the wrong stuff, but this sequence, I was blown away! The music mixes perfectly with the odd imagery that barely relate to the film, but just create this very odd mood to get you uncomfortable enough for the story ahead. The thing is, I think the American release has scaled up the "edginess" factor of the "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" like she's so freakishly insane and unattainably, freakishly divine in her superior freakiness that we need to be interested in her and therefore see the movie (it's interesting to note that the book and movie actually center mostly around Mikael Blomkvist, especially the first half of the book) but it's a fantastic marketing technique that I wholeheartedly support not simply because I love Lisbeth Salander's character, but mostly because it means we get great art like the freaking awesome title sequence. In my opinion, it rates only second to Watchmen, but comes ahead of the first Sherlock Holmes' closing sequence, which had me drooling.
Talk about an example of low-key lighting, it remind me of some of Erin Olaf's work. Half my enjoyingment is the swirls extending from the letters. The typeface is traditional and severe enough to really fit a European punk aesthetic. And perhaps it just the imagery, but the slowly extending letterforms are kind of creepy.
