The reel Niels
Interview | Pierre de Villiers He might be in the running for an Oscar, but Danish director Niels Arden Oplev isn’t planning a move to LA IN AN EDITING ROOM in the heart of Copenhagen, Niels Arden Oplev is hard at work on a film he calls “a phenomenon”. As the Danish director puts the [...]
Interview | Pierre de Villiers
He might be in the running for an Oscar, but Danish director Niels Arden Oplev isn’t planning a move to LA
IN AN EDITING ROOM in the heart of Copenhagen, Niels Arden Oplev is hard at work on a film he calls “a phenomenon”. As the Danish director puts the finishing touches on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, his hugely anticipated adaptation of the first novel in Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, he can almost feel the pressure building on him from day to day.
“The expectation in Scandinavia is massive,” Oplev says. “With millions of copies of the book sold, a film version was always going to be big. For me, bringing out a movie is a bit like sitting a really important exam. The only difference is, if you fail, the whole world knows about it. So obviously there’s a fair bit of pressure.”
If there is any filmmaker who can do justice to the late, much-lamented Larsson’s brilliant book – in which the unlikely pairing of Stockholm journalist Mikael Blomkvist and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander unravel a murder mystery stretching back four decades – it’s the prodigiously talented Oplev.
Since bursting onto the scene 12 years ago with the controversial Portland, he has made a string of thought-provoking films. His most recent offering, Worlds Apart – a drama about a young female member of Jehovah’s Witnesses who rebels against the constraints of her
religion – has just been chosen to represent Denmark at the Oscars. It is an achievement that has clearly given Oplev, 47, a confidence boost as he works to complete his new film.
“People who go and see The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are in for a great experience,” he says. “Stieg Larsson has come up with an incredible story and I’m doing everything I can to do justice to it.”
Do you feel any added pressure being a Danish filmmaker adapting such a famous Swedish novel?
(Laughs) No, not at all. I’m not fluent in Swedish but as far as understanding it and reading it, I’m fine. In any case, I found out that even though you are working in another language, it is not difficult to judge whether you like the acting so long as you know the material really well.
Did you know Stieg Larsson? [The author died in 2004, aged 50.]
No, unfortunately I never met him. When I decided to do the film I started reading whatever I could find on Larsson to see if it would add any dimension to the material. What really struck me was the way he spoke out against racism and how he would not compromise when it came to his beliefs. He was a tough guy. I am very much aware that I am in some way the caretaker of his legacy.
What appealed to you about this particular Larsson book?
I like the fact that it is so dark and violent but manages to incorporate a strangely beautiful love story. It also delves into some of the darker aspects of Swedish society, in that it looks at racism as far back as the 1930s, and draws threads all the way up to the present day. Then there’s the exploration into women being mistreated, personalised in the film by Lisbeth Salander, which is very interesting.
You must be thrilled that your last film, Worlds Apart, will represent Denmark at the Oscars.
Yes, you feel very happy when your film is seen as good enough to represent Denmark but of course you’re also nervous. You know the competition is really stiff and you wonder how far your film can go. If it got among the five final nominees, it would be so fantastic
I wouldn’t know which leg to stand on. I try to keep my expectations in check because I know it’s going to be tough. I’m hopeful, though, because I think I have a really good subject that will strike a chord in America. I just found it such an intriguing way of looking at undamentalism in Western countries in a completely different way.
Can you ever see yourself being lured to Hollywood?
Actually, my wife is American and she would like to go home (laughs). She’s from New York – an East Coaster. I know a lot of good people who work in and around New York so that could be cool. I am definitely not scared of making a Hollywood film but I would never let go of making Scandinavian films. I like to make bigger films outside Denmark and then come back and make more personal stuff in my own country. That’s my dream right now.
What for you is the best thing about living and working in Denmark?
Well, I live just north of Copenhagen and have four children, aged from eight to 18. The great thing about living in this country is that they have a very large degree of freedom; they ride bikes everywhere. It’s like we almost live in a kind of 1950s society. There’s more freedom and maybe not the same amount of fear as in a country like America. Plus, as a filmmaker, I am very privileged here in Copenhagen in that I can fund more or less whatever the hell I want to make. We have a really good cultural support system for film. In Britain and America it’s very tough for a director to get a first film out and I feel that I have it quite easy here.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be released in Scandinavia in Spring 2009 and Worlds Apart is on general release now
CLOSE UP: NIELS ARDEN OPLEV
Good advice: While he was a student at the National Film
School of Denmark, one of Oplev’s lecturers said to him: “Write what you know and care about.”
Shocking start: Oplev’s first feature, Portland (1996) – a hardcore depiction of drug abuse and violence in Aalborg – prompted one critic to say the director was “psychopathic”.
Small screen, big prize: Oplev won best foreign drama series Emmy awards for Unit One (2002) and The Eagle (2005).
Getting personal: We Shall Overcome (2006) – a film about a 13-year-old boy who stands up against school authorities in 1960s Denmark – was based on Oplev’s own childhood. In 2006, it won the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
Finding inspiration: “The material I look for deals with some kind of injustice,” Oplev says. “That is something that really
gets me fired up.”
