Rebecca and I watched Smilla's Sense of Snow last night over homemade pizza. As before my sense of a compelling film with an absurd ending that somehow never quite manages to ruin things. Like someone coming into a theatre who somehow blocks a clear view of a film you're watching, and what you liked about the film is still intact, though you may need to twist and turn your head in order to continue your viewing...yet in the process rendering your experience a past experience. It's happening now, you still watch and await the final playing out of plot and thematic tropes, but your inner eye is cast backward even in the present filmic now. Buddhist noir in a way--fractured time as in all authentic noir.
No question Hoeg, in this book at least, was a forerunner of current scandi craze. and managed to synthesize matters of mystery and murder in a peculiarly nordic fashion, creating a strong impression on the reader of depths of emotion and thought. And in the process hitting on many of the core elements of noir, without identifying himself as part of that sensibility or tradition. Alienation, moral ambiguity, elaborate conspiracies, entrapment in time. Cut of from a functional viable past, struggling against all apparent odds, to imagine a productive or meaningful future. And Copenhagen, one of Europe's most intriguing capitals, here a dark, dreary and sinister place. That same day I came across some interesting Amazon reviews of Hoeg's first book A History of Danish Dreams, which combines, from what I read,considerable doses of magical realism, social satire and a concern with issues of justice. And the history of Denmark is predominantly dark, if fancifully conceived. And yet what I found most compelling was how the reviews (seemingly American) felt despite all the trenchant cultural satire that Denmark emerged as even more intriguing a place. As in a dream, perhaps. And this really draws us close to the central paradox of nordic noir and its transnational appeal.
As soon as I finish this, I have get that book on kindle.Definitely.
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