{"id":2386,"date":"2010-08-31T20:33:33","date_gmt":"2010-09-01T00:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=2386"},"modified":"2018-08-10T01:28:23","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T05:28:23","slug":"arn-the-knight-templar-and-its-sequel-flinth-2007-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=2386","title":{"rendered":"(Flinth 2007 &<\/span> 2008) Arn the Knight Templar [and it\u2019s Sequel]"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an enter\u00adtain\u00ading, but not over\u00adwhelm\u00ading his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal epic set in 12th Cen\u00adtu\u00adry Swe\u00adden, with some scenes in the Holy Land. It\u2019s reput\u00aded\u00adly the most expen\u00adsive Swedish film ever made, though it\u2019s hard to see why. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The bat\u00adtle scenes are mod\u00adest\u00adly mount\u00aded. A lot of atten\u00adtion has been giv\u00aden to archi\u00adtec\u00adture, cos\u00adtume, and oth\u00ader details, but these need not involve great expense. The actors could not com\u00admand Hol\u00adly\u00adwood prices. Well, per\u00adhaps a lot was spent on aqvav\u00adit. The act\u00ading is good through\u00adout, there is some pret\u00adty cin\u00ade\u00admatog\u00adra\u00adphy, and the script sticks fair\u00adly close to his\u00adto\u00adry. A nice touch is the mul\u00adti-lin\u00adgual sound track. The hero grows up in a Cis\u00adter\u00adcian monastery where the monks speak Latin, Eng\u00adlish and French, as they cer\u00adtain\u00adly would have at the time. The his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal nub of it, which is the strug\u00adgle between the Sverk\u00ader and Erican\/Folkunge dynas\u00adties, is prob\u00ada\u00adbly not well-known to Eng\u00adlish-lan\u00adguage view\u00aders, but the film explains things pret\u00adty clear\u00adly. The sequences in the Holy Land, with the con\u00adven\u00adtion\u00adal depic\u00adtion of Sal\u00adadin, are corny and essen\u00adtial\u00adly uncon\u00adnect\u00aded to the main nar\u00adra\u00adtive, except that they keep the hero away from Swe\u00adden so that his betrothed can pine in a monastery for twen\u00adty years. The hero\u00adine\u2019s will\u00ading\u00adness to do this fits the con\u00adven\u00adtions of Medieval lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture, but will not nec\u00ades\u00adsar\u00adi\u00adly fit with mod\u00adern sen\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adties. S<\/span><\/span>ince the cou\u00adple knew each oth\u00ader only briefly before being sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00aded, and the hero\u2019s only virtue seems to have been hand\u00adsome\u00adness, her devo\u00adtion comes across as an unhealthy obses\u00adsion, rather than an ide\u00adal romance. The film is long and slow, which has always been the way they like it in Swe\u00adden, but it may try the patience of view\u00aders else\u00adwhere. It\u2019s a typ\u00adi\u00adcal Swedish fam\u00adi\u00adly-saga, with lots of peo\u00adple wait\u00ading around to do stuff, then maybe not doing it. The two films,<\/span><\/span> Arn \u2014 Tem\u00adpel\u00adrid\u00addaren<\/em><\/span><\/span> [Arn the Knight Tem\u00adplar] (2007) and <\/span><\/span>Arn \u2013 Riket vid v\u00e4gens slut <\/em><\/span><\/span>[Arn: The King\u00addom at Road\u00ad\u2019s End] (2008) are direct\u00aded by Peter Flinth and star Joakim N\u00e4t\u00adterqvist and Sofia Helin in the lead\u00ading roles, with the ven\u00ader\u00ada\u00adble Bibi Ander\u00ads\u00adson in a key sup\u00adport\u00ading role. They are based on a tril\u00ado\u00adgy by nov\u00adel\u00adist-jour\u00adnal\u00adist Jan Guil\u00adlou, which I have not read and can\u00adnot judge, but I am rough\u00adly famil\u00adiar with his jour\u00adnal\u00adis\u00adtic career, which gives every evi\u00addence of his being an idiot.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an enter\u00adtain\u00ading, but not over\u00adwhelm\u00ading his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal epic set in 12th Cen\u00adtu\u00adry Swe\u00adden, with some scenes in the Holy Land. It\u2019s reput\u00aded\u00adly the most expen\u00adsive Swedish film ever made, though it\u2019s hard to see why. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[948,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-d-viewing","category-dq-viewing-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2386"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8126,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2386\/revisions\/8126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}