Jussi Adler-Olsen He is one of the most successful Nordic crime novel authors in recent years.
His novels, especially the 7 thrillers of the famous Department Q, are published in more than 40 countries. And millions of readers are trapped by the cases solved by the unstable and always moody inspector. Carl Morck and your special and much nicer helper Hafez al-Assad.
The October 4 the following will be released in Denmark film version from another of his titles, the fourth: File 64. And like the previous three, the look at his adventure trailer is another good adaptation. I review the series and hope that this new film will not be long in coming here.
Jussi Adler-Olsen
Born 1950 in Copenhagen, worked as a journalist, comic book editor and magazine editor. In 1995 he decided to dedicate himself full time to writing.
His Department Q series, with characters from the blackest genre, almost all male and with politically incorrect values that, given the success achieved, have played in their favor, is one of the most acclaimed. And it remains high within the panorama so crowded still - although they insist on lowering them from the pedestal - by the Nordic authors.
Department Q Series
In 2010 it came this way The woman who scratched the walls, the first case of Department Q, a Danish police department intended to investigate unresolved and archived past cases. And there we meet the main protagonists. In front of him is the inspector Carl Morck. With a file marked by a dark episode in which a colleague is wounded and he and his irascible character, Mørck is a sort of plague among his colleagues and managers, who only deserves the basement where he has ended up.
Your personal life is a mess, but he makes up for his rejection and war against the world by staying at home and taking care of his quadriplegic companion. And in those they send him to Assad, an assistant of Syrian origin and language problems, to work with him. Mørck's anger and opposition are compounded by the good character and disposition of the newcomer.
The opposite pair in both methods and characters is one of the bases of the success of this series. The bad cop and the good cop, with their dialogues of black humor, caustic and always in opposition. But for that very reason they complement each other and manage to solve the cases. Around them swarm the rest of secondary characters, such as Rose, the eccentric secretary and collaborator that they will have, the ex-wife's son of Mørck, who lives with him, and the higher then and colleagues with whom they interact.
And then there are plots, so liked by him twist and the most perverse places of human nature that fit perfectly into the cold environment in which they develop.
The titles are:
- The woman who scratched the walls.
- The boys who fell into the trap
- The message that came in a bottle
- File 64
- The Marcus effect
- Unlimited
- Selfies
The movies
The author himself has described them as being «full of clichés»And has denied them, but has been fortunate that the film adaptations that are being made have enjoyed good reception from critics and the public. It is also added with the good general touch in the genre that the Nordics have when it comes to moving thrillers literary to the screen.
The merit in these maybe not so much for the setting already natural dark gray with which they have. The chiaroscuro, the mists and the metallic colors of the cold prevail. There is also the good material so Nordic house brand and so fine at the same time as the stark eye of its filmmakers.
It may also be that the treatment of those clichés made a difference on the big screen. To that is joined by a good business vision in which those responsible thought of people involved in the also successful Swedish adaptations of the famous series Millenniumby Stieg Larsson.
The titles of the film series that adapt the first four novels are:
In 2002 the police, due to lack of evidence, decided to close the case of the disappearance, while on a ferry trip, of Marete Lyngaard, a young political promise.
Mørck and Assad investigate the brutal murder of two young twins in a summer house. A group of upper-class students is among the main suspects.
A message found in a bottle in Scotland reaches Department Q. When they manage to decipher what it says they will find another convoluted abandoned case.
- File 64 (provisional title to the original of journal 64)
This time they are investigating various disappearances that occurred in the XNUMXs. Their investigations lead them to Nete Hermansen, a woman who has wanted to hide her tragic past until he returns. But shadows also return to Mørck's existence, and the secrets of his collaborators Assad and Rose are increasingly evident.
Distribution
Then they found a cast that, at the very least, has turned out to be very solvent. Danish, Swedish or Norwegian actors put faces and airs quite tight to the paper characters.
A Carl Morck The Danish actor gives him a very strong physique Nikolaj Lie Kaas, which does the same comedy that gets into the skin of that inspector with a permanent frown, perhaps even darker and harsher than the literary one. TO AssadHowever, the Swedish actor lends him a completely different physique from the original character. Fares Fares, which nevertheless manages to make us forget it and, in many aspects, also improve it.
And for the rest, actors stand out competent from the terroir or higher up neighbors like the Norwegians, who lend some good names from their cinema to, for example, the bad guy from the role in Redemption, the third movie.
Recommended?
Yes, if you like the literary series obviously, but it is not essential to be a reader of them. They are simply a good sample of the most specialized Nordic cinema in the genre. Whoever has an idea of him (the Swedish saga of Millennium or television series like the bridge, Acquitted o Varg veum) will appreciate them. In addition, I recommend watching them in OV. The harsh Nordic sound accompanies the environment very well.