' ' Cinema Romantico: Probably The Greatest Shot Ever To Appear In A Movie Trailer

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Probably The Greatest Shot Ever To Appear In A Movie Trailer

Perhaps you have seen the trailer for “Dead Man Down” (set for release this Friday), from the director of the original (all caps / italics/ underscore / bold face) “Girl With The Dragon Tattoo”? I’ve seen it. In fact, I’ve seen it three times thus far theatrically and no trailer in recent times has tattooed itself to my brain with such vim and vigor. It stars Colin Farrell as an uber-skilled hitman for an uber-powerful crime lord.

But Colin Farrell is not necessarily a bad guy. We know he’s not necessarily a bad guy because we hear him barking the obligatory line: “They killed my family!” A ha! Well, of course, they did! And so what happens is that he gets caught up with this woman played by Noomi Rapace who appears to want to use Colin Farrell in order to get revenge against Colin Farrell’s crime lord boss. You know how it goes.

So why, you’re asking yourself, has this trailer tattooed itself to Nick’s brain with such vim and vigor? Well, I’ll tell you why. It’s because of the 2:25 mark of the trailer. It’s a single shot. It’s a single shot of Noomi Rapace’s face. But how do I describe this single shot of Noomi Rapace's face? (Putting on thinking cap.)

You know what’s interesting? Noomi Rapace played a girl with a dragon tattoo, right, but the girl with the dragon tattoo is more goth than dragon. And that’s understandable. How does a human being evoke a mythical creature with wings that breathes fire? Well, you can’t. Except you can! Because that’s what Noomi Rapace does at 2:25 of the trailer! She rears her head back with this seductively lunatic smile, like Rita Hayworth in “Gilda” if Rita Hayworth in “Gilda” had just drunk some poor bloke’s blood because she was a vampire that had just finished an after-hours Boston Marathon, and for one magnificent second you will swear she could breathe fire and then swoop off and go ransack an entire medieval village.

The trailer is edited so that the shot arrives the instant after Colin Farrell shouts “Do you know what it is to kill a man?” Perhaps this look is her response to said query. I mean, that's a look that implicitly implies: "Yes. I know what it is to kill a man. In fact, I just killed one while you were grinding the coffee beans."

"You have no idea what you're getting into with me!" Colin Farrell shouts not long after this shot. Is he shouting this at Noomi Rapace? Perhaps, and perhaps pointing this out is pointless. That look on Noomi Rapace's face suggests she knows exactly what she's getting into with him and that getting into it with him is exactly what she wants.

A woman who can look at you like that can conquer the whole world.


1 comment:

Derek Armstrong said...

You could say that she's shining on like a crazy diamond.