cinematic style (sort of) - Daniel Craig's glasses in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

 screencaps by grande_caps

The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo was a good movie. It was well shot, darkly lit, clearly edited with a whip and just generally a bit of a thrill, which movies like this ought to be if they possibly can. I got onto the Girl With a Dragon Tattoo gravy train really late, despite having a swedish crime fiction mad mother who was pressing all manner of Wallander and the likes on me daily, but I actually picked one up from my local vinnies for $2, read it in one sitting about a week before the movie came out and generally lived and breathed Lisbeth for about a month. Then, like all good crime fiction, that initial shock - that initial press on the bruise - faded, and I was able to read it again, pausing for meals and bathroom breaks, slower this time, purely for pleasure. 

Speaking of pleasure - and no, Daniel Craig, we're not talking about you being the sexiest bond, not really - how great are his glasses? And not just their shape - a little round and a little square, a little rimmed, and a little thin, kind of that perfect balance between thick, deliberately nerdy frames and delicate, deliberately nerdy frames. A little internet snooping and it turns out they're by Berlin-based brand Mykita, and come in a veritable rainbow of colours. No, I'm not even really that interested in the frames. I'm more interested in the way that Daniel Craig wears them - pushed up on his head, clamped between his teeth, and hanging from one ear, dropped down under his chin, resting against his clavicle. Another little bit of internet snooping and it's clear that - aside from Vulture, who called it his glasses game - I'm the only person who cares about this. Like most things Craig does, it's that perfect blend of nonchalance and "don't-give-a-fuckery" with a conscience sense of style (don't tell me that his Bond is all "do I look like I give a damn?"). The second time I saw the movie - this time so that I could enjoy it, rather than spend half the time curled up in the cinema shielding my eyes - I spent most of the movie watching his glasses move, so casually, from his face to his forehead, his forehead to hanging down, hanging down to his mouth, his mouth to his face. It was a fascinating quirk I couldn't get enough of.

Of course, his style in this is pretty good too. It's kind of like an older man's version of COS, all swedish simplicity, well-tied scarves, the occasional perfectly placed beanie and all in a colour palette of murkiest neutrals - this is a crime thriller, remember! - that I can definitely get behind. But in David Fincher movies it's never really about the costumes. Even in The Social Network it felt like all those hoodies and thongs were secondary to the incidental quirks of the character that brought about those hoodies and those thongs. Which is what makes Mikael's glasses so interesting - I couldn't quite work out what made him do it. Because he's fidgety? Because he's nervous? Because it's learned behaviour from when he was defaming people and trying to hide his guilt? Who knows. I like it, though.

X

ps. anyone who needs a bit of a craig fix, just watch this. It will make your day. Seriously.