Martin Beck

I watched a great Swedish mystery, "Roseanna," on Mhz last night. It was based on the first book in the ten book Martin Beck series by the husband and wife team of Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö. The series was originally published between 1965 and 1975. Each book had a different title, but each one had the same subtitle, “En roman on ett brott.” For those of you who don’t know Swedish, that means, “A novel about a crime.” The series received attention both in Sweden and internationally for its deep social dimensions and its sharp social criticism, which were unusual for the detective genre at that time. Last night’s movie and a number of others were made in 1993 and 1994, staring legendary Swedish actor Gösta Ekman as Martin Beck. A few years later, they also made a TV series with original storylines and a new cast.

I really enjoyed watching the movie because it was in Swedish with English subtitles. I abhor the idea of dubbing movies over. In this case, however, I actually almost wish that I could have taken away the subtitles. I found them distracting. I didn’t need them to understand the movie, but I kept reading them anyway because they were there. I was surprised that I would have translated a number of things differently than they had and there were some sentences that they just kind of skipped over. They are going to show another Martin Beck movie, “The Stockholm Marathon,” on July 31st, which I will probably also watch. I take any chance I can get to practice my Swedish.

For those of you that have the interest, I looked the books up in the Arlington County Library catalog. They have six of the ten Martin Beck books translated into English. I might just check them out after I finish Harry Potter, although I really probably should read them in Swedish. I’ll have to check with my mom and see if she has any of them.