Thursday, May 19, 2011

Lisbeth Salander

Lisbeth Salander of The Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson represents many things, but first and foremost she is a fighter.  The introduction of her character in Swedish author Larsson's books, followed by the amazing film adaptation (and soon to be release US adaptation) has had a profound effect on me.  She is not your typical female lead, which is what I love about her, she breaks traditional gender stereotypes, and she also breaks the "sexy tough girl" mould set by actresses like poor Michelle Rodriguez (The Fast and the FuriousS.W.A.T.AvatarMachete and Battle: Los Angeles) who has been typecast from day one.

Which leads me to my next point, we are all familiar with the glitter and dirt of Hollywood and the incessant strain it puts on those desperately seeking stardom to be thin, attractive, stand out blah blah blah etc... I am firstly proud (although it banes me that the US feel the need to remake a perfect international film for their own market...) that director American director David Fincher has decided to re-write the screenplay from the book and to try to do as faithful an adaptation as possible - for the US market.  The actors on the bill provide interesting an comparison to it's Swedish counterpart, and seem to have been selected for not only a similarity in appearance to the Scandinavian actors, but for their resemblance to the book's description of the characters as well.  It is evident, however, that appearance seems to be a little more important to US audiences than European ones...

Lisbeth Salander

Noomi Rapace (Sweden)
 

Rooney Mara (US version)


.... I'm pretty sure Lisbeth wouldn't have done this...


Androgyny Collection by Damien Rinaldo - inspired by Lisbeth?

Mikael Blomkvist

Michael Nyqvist (Sweden)
 

Daniel Craig (US version)



Lena Endre (Sweden)


Robin Wright (US Version)



2 comments:

  1. i hate american Lisbeth she's so ugly and anorectic pseudopunk "good girl gone bad". All my love to Noomi Rapace!

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  2. I think the US version did justice to the books, I am an avid fan of Noomi and also of Stieg's work and was a bit dubious as to watch the new 1 or not.... So I went to see it and I have to say, the writer/director/producers did an amazing job! Also Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara acted their parts brilliantly, although I have to admit I will always have a soft spot for Noomi! She does Lisbeth the best, she is more hard faced and seems more out for revenge, OK Roony did a good job but she looks too sweet and innocent in places... She played her part amazingly though! I look forward to seeing the next installments!

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