Frankly this is not a woman you’d want to cross. Beautiful, whip-smart and operating with no social niceties, Lisbeth Salander is brilliant character. Part computer hacking genius, part messed-up psychotic, all created by Swedish journalist turned crime writer Stieg Larsson. Based on the first book from the best-selling Millennium Trilogy, published after his premature death, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or ‘Man som hatar kvinnor’ (Men Who Hate Women) in Swedish, has just come out as an excellent film directed by Niels Oplev.
Stieg Larsson was a dedicated anti-Nazi campaigner and man of sound sexual politics, and those views come across very powerfully in his novels. Less so in the film. But Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth is terrific example of a kick-ass woman if ever I saw one. Lisbeth Salander has had a rough life, seen her mother abused by her stepfather (whom she doused with petrol and set on fire at a tender age), put under the care of wards of court, including (as the action starts) a sadistic abuser who demands sexual favours before he will allow her access to her own money, and who then rapes and beats her viciously, threatening that he will have her sectioned if she doesn’t ‘obey his rules’.
But Salander is a woman who makes her own rules and she retaliates by tasering him, viciously abusing him right back with bells on, then tattooing ‘I am a rapist and a sexual pervert’ on his abdomen.
A physically slight woman who wears a lot of black, has many piercings and accessories of the spikey dog collar variety, she nonetheless looks a little like a harder, young, heavily tattooed female Keanu Reeves. She sleeps with men and women as she chooses, but is the only female character I’ve come across (Linda Fiorentino as the fabulous Bridget Greogory in The Last Seduction comes close) who takes her own sexual pleasure from men then walks off leaving them half cocked, as it were. She rides a motor bike, of course. And at the end of the first book we see her walking away scot-free after stealing millions from a nasty piece of work, wearing a blonde wig and killer heels.
All the better to kick you with of course.
Posted by Inkface
Ooh – sooooo jealous! Really, really want to see this film. Just need to get a babysitter on a night when Mr the Hat is actually. Or find someone else to take me I s’pose. You got a number for Rufus by any chance?
Yeah, you probably don’t want to take small children to see it. I’d suggest sneaking off and seeing it on your own or with a mate if babysitters are scarce. Won’t work so well on DVD because of the subtitles.
I forgot about the subtitles. Think I’d better leave Mr the Hat at home. He gets bored watching Swedish Wallander – I’m not sure he’d fancy a trip to the cinema which required the extra level of concentration.
I’ve heard good things from Danish friends about the Swedish Wallander. Do you rate it above the Kenneth Branagh version?
I enjoy both very much. If I really could only have one I’d choose ours, but that’s because it has fabulous Kenneth Branagh in it (part lustbox – sorry arialbold – but mostly admiration of his incredible acting) and its downbeatness is shot so beautifully. All those rippling fields of rape and wheat and glorious Swedish skies…
But it’s definitely worth checking out the Swedish one (it’s due back on BBC4 any week now I believe). It’s more spartan in style but feels more realistic in some ways. You can also learn some serious swearing in a foreign language!.
The only criticism I really have is that it’s also two hours long. I am a lightweight who likes to be heading up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire at 10.02. I can’t be doing with staying up until eleven, some of us have school runs to do!
She looks like a girl version of Adam Lambert http://bit.ly/aKbvpr Bet she can’t sing as well as he can. She also looks like Fairuza Balk in American History X. http://www.filmdope.com/Gallery/ActorsB/880.gif
Thanks for posting the link to this blog : )
I’m currently reading the first book, after I enjoyed watching the first film. Not usually a fan of thrillers this book and hopefully series have me hooked. Lisbeth is the most original and complex herione that I have read for a long time.
It’s been announced that David Fincher will be directing the American remake, hopefully it will do the original justice.
I’m not convinced they will tho’, I fear it will be awful because they’ll dodge the really dark stuff that makes it as good as it is.
I went with two Danish friends who were amusing about Salander’s use of language (Swedish I know, but there are similarities), saying ‘yes’ and ‘no’ on an in-breath, for added emphasis, apparently!
David Fincher’s not one to dodge dark stuff.
I bow to your superior knowledge and now am looking forward to it!
“David Fincher’s not one to dodge dark stuff.”
Agree: Don’t get much darker then Se7en
With the odd exception Fincher has produced very good films and I am pretty confident the franchise is in good hands.
My only concern is whether Rooney Mara who was picked to play Lisbeth Salander will be able to produce the same quality performance as Noomi Rapace did in the original.
Pingback: Joy of Sets: The Good Wife | pauseliveaction