About That Lisbeth Salander…

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I’ve been spending a lot of time with Lisbeth Salander lately. Lisbeth, as some of you may know, is the fictional heroine (if you can call her that) of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I read the first one for a book group discussion, and before I had even finished it I ran out and got the second one. Then, Amazon had a killer deal on the third one. So within the span of about a month I had read all three. The books are being made into movies here in the states, but they are still in the casting phase. When I found out that the second book in the series was out as a foreign release, I immediately rented the first one so I could see the second one the following night in the theater. (Geeks do that sort of thing.)

Hearing the characters speak in the native Swedish of the book was really a thrill, and made the stories that much more interesting to me. When I first saw pictures of Noomi Rapace, I wondered if she wasn’t perhaps a bit old to play Lisbeth. But in the movie, she did such a great job that my initial fears were squelched. Michael Nyqvist plays Mikael Blomquist, and he’s every bit as disheveled yet passionate as I pictured him. (The picture below shows director Niels Arden Oplev, Rapace, and Nyqvist at Cannes last year.)

I enjoyed the film interpretation of the book. They could have used more coffee drinking and a few more Billy’s Pan Pizza boxes, because lord knows there is so much of that in the books it’s ridonkulous. I really wondered how they would bring this story to the screen with all the detail in the books, but I think they did a great job. Many of the scenes were just as I’d pictured them, and I enjoyed the way they portrayed or even shortened certain details so they would come across on film. Lisbeth’s famous dragon tattoo, btw, is really well done.

As I was leaving the theater, a guy ahead of me went on and on complaining to someone next to him (who had said she enjoyed the movie) that the book is so much better! So much more detailed! The movie is nothing compared to the book! This dude was one of those artsy fartsy types (or at least thinks he is) who can’t let anyone else have an opinion that’s different than his because he assumes they are wrong, which by process of elimination means that he must be right. He thinks he’s “having an intelligent discussion” when all he’s doing is bullying the poor soul who agreed to see the movie with him. The guy’s movie date (unlucky lady that she was) kept saying, a bit timidly, “but I really enjoyed the movie. I read the books too. But….” and she would get cut off with his perceived supremacy. Then he would respond with “you don’t get it.” (I think she did, pal, she just didn’t agree with you.)

Yawn. Glad he wasn’t my date.

The thing about books getting made into film is that you have to suspend the story you read and allow the director his interpretation. I know quite a few authors who have had books optioned for film (and a few more who have had them made) and in every case they told me that the minute you, as an author, agree to have your story told on film, you must relinquish power and allow the movie gods to do with it what they may. I had one author tell me she tried to remain involved as a means of “loyalty” to her characters, and then quickly realized she was making herself crazy. She used that big old film option check and took a vacation instead.

The same holds true for the viewing public. Film is a completely different medium from the written word, and throw artistic interpretation into that mix and you’re bound to have something different than you envisioned in your own little noggin.

Personally, I enjoyed both the films and look forward to seeing the third… and then seeing all three again when they get made in the states. Cuz that’s how I roll.

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