Amph She wore a Dragon Tattoo: The Millennium Saga (Lisbeth Salander)

I didn't see a thread for this so I figured I'd start one. I know the story of the Steig Larsson trilogy (Dragon Tattoo, Fire, and Hornet's Nest) backwards and forwards. IMO Noomi Rapace is Lisbeth Salander. I know there's people who've suggested Fincher's Hollywood remake of Dragon Tattoo was more true to the novel; but there were parts (particularly the climax scene near the end) which kind of made me cringe at how Lisbeth's character was portrayed.

I've read both of Lagercrantz' novels (Spider's Web and Eye for an Eye) once so far. It was more of a craving to see a continuation of Lisbeth's story than anything else. I liked Eye for an Eye, which I think will be made into a future movie, better than Spider's Web. I just came home after seeing the film version of Spider's Web. Even considering it's been a few years since I read the novel, I felt the movie strayed pretty far from his story. But my biggest gripe was how it seemed like it was almost a reboot of the saga.

(big spoiler protected for those who haven't seen the movie yet)

Spoiler

The Spider's Web movie opens with Lisbeth and her twin sister Camilla at home with their father in a flashback. Then Lisbeth jumps out the window and seems to escape on her own in the Wilderness. Later on in the movie, we learn that Camilla was left with her father for 16 years; and Lisbeth couldn't answer as to why she didn't rescue her sister. My question is, what happened to the firebomb in the car? What happened to her being committed to St. Stefan's Psychiatric Clinic for Children? Regarding the other characters in the movie, I thought it was far more compelling how August (the young boy) was essentially a mute in Lagercrantz' novel. I guess they figured these days no one wants to see a child being silent throughout an entire movie. I think I'm probably going to re-read the novel again before the movie is released on video. I'm sure there were plenty of other discrepancies.

 

watched the original trilogy and the Fincher movie. I'm still not sure how the Fincher movie cost 100 million dollars. Will probably check out this one on cable when it hits just to continue having seen the series but it's been so long barely remember much details.

 

The Fincher movie was Hollywood. It was a national, then global release; so obviously the producers were willing to spare no expense. The movies of the Swedish trilogy may or may not have had budgets approaching $100m; but even if they didn't, the movies could most certainly hold their own in telling a story. And they were a limited release. I remember seeing all three over the span of three months at a small, independent theater with only about a couple dozen seats. But it was worth it.

 

So apparently the title to the sixth book in the Millennium series will be called, "The Girl Who Lived Twice". He's suggested this might be the last book he writes of the series. It makes you wonder if he got the title from some of the reviews for the movie, which compared Lisbeth's current character to a female James Bond.

https://www.malaymail.com/s/1693924/the-girl-who-lived-twice-revealed-as-next-millennium-book

 

A new documentary was shown at Sundance recently and will soon be released to theaters (probably limited run) about the real life story of Stieg Larson; the original author of the Millennium series. I'm certainly gonna keep it on my radar.

 

Just a couple updates in here. I read the book, "Stieg Larsson - The Man Who Played With Fire" (which I'm sure the above documentary is based on) and while it was kind of a slow read (a good portion of it was covering political events in Sweden that was going on throughout Stieg Larsson's life; whether he had been directly involved with them or not) but I was mostly interested in the development of the Millennium trilogy and the custody battle over the rights to its legacy after he passed away suddenly. The book itself was published only a few years after his death; so it didn't even include the Fincher American version much less the Langercrantz sequels.

I also read through The Girl Who Danced with Death; a graphic novel that came out about a month ago off a series of comics from a story that kind of diverges from even Langercrantz' novels. Personally I liked this one better than his stories, even though it was obviously shorter. It borrowed a page from Larsson's own view of the world as it portrayed violence and uprisings of white supremacists and its influence on politics. It often mentioned the Trump election; to give it a current flavor for sure.

 

Contemplating meeting David Lagercrantz at a book signing in NYC next week as his newest book, "The Girl Who Lived Twice" is being released in bookstores. He's on a US tour right now.

 

The thing is that all of the descriptions of Salander are that she's got the body of a girl; like a teenager. That's why Noomi Rapace's portrayal suited her perfectly. When you see the Swedish films, you couldn't automatically tell that it's really a woman in her late 20s/early 30s playing the role. At least I certainly couldn't.


Maybe it's just me, but I didn't really get that vibe as much from either Rooney Mara or Claire Foy.

 

I didn't know "The Girl Who..." was a publishing branding strategy and not a direct translation of the titles, but I agree it's sexist and even worse given the actual subject matter of the books.

 

For all intents and purposes, Steig Larsson's point about the poor treatment of women in modern culture is well portrayed in the novels and movies; regardless of whatever title you prefer. Lagercrantz didn't necessarily pick that up right away with his initial Spider's Web novel; but Eye For an Eye definitely features a story involving men hating women; namely

Spoiler

Honor Killiing; or at least threats to it

I really think if Larsson were alive today, he'd appreciate that specific part of Lagercrantz' story at how it brought the subject to light.

 

I went to Lagercrantz' signing tonight. He signed the new book as well as a copy of his original book that I brought from home.



I asked a couple questions after the initial discussion. The host was an author himself; he kind of got me agitated by his questions which outside of Lagercrantz' biography were essentially in reference to the book that was just being released today. I asked Lagercrantz what he thought about the film adaptation of Spider's Web that came out last year. You could tell right away how disgusted he was. It's sad how Hollywood could just buy the license of a particular book and screw it up the way they did. I remember seeing the movie in theaters and having that same level of disgust at how they butchered it. I also asked him which of his three Lisbeth Salander books he thought Steig Larsson would've been most fond of had he been alive today; Lagercrantz kinda gave a vague answer by suggesting most authors would pick their latest novel as the favorite (didn't really answer my question but I wasn't going to drill him on it).

 

This just came up on my Google news feed

Lisbeth Salander Standalone TV Series in the works at Amazon (Exclusive)

 

The Fincher movie wasn't bad.

 

'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' Series Gets Spicy Update: "Welcome to Female Rage"

I'll keep an open mind on this one. The series would actually suggest that they could potentially follow at least the first three books, which of course would be intriguing considering to date the only venue to do so were the Noomi Rapace films. The way the producer suggests it's apparently going to go a step further in portraying female rage against abuse, racism, and white nationalism, you could almost get the feeling that he's inviting the Far Right to come up with some anti-feminist tirades.

 

The straying from the spirit of the original novel started when they changed the name of the title for the English translation from “Men Who Hate Women.”

 

That's not true. The body of the text of the original trilogy, written by Steig Larsson, wasn't changed; only that title that would've otherwise likely scared away the anti-feminists of the English-speaking (especially American) world). I've read up about Larsson, who had considered himself a feminist in the strongest sense of the word; but it's not like his Lisbeth Salander stories changed from the original Swedish drafts.

 

I generally prefer Lisbeth as she was written by Larsson. Still, even though I do believe that David Lagercrantz did a poor job writing Lisbeth compared with his predecessor, I do think he improved Mikael in some ways.

That said, I'll admit that Lisbeth is one of my favorite names of all time because of the original trilogy. The other, of course, is Luthien. I need not explain why. Lisbeth Salander means so much to many readers around the world any way ya slice it. If I had to sum up my favorite fictional characters of all time, I'd have to say Lisbeth Salander, Luthien Tinuviel...along with some Disney characters. Hehe.

 

Yeah the thing that Lagercrantz did was expand on Lisbeth's familial background by bringing in her twin sister into the mix. Camilla was only briefly mentioned in Larsson's trilogy, and really didn't factor at all in the stories. Spider's Web was all right (the movie adaptation stunk, and when I went to Lagercrantz' book tour for his third novel of the second trilogy, The Girl Who Lived Twice, I'd brought up about the movie and he was bitter and ashamed of it. My favorite novel of his was The Girl Who Lived Twice. It really gets into the main theme of how Lisbeth takes it upon herself to rescue women being abused by men.

 

I like how you described it. To me, there was some racism and other flaws in L's work. However, there was a lot of good content, as well, like you said. However, it's still a soft reboot.

I mostly agree. However, I actually liked the movie version of Spider's Web. This was primarily due to the performances. I dig what you mean.

 

Do you prefer the Fincher version of Dragon Tattoo with Rooney Mara or the Swedish version with Noomi Rapace?

 

I prefer the Swedish version. I do love Rooney's performance and the overall atmosphere of those films. However, Noomi is amazing and those films are just more accurate to the books. How about yourself? I will say that Stellan Skarsgard is a better Martin than the other guy. The original Swedish actor was terrifying, but Stellan made Martin even more charismatic despite being a depraved misogynist. My view is that Noomi is the best Lisbeth and Rooney comes in a close second. Claire Foy was very human as Lisbeth, but I didn't care for the idea of her sister being the villain. I do like how she helped women in that story, though. Also, her hacking of the NSA was just...damn...great scene. Not realistic, but still awesome.