Skulldugg & Dopplegang: May 2011

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 Furious, S.W.A.T., Avatar, Machete 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)