An Analysis of Adaptation: Bringing Bestselling Literature to the Big Screen

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Bringing Bestselling Literature to the Big Screen Steffie Abdelrazek 6087523 steffie.abdelrazek@student.uva.nl University of Amsterdam Humanities

Master Linguistics - Translation 2 July 2015

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Introduction

In 1959, Roman Jakobson’s definition of an intersemiotic translation was “an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems” (Jakobson 233). Currently, this definition still applies, however what qualifies as a nonverbal sign system has over the years expanded immensely. The term intersemiotic translation is in less theoretical words better known as ‘adaptation’, or as the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English denotes, “a film or television programme that is based on a book or play” (19). ‘Intersemiotic’ refers to the shift in medium, and ‘translation’ indicates the act of converting one form to the other. Whereas in 1959 most intersemiotic translation was concerned with visual adaptations in the form of art, pictures or film, it presently involves a much bigger playing field, even within the before mentioned concepts of media. The possibilities and demands for this kind of

translation have grown exponentially. For this paper, the form of intersemiotic translation that will be focused on is movie adaptation. Although this is a well-known type of intersemiotic translation, the manner in which it is used nowadays is much more elaborate than it was in the time that Jakobson developed his theory about it. Currently, this form of media now reaches people on a ‘seemingly endless variety of formats and locations’, as stated in Jim Collins’ book Bring on the Books for Everybody (4). Sometimes there are so many translations, adaptations, spinoffs, interpretations, remakes etc. of one primary source, that comparison is not even possible. Why do people generally seem to enjoy such a large number of different versions of original material? What do these versions require to function? How do they distinguish themselves from the already existing corpus of adaptations? Do they even need to distinguish themselves at all?

The main focus of this paper will be to establish the status of adaptation from its development to the position of it now and how it has advanced over the years. Secondly, it will discuss the many elements that are involved with making a movie adaptation and this will be guided by two movie adaptations of the same book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. To exemplify the features present in making an adaptation, this paper will use the adapted films of the bestselling book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as a general point of reference. Concentrating on the Swedish and American adaptations of the book, it will become clear that succeeding in adapting a literary story does not solely rely on adequately interpreting ‘a verbal sign into a nonverbal one’, (Jakobson 233) but also how to amuse and manipulate the crowd into liking – and spending money on – the adaptation. When it comes to making a

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movie, the act of adapting is only a part of what can make the film a success. What will follow in this thesis is a systematic approach to all the aspects that come with making a movie adaptation as well as describing how the task of adapting has been carried out through an examination of two movie adaptations of the same book. The process of transforming word to image comes with its own set of rules and expectations that will have to work closely together with the rules and expectations that exist in the movie business of this day and age.

Adapting a literary work into a film is not only about making the words come to life; it is about producing a profitable movie. This paper will illustrate the (possibly conflicting) relationship between making a successful adaptation and producing a successful movie. To be able to compare the stages in, and results of an adaptation, this paper uses two different versions of the same original source as its object of analysis. This object comes in the form of the movie adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling novel, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Since the book was published in 2004, the first film adaptation came out in 2009, from Swedish soil. In 2011 it was followed by an American remake. The two adaptations of the same source create an excellent opportunity to compare and monitor the decisions in the process of adapting. Adapting a book and making a movie could be considered as two sides of the same coin. They both fall within the medium of film, but it seems they cannot both be done with equally spectacular results. In the sense that the perfect adaptation is likely to fall short as a movie and the perfect movie must make alterations to the story it is adapting. Combining book and film will require both channels to make concessions. Creating a truly faithful adaption will cause the movie to lose its opportunity of being truly successful.

Subsequently, making a movie cannot be done while also accurately translating all the book’s events, characters and narratives to the screen.

The first chapter will discuss the earlier, but currently relevant theoretical framework which provides the initial image of adaptation. It will introduce the current and former theories about the notions of adaptation and movie production. These two notions will make up the main content of the first chapter. The theory on adaptation will mainly be provided by the theories of Linda Hutcheon, Jeremy Munday and Roman Jakobson. It will also offer a short summary of, and contextual information about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The second chapter will follow up on the theory with examples from both movies and how they have given shape to certain elements from the original story. The chapter discusses several factors that play an important role in bringing a literay work to screen and discusses examples from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to clarify the possible choice. Much of the theory presented in the first chapter will be treated alongside the analysis of the two adaptations. The

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third chapter will include a vision for the future, including theories by Henry Jenkins, Jim Collins and Christa Albrecht-Crane to discuss the place of adaptation in a quickly changing world where the function of media and media access has already started to play a significantly larger role in people’s lives. Respectively, the chapters provide an overview of adaptation in its past, present and possibly future form.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ambivalent relationship between successfully producing a movie versus adequately adapting a book. As Gideon Toury discusses in his book Descriptive Translation Studies – and Beyond, the “‘value’ of translation, or the basic tools in a translator’s ‘kit’, may be described as consisting of two principles whose realizations are interwoven in an almost inseparable way’ (69). Toury is referring to two concepts concerning translation, however, he states that there is a missing boundary between the separate member of a category. Therefore, it seems that everything is interconnected and no clear study can be performed on one component. However, this might mean that the apparent interconnectedness demonstrates that there should be no clear division, but an acceptance that adaptation creates an intermedial connection between literary and visal media.

Translating a text according to the acceptable principle or adequate principle, illustrates the choice of the translator to focus on either the receiving or sending culture. While Toury does not discuss intersemiotic translation, his point still holds true for this paper. According to his theory, approaching an adaptation that focuses on the book’s literal

transformation to film is an adequate translation. Changing it to fit the medium of film and therefore targeting a movie going audience as opposed to fans of the book is consistent with his notion of the acceptable principle. Furthermore, “what they can never be is identical” (Toury 70), as a book turned to movie can never be the same experience as reading a book. Toury describes that “any attempt to get closer to the one would entail a distancing from the other” (70). Therefore the solution is “an ad hoc compromise between the two. Be that as it may, a translation will never be either adequate or acceptable. Rather, it will represent a blend of both” (70). There are many considerations to be made when adapting a book;

considerations a director of an original movie does not have to make. He needs to choose between what is true to the book and what is appropriate for visual adaptation. This paper will talk about both sides of this equation and consider these aspects in light of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’s two existing versions and if the notions of acceptable versus adequate are the only directions available when making an intersemiotic translation. Because there have been two adaptations of the same novel in a relatively short period of time, they offer a useful

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insight into the production of an adaptation. They are both adaptations, but as they have produced different results as movie productions, a comparison can be made between the process and execution of adapting either movie. Aspects of language and international

distribution play a significant role in the commercial success of a movie and will also be taken into account in this comparison. This analysis will illustrate that the choice to do an American remake of the Scandinavian Männ som hatar kvinnor – an already established and still pretty recent adaptation of the book of the same name – is a valuable source of information

regarding adaptation. To successfully remake a movie that is already so embedded in popular culture and is more or less global property, it is interesting to note if the American remake did something innovative to the original. The current possibilities for global interaction in sharing opinions, interpretations and media make it very hard for the two films to pass each other by. Comparing and contrasting the two movie adaptations, by means of examining the portrayal of the character, the narrative structure and other, the choices will lead to an understanding of the unbiased process of adaptation. Opinions will always vary and holding on to notions such as good and bad (intersemiotic) translations can only end in discussion more than a definitive conclusion. However, providing an analysis of similar, yet different adaptations may shed a helpful light on how to perform the act of adapting. The goal of this paper is to approach adaptation as no more than a decision making process, and device a reference plan for potential future reference, as well as portray the possible role of adaptation on the basis of its growing importance in current media developments.

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1. Once upon a time

Almost as soon as the concept of film came into existence, someone decided that a written work could transform into something visual. As mentioned in the introduction, the

phenomenon of this transformation was called adaptation. This change of medium, or intersemiotic translation, brings together the channels of the written word and the presented image. For both adaptation and an original movie production there exist a certain set of requirements and expectations. There are many things that have to be taken into consideration when it comes to the execution of adapting a novel and producing a movie. This chapter will describe most of the elements and explain how they can be used and interpreted. The object that will be used alongside of these aspects will be the Swedish and American movie adaptations of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or originally, Männ som hatar kvinnor. The two main sections of this chapter will go into the aspects of making an adaptation and making a movie. The main focus of this chapter lies on the theory that is at hand concerning adaptation and movies. However, this chapter will also go into the almost unavoidable question, why – if adaptation is known to be an indirect translation – do people keep comparing the film to the book. Comparing book to film by way of comparing the literal conversion of the story line from letter to screen is an unsatisfying and nearly impossible process. It always comes back to the fact that when a book is adapted to film, much of the story will apply, but for one reason or the other, it can and will never be exactly the same. It is a recurring question if it can even be expected that a film resembles a book to the point of it being an almost literal translation. However, the appeal of seeing a beloved book visually adapted is powerful and much of the profit that can be made from a movie adaptation comes from the book enthusiasts. If the “movie does not live up to the expectations of its fans…it can also ruin a series” (Craig 2014). And since everyone’s interpretation of a book can be very different, it can be very challenging to portray the film in the same way as people have imagined it (Craig 2014). The fact is, when it is decided to adapt a book to film people expect the movie to tell the story of the novel. However, marketing, public demand, budget and the view of the director play a big role in how a movie is produced. In the end, a movie

production should be profitable and contrary to what the readers may expect, a movie production is about business more than it is about the integrity of the project. This does not, however, make it any less interesting to analyse how certain aspects of a novel are translated into film.

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1.1 Theoretical Background

By definition, adapting does not refer to a direct translation, but it can best be described as being an approximate form of the original. As explained in Jeremy Munday’s book

Introducing Translation Studies, adaptation is a form of intersemiotic translation, which occurs when “a written text is translated into a different mode, such as music, film or

painting” (9). For this paper, film is the chosen mode of adaptation and the rules, or stages for adapting another mode of adaptation will be arguably different than for adaptations to other modes. Evidently, a book cannot be literally transferred to film, that is why it is an adaptation. Hutcheon explains that ‘to adapt’ is to “adjust, to alter, or to make suitable” (7). It is not supposed to be exactly the same, it is supposed to adapt to a new form suitable for the different kind of medium it is presented in. Essentially, adaptation refers to anything that is the reproduction of an original story in any way shape and/or form. As mentioned in the introduction, the first person to aptly describe the different kinds of translation was the Russo-American structuralist Roman Jakobson. He has put the processes of translation into three categories: intralingual, interlingual and intersemiotic. Unfortunately, Jakobson’s focus mostly lies on the first two kinds of translation. Intersemiotic translation existed, though it was not as established compared to this day and age. Therefore, increasing the existing theories on intersemiotic translation can help build its importance next to the prevalent studies on intralingual and interlingual translation, especially because adapting has become an increasingly popular tool to create and spread stories. Thanks to the popularity and surge in usage, the act of adapting has also suffered harsh criticism. For some reason, movie

adaptations are seen as a downwards movement in status and quality instead of up. However, “it does seem to be more or less acceptable to adapt Romeo and Juliet into a respected high art form, like an opera or a ballet, but not to make it into a movie” (Hutcheon 2). Not taking into account that this is also a way of spreading culture, or making a – perhaps – little less

accessible form of art, namely literature, more approachable for the greater public via film. It is mostly true that “a best-selling book may reach a million readers; a successful Broadway play will be seen by 1 to 8 million people; but a movie or television adaptation will find an audience of many million more” (Hutcheon 5). It is mainly cultural convention and old fashioned beliefs that keep these negative feelings towards the status of movies as an art form and movie adaptations alive. It is true that when something, especially in the case of art, is inaccessible to many people, it automatically increases in value and/or status. It is an old conviction, that familiarity and understanding of the arts was intended for the upper class (Ten Eyck 331) and this did not only apply to the people who had access to art, but also about the

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art itself. It is difficult to categorize art and DiMaggio states in his article “Classification in Art” that “early efforts to characterize systems of formal culture employed societal-level typologies that comprehended systems of artistic production and consumption” (44). When something is made available to a wider range of people, it may lose its status; but it can also spread the familiarity and attention. When it comes to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it could be debated of what status it is. As an international bestseller, it could already be

considered as a product of mass-consumption and therefore of low artistic value. However, in Scandinavia, they are proud to have brought forward such a literary development. The Local, a Swedish Newspaper in English, points out the significance of the trilogy for Sweden, stating that, “the success of the Millennium books has sparked a huge interest in Sweden on the part of tourists, spawning guided tours in the capital which take participants in the author’s and his characters' footsteps... a new image of Sweden emerging in the international consciousness – not in the least through the fictional oeuvre of world-acclaimed crime writer Stieg Larsson” (Martin). Consequently, Sweden could benefit even more from a movie adaptation, since it will cause the story – and the name that comes with it – to spread even further.

Apart from the Millennium trilogy’s position in art, “in both academic criticism and journalistic reviewing, contemporary popular adaptations are most often put down as secondary, derivative, belated, middlebrow, or culturally inferior” (Hutcheon 2). However, the point of this paper is, instead of approaching the adaptations as a lower form of art, but to illustrate the process of translating a book into film to provide a description from the one form to the other and draw conclusions that might guide a subsequent analysis of future

adaptations.

1.2 The Story and the Transformation

To better comprehend the object of adaptation in this paper, this section will provide a short summary of the narrative line from the first installment of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Having broadly explored the concept of adaptation in the beginning of this chapter, this part will summarize the story that has inspired the two movie adaptations and the story’s origin. The book series consists of three novels, making it a trilogy. Supposedly, there is a fourth book, but after Larsson’s decease, the rights to this fourth book are very problematic. The series was ultimately not intended to be a trilogy, but as his website explains, there were supposed to be ten books and he was only able to finish the first three and almost finish the fourth before his death (“The 4th_{book”). In this paper, the focus lies on the first novel, which}

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(home of the author), with two different cultures.

The first book is a fruitful source to compare, contrast and chart the choices that were made in the movie adaptations. It is the only part of the series that has been adapted into two films. In his fictional book Shipwreck, Louis Begley has his novelist and main character state that a “film has to convey its message by images and relatively few words; it has little

tolerance for complexity or irony or tergiversations” (154). His character John Nort describes that “writing a screenplay based on a great novel is foremost a labor of simplification. I don’t only mean the plot…with secondary characters and subplots, severe pruning is required, but also intellectual content” (154). Although fictional, this character gives an accurate

assessment of adaptation. However, the story of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is all about complexity and provides an abundance of information that may or may not be relevant or interesting to everyone. Therefore, to combine both the excessive amount of information from the book, with the idea of a concise message that belongs in a movie, the adaptors have their work cut out for them.

The two separate adaptations have a reflective effect on each other, as well as on the original book. As Lee explains, “different “translations” potentially evoke different aspects of the source text, demonstrating what Tymoczko (1999) calls the ‘metonymics’ of

translation”(248). The article describes that the way in which the adaptations are made, can reflect back on the text. As is usually the case, a film adaptation omits certain developments in the narrative and plotlines from the novel to correspond to appropriate time limits (Bryant 313). These changes and omissions can lead to other interpretations by the audience, since what they have seen in the film shows the story differently. It can also have a top-down effect, where the interest in the book is raised after seeing the movie. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo does no longer just refer to the book, but to the whole franchise, the movies, the actors, Sweden. With the addition of the movies, the concept of and the associations with the story reach a much larger audience. Lee presents intersemiotic translation as a passage through the concepts of language and culture (244), as opposed to an analysis of “signs across semiotic modes within a culture” (244). This is exactly what can be seen in the

adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Although set in Sweden, with typical Swedish names and references to real geographical locations and cultural phenomena, the fictional story is still adaptable for an international movie. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo “has become a global cultural artifact translated to thirty-five languages, including Hebrew, Korean, Mandarin, and Vietnamese, with translation rights pending into Arabic, Thai, and Turkish” (Stenport & Alm 156). The story goes beyond the boundaries of Sweden, but

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initially interlingual translation and subsequently intersemiotic translation, makes it able to cross over in many different languages and cultures.

When making an adaptation, it is important to spend time on the main characters. The central female character in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is Lisbeth Salander. Her character is a key part in the drive of the plotline and subsequently the choices in how she is portrayed can influence the impression of the character on an audience. The book is narrated in third person omniscient, which creates a certain detachment to the characters, but also enables the reader to follow different people in the story. The story centres around Salander and the main male character, Mikael Blomkvist. Apart from them, there are moments in the book where the focus of attention shifts to another character. In chapter two a few moments from the films that feature Salander will be discussed in depth to show how the adaptations have interpreted and present her character. The following section will provide a specific summary which discloses the main events from the story and the ones that portray Salander in a significant way. Later in this paper, this description of the novel’s story will help drawing a comparison between the adaptations.

The first part of the trilogy has a slightly different focus than the other two books. The first book – albeit about her – starts off with a man receiving a flower for his birthday. This man, Henrik Vanger is sent a flower each year on this day from an unknown source. The flowers are symbolic for the relationship he shared with his niece who disappeared many years ago (as many years as he has been sent flowers) and whom he has presumed dead ever since. To finally be able to move on from his loss, he has his lawyer, Dirch Frode, hire a private investigator to do a background check on an investigative journalist, Mikael Blomkvist. Blomkvist has been found guilty of libel after publishing a revealing and damaging book on a man named Wennerstrom and his business. He is sentenced to a few months in prison and subsequently decides to give up his job to minimize problems for his colleagues. Blomkvist is supposed to work for Henrik Vanger to finally find out what happened the night Harriet – Vanger’s niece – vanished. The private investigator hired to inspect Blomkvist, is Lisbeth Salander.

Lisbeth works for Dragan Armansky at Milton Security. Due to events in her past – which are referred to as All the Evil – she has been placed in the care of a legal guardian who manages her finances and other official business. At the start of the book, her guardian is Holger Palmgren, an old man who – to some extent – has earned her trust and leaves her with a considerable amount of freedom. Under his care she has found her job and can arrange her life independently. On paper, her work for Milton Security entails making coffee and sorting

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the mail, but in reality she is given important assignments by Armansky. Owing to her impressive computer hacking skills, she is able to find out pretty much any existing information about a person. Her ways are not always legal, but Armansky does not ask questions and she does not make mistakes that could lead back to him. When Palmgren suffers a stroke, Salander’s legal guardianship is taken over by Nils Bjurman. His attitude towards Salander is the entire opposite of her previous guardian.

After Salander’s report, in which she professes Blomkvist is trustworty and although found guilty of libel in the Wennerstrom affair, she believes him to be innocent, Dirch Frode contacts Blomkvist and asks him to conduct the investigation into the disappearance of Harriet. Blomkvist feels the strong need to distance himself from Stockholm and his life there, so he accepts. After serving the prison sentence of three months, he moves to Uppsala to work for Henrik Vanger. Because he left his job at Millennium Magazine, he has no other

obligation than to focus on the investigation. Blomkvist and Salander are brought together through Dirch Frode who, after Blomkvist mentions he could use help with his research, points him to the girl who did the background check on him. Reading her notes about him, Blomkvist realizes she hacked into his computer. When he goes to see her and ask for help, he also confronts her about the way she has acquired her information about him. Salander is initially wary of the request because she will have to work togehter with someone, but because of her own conviction to punish men who hate (or hurt) women, she accepts.

The rest of the story is essentially about the search for Harriet and the subsequent “friendship” that develops between Blomkvist and Salander according to the principles of friendship Blomkvist has lain down. He tells her that to be friends; people need to have “respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don't have trust, the friendship will crumble” (Larsson 472). Later in their partnership, Salander and Blomkvist also become lovers. The relationship – if it can even be called that – is difficult to describe, owing to Salander’s troubled interaction with men and people in general, but Blomkvist treats her in such a way that she starts to appreciate him. In the end, through a dangerous and intricate series of events, Blomkvist and Sallander find Harriet and reunite her with her uncle Vanger. It is clarified that Harriet was being abused by her family and wanted to flee from home. This was made possible by Anita, Harriet’s friend, relative and lookalike, who allows her to use her name, her passport and enables her to start a new identity in Australia, where Harriet marries and has three children. As a consequence of her identity gift, Anita lives a quiet and secluded life and never marries to continue to protect her friend.

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Ultimately, the story is “both a traditional locked-room mystery...and a modern thriller about corporate crime and a series of female murder” (Stenport & Alm 158). First and

foremost, the book is a detective novel. As a result, most of the story is about the uncovering of the truth about Harriet, as well as the truth about Salander. This aspect of the story is probably also the reason for its adaptability. In his paper “On linguistic aspects of translation” Jakobson explains that “in its cognitive function, language is minimally dependent on the grammatical patterns because the definition of our experience stands in complementary relation to metalinguistic operations” (236). He explains that as long as something is

relatively translatable from one language into another, it can also be culturally transferable. A story is comprehensible in one language and culture, but if it is possible to change the

grammatical patterns to that of another sign system, it is possible to understand the original story in a different form. Therefore, translating the original Swedish text to other languages and sign systems is possible. Not in a literal sense, but in a similar yet different experience. This point is reaffirmed by Hutcheon when she describes that adaptions are from one medium to another, “they are re-mediations”, more clearly they are the intersemiotic translation from one sign system to another (16). For example, this means transforming words to images. When it comes to translation, even though it is intersemiotic, the translator, in this case the screenplay writer and indirectly the director who interprets the screenplay and can again adapt the scenario – and thus words – to image, chooses a strategy to make the adaptation. Strategy is the conscious direction a translated text takes (Munday 22). Van Doorslaer provides a map that contains countless examples or translation strategies, but most of them do clearly refer to inter- or intralangual translation. He has, fortunately, taken into account intersemiotic

translation by way of including different subdivisions: media, mode and field. Media is self-explanatory, but mode, which entails “overt/covert translation, direct/indirect translation…and field: political, journalistic, literary commercial” (Munday 22), which cover the area of adaptation as well. Even in intersemiotic translation the strategy can be chosen to make a more “literal” than “free” translation. (31) While it seems to be true for inter- and intralingual translation that the general opinion to translate free, or “sense-for-sense” (31) is the preferred option, intersemiotic translation “has been plagued by the doctrine of ‘fidelity’ and its baffling references to a source text’s presumed ‘spirit’” (Collard 20). Not staying true to the spirit can in the case of a movie adaptation be very prone to criticism, “like jazz variations, adaptations point to individual creative decisions and actions, yet little of the respect accorded to the jazz improviser is given to most adapters” (Hutcheon 86). Producing a translation, especially an intersemiotic one can be quite uncompromising. As Collard explains, the

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“migration across referential and expressive frameworks entails formal, structural, and cognitive consequences” (20). Therefore, the changes that come with this kind of translation should be tolerated in the least. As Hutcheon makes clear, “an adaptation is a derivation that is not derivative – a work that is second without being secondary. It is its own palimpsestic thing” (Hutcheon 9). However, it must be acknowledged that when the decision is made to adapt a book, the fans have to be taken into consideration. At the moment, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is still second on The New York Times’ Best Seller List in the category “Paperback Mass-Market Fiction” (“Best Sellers”) and evidently achieved international success. The movie adaptations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or as it is called in Sweden Män som hatar kvinnor , which directly translates as ‘men who hate women,’ received more than enough attention to peak the world’s interest. The subject of the book consists of such shock and taboo evoking elements, that the book itself did a lot of the marketing.

1.3 The Film Adaptation

The marketing of a movie plays a big role in the expectations of the fans and interested parties. In the case of the 1996 movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet to Romeo+Juliet, much of the allure was based on the fact that the film would not take place in Shakespearian times, but would be set in a contemporary environment while maintaining the original use of language. As an audience, or critic, it is possible and allowed to not appreciate this change, but at least this particular change was indicated during the film’s promotion. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo did not undergo such a change in either adaptations. There were no drastic transformations to the original story, so the alterations that were made (however small), might disappoint the part of the audience that is familiar with the book, since they expect the

adaptation to reflect their own interpretation. As illustrated previously, “the cultural prestige of the acknowledged ‘original’ is often used as legitimating the new text and the medium in which it is produced” (Collard 20). Adapting The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can be brought forward as not only to function as the extension of cultural property and knowledge, but also to maximize a substantial profit. Consequently, the success of the original book leads to the justification of the story’s adaptations.

There are so many more aspects that add to the experience when adapting a book to the big screen, the options of sound, cinematography, actors and simply the visual

representation of anything that originates from the primary text. The history and development of the source text directly influences the process of filming and advertising the movie

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adaptation. There are different aspects to be considered when adapting a book: what to do with the story? How to render the characters? How close to stay to the original plotlines? Much of these topics will be discussed further in the second chapter, but this section will bring forward what the director, scriptwriters and actors have said about the production of the movies. A whole team is responsible for taking one writer’s story to the big screen. Presenting their thoughts and opinions alongside the final product of the film, can help establish the stages in the process of adaptation. Subsequently, this part will present a few examples from the films to indicate similarities and differences to further distuingish the steps in

development of these adaptations. In the following chapter of this paper, the method of comparing and contrasting the two movies will be guided by the realization of five specific elements concerning movie adaptation. This subchapter discusses the position of the crew involved with making the film and adaptation.

A reason for the story’s adaptability could be that the violent and unconventional topic offers the possibility for a vigorous action movie with a strong female lead. The difficulty in adapting lies with finding a balance between what the audience wants and expects, what tools and resources the productive team has and what the original text provides. This is also why it is so hard to satisfy the needs of most audiences when it comes to adaptation. There is just too much: a book is capable of numerous narrative structures, characters, plots and events while a movie quickly becomes boring, lengthy or confusing when all of the elements from the book are included exactly as they were put into words. Screenwriter for the Swedish film, Nikolaj Arcel, says about the writing of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo that he and co-writer Rasmus Heisterberg wrote the original screenplay and that it was “more of a straightforward adaptation where we actually used a lot of the book” (Arcel). The fact that screenwriters feel they have stayed close to the book is interesting, considering they must make significant alterations. In the case ofthis adaptation, the character of Lisbeth Salander, for example, has undergone quite some changes, which will be brought forward in the second chapter. Director of the Swedish film Niels Arden Oplev says about the film that he would direct it, but only if he had complete control over factors such as cast, script, length, final cut etc. He explains that this was the only way he saw himself adapting the popular book (Oplev). When it comes to adapting a book which conveys such strong notions of violence against women it can be very challenging to visualize these scenes, because the subject is so delicate. Therefore it is prone to be the centre of public scrutiny. Aware of this happening, Oplev states that his condition for making the film was to have the producing company sign over all the artistic rights to him, so he was the only one making the decisions. He goes on to say that it was the first time for

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him adapting a book and he felt that it was a great risk to adapt this wellknown and well-liked story. Therefore he need to make sure that the influence affecting him was in the best interest of the film and not by conflicting compromises (Oplev). His opinion about the point of departure of the adaptation shows he was very aware of the implications of adapting this particular book to film. The director himself is as much a reader and interpreter of the book as anyone. His choice to have the full rights to the production of the movie enables him to make any changes he deems appropriate and necessary. It allows him to design the movie on the basis of his own interpretation, that of the screenwriter and what he – hopefully – estimates to be the general and dominant reading of the book. The possible problem with this position is that Oplev was ultimately the one who made all the decisions and naturally he could make the wrong one. Larsson was not there to offer his interpretation or explain how he intended certain parts to be read. On the other hand, what is the wrong decision? There is no clear etiquette or rule system set aside when it comes to movie adaptations. Sometimes the author is very closely involved with the production and is even allowed to name certain conditions for the adaptation. For example, in the case of the adaptations of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling “received a large amount of creative control for the film, being made an executive producer, an arrangement that Columbus [the director] did not mind” (Warner Bros.).

Rowling, for example, insisted the cast would be mostly made up out of British actors instead of American. However, Oplev did not have that option and therefore his thoughts and

opinions weigh strongly against other views. He clearly states that “you could say that every detail in this film, I'm involved in”. He decided for his film that Salander should be the focus of attention, the real hero (Oplev). He also mentions the American adaptation and states that the subplot about Salander would not make it to a Hollywood film:

Because, with that story in, and Blomkvist's investigation over here, the tracks of the two main characters don't meet before 74 minutes into the film. And that's like a nearly normal film for cinema that has passed when they meet. This is unheard about. Nobody comments on that. Nobody thinks about it, but in Hollywood, any producer would have demanded that they would have to meet within the first 20 minutes of the story. They meet 74 minutes into the story. That is unheard about, totally, and it functions really well. Because we thought Lisbeth was the most interesting character and the most controversial character, those scenes between her and Bjurman just had to be in the story, because they would make the audience understand her and where she comes

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from, what she's been through. But also, the darkness of those scenes and the controversy of it, colours the whole next one-and-a-half hours. Those kinds of decisions, you can make when you have the artistic power. (Oplev)

He goes on to explain, “It’s kind of like a little short story in itself. And, in Hollywood, that would be cut out, most definitely” (Oplev). However, the American version has not cut it out. Probably to the surprise of the Swedish director, the movies are not as dissimilar as expected. The American version has Salander and Blomkvist meet after 76 minutes in the film and the subplot developing Salander’s character, which Oplev states will make the audience

understand who she is, is as extensively and graphically present in the American as it is in the Swedish film. Which shows that although the films originated from different places and ideas, they both valued the subplot greatly in favour of Salander’s character development and despite the time it takes for the two main characters to meet. Oplev claims that he wanted “all the small clues and details in Larsson’s book to be there” (Oplev). For an experienced movie director to make this kind of statement seems a little misguided. He must realize that he is limited in his time and options to ensure that the “little things” make it into the movie.

Incidentally, he also explains that “the prep time was short and early on it became clear to me that we needed a miracle to bring the film home on time and budget” (Oplev). Oplev even admits himself that “we actually had done a lot more changes than people think about, and I wanted the changes we had done to be invisible, in a sense that, if you read the book and then three months later see the film, I want you to think that what you see in the film, you read that, but you haven't” (Tinkham). In spite of his ininitial ambition to include essentially everything from the book in the film, Oplev becomes more nuanced and realistic about his adaptation, being satisfied with giving the audience the idea that the film has adapted everything, but it actually tricks them into thinking that.

An extra dimension in the Swedish movie is simply that the film is in Swedish. For the viewer who does not speak the language, the movie is also an interlingual translation. Since most of the viewers will not be Swedish, the adaptation will often be watched with subtitles. Subtitles are a form of translation in itself, falling within Jakobson’s category of “interlingual translation”(233). This kind of translation comes with its own set of

requirements; amongst one of them is the shortage of space for the text. Consequently, the viewers are presented with another interpretation of the Swedish language. There is “ordinarily no full equivalence between code-units” (Jakobson 233), but an interlingual translator, or in this case a subtitler, will attempt to find the most equivalent conveying of

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messages. Languages “differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey” (Jakobson 236). This fortunately means for subtitling, that modality is to a large extent an unnecessary aspect for mutual understanding. When subtitling, only the most important, the essence of the speaker’s message, needs to be put in words. Subtitles are “a written, additive, synchronous type of translation of a fleeting, polysemiotic text type” (Munday 279). The subtitles are an addition to the movie, but without the visual presence of the film, the subtitles cannot stand as a text alone. Even the screenplay will have more information than is given in the subtitles.

The American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came out in 2011 under the direction of David Fincher. In an interview with “The Telegraph”, he describes that he begins the process of making a film with listing everything he does not want to be troubled with (Fincher). Similar to Oplev, Fincher also chooses to simplify the job at hand by determining his prioritites. He does not want to worry about the costs, or how the story may be received. He goes on to say that, “you can’t take everything on. That’s why when people ask how does this film fits into my oeuvre, I say ‘I don’t know.’ I don’t think in those terms. If I did, I might become incapacitated by fear” (Fincher). As opposed to Oplev, Fincher’s focus lies on

making a film instead of making an adaptation. The interviewer, Secher, states in his

introduction that Fincher has “a reputation among senior Hollywood executives for being the guy who makes kind of pervy movies that are sort of dark, who’s a little uncompromising when it comes to how stuff gets presented and who’s really not afraid to offend anybody” (Secher). In addition, Daniel Craig, the actor who plays Mikael Blomkvist in the Hollywood production, gave the audience the warning that the movie “contained very violent material, and was for adult eyes only” (Horeck et al. 1). Craig’s comment may be to protect innocent viewers from the potentially shocking images. However, the “sexual violence is not seriously discussed, debated, or indeed in some cases even mentioned in the film’s reviews, possibly because at this stage in the cultural retelling of the bestselling Millennium trilogy, the story is so familiar” (Horeck et al. 1). Because the story is so well-known, the need to warn the moviegoers is not as pressing as it may seem, since most of the people going to see the film, will know exactly what to expect. Even for the viewers that have not read the books, the reputation of the story precedes it.

Despite the American adaptation being “a good deal more graphic—gratuitously so at some points” (Bryant 313), the familiarity with the story should prepare an audience properly for what they are about to see. From the start, this movie lays the focus of attention much more on making a movie than making an adequate adaptation of a well-known book.

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Therefore, the strong visual representation of the book’s described scenes that may or may not intimidate and shock viewers, is another sign to the emphasis put on showing the story, more than telling it. In most interviews, Fincher talks primarily about the film instead of what the film is based on. It seems he has a clear idea about what he wants to do cinematically, while not necessarily concerned with the adaptating element, or as stated in the introduction, Fincher focusses on an acceptable translation more than an adequate one. He goes on to explain there is “one almost unwatchable savage rape scene,” which, “left his young star, Rooney Mara, ‘pretty badly beat up…black and blue. Even when you’re faking it, that stuff leaves a mark’” (Fincher). In real life, the film production can only function working with real people, who can really, physically injure themselves acting out things from a book. If an actor is uncomfortable or unwilling to perform scenes that are potentially harmful, this has a direct effect on the adaptation. It is also an entirely different experience for a viewer to see a rape scene, than for a reader to read it.

Changing the title of the American adaptation is another choice that affects the

portrayal of the original story. Whereas the primary title is Män som hatar kvinnor and refers to Salander’s mission to take revenge on any man who hates (and subsequently hurts) women. The change to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, puts Salander without any misgiving in the title role. However, the first installment is more Blomkvist’s story than it is hers. As such, Fincher puts a large amount of time in portraying Blomkvist and Salander together; because, what really fascinated him was not “the pulp thriller side” (Fincher) of the book but the peculiarity of the bond between Salander and Blomkvist. He explains it is “the way they fit together; the way that he hurts her; the way that she allows him to hurt her – all that stuff...I like them so much as characters” (Fincher).. He goes on to say that “at the end of this movie, I want people to say, ‘I can’t wait to see those two again’”. It is significant to the adaptation that Fincher evidently interprets – and as a result depicts – Blomkvist and Salander more as a couple than as two separate characters. They are not a couple, nor do they become one in the conventional sense of the word. They have a bond, yes, but as is apparent from what Fincher says in the interview, their bond already started out as something noteworthy. Because he was so fascinated with this bond, it has been given a distinctively bigger role in the movie than it was given in the book. Hutcheon points out that “being shown a story is not the same as being told it – and neither is the same as participating in it or interacting with it, that is experiencing directly and kinaesthetically” (12). Her suggestion for the transformation of book to screen is that:

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To tell a story, as in novels, short stories, and even historical accounts, is to describe, explain, summarize, expand; the narrator has a point of view and great power to leap through time and space and sometimes to venture inside the minds of characters. To show a story, as in movies, ballets, radio and stage plays, musicals and operas, involves a direct aural and usually visual performance experienced in real time. (13)

In this fragment, Hutcheon explains the difference between telling a story and showing a story. However, the present-day construction of movies can be as complicated and unreliable as telling a story. In both the Swedish and American adaptations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the films makes use of flashbacks, scenes that did not exist in the book, different characters and more importantly, they both cover an extensive period of time in relatively a couple of minutes. Not that a book is not capable of that, but books can be put away and read further at a different time. A movie is generally watched all at once and experienced as a whole while showing much more time that its actual duration.

Adaptations from long novels, have as a result that “the adapter’s job is one of

subtraction or contraction” (Hutcheon 19). So much information is lost in translation, because there is simply no room for it in the movie. The Swedish film had the advantage of being released as a mini-series as well. This meant that, although the movie in its entirety is

uncommonly long, the issue of it as a mini-series enabled it to cover up its length by dividing it up. It makes the experience of watching the movie more comfortable and it allows the story to be told with a little less pace than a feature film. Even though the movie was quite

established in its genre, it is still a lot to ask of an audience to sit through a two-and-a-half-hour long film, especially the first in the series. An audience should not “think about unsuccessful adaptations in terms of infidelity to a prior text, but in terms of a lack of creativity and skill to make the text one’s own and thus autonomous” (Hutcheon 21). Of course there is the possibility to compare and contrast and the viewer can be upset because their own interpretation was different from how it was portrayed, but in the end, a movie adaptation is a work on its own.

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2. Shaken, not Stirred

Now that the theory and story behind this paper have been established, it is time to connect these parts with concrete examples. There are aspects in adapting that can never be fully explained, because much of the decisions are influenced by multiple factors. The main focus of this chapter is to establish the main stages in making an adaptation and how they have been given shape by the two movie versions. It will function as a guideline for subsequent

adaptation analysis in the way that it presents the necessary considerations while making an adaptation, as well as that it demonstrates the representation of these choices in the two movie adaptations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This chapter will discuss the three different versions of the story and the involved parties: the first version, the original – yet translated – book and the two movie adaptations. The following sections will give an indication of the views and choices from the directors and screenplay writers of the films in addition to what was discussed in the first chapter. Their decisions have an enormous effect on what the film will eventually look like and they play a significant role in the adaptation of the original story. In addition to the director and writers, the actors provide the visual representation of the characters. Choosing the right person for the role is the task set aside for the casting director. Although they are the faces of the films, the actors work from the material that is provided by the writers and directors. In this way, every decision made serves its own purpose in addition to influencing the other decisions as well.

This chapter will talk about the elements of character representation, narrative framework, cinematography, the film’s objectives and its setting. These five concepts will form the basis of the adaptation analysis which can be used to examine the realization of these components in other adaptations. The subsections in this chapter will elaborate on what exactly falls under these key notions. By way of subdividing the process of making an

adaptation, it is possible to view this process according to set principles under which many of the important choices fall. Subsequently, the process may be analyzed aside from personal interpretation and emotional connection and viewed from a more objective standpoint. This approach to adaptation will move away from the assesment of quality into an examination on the creation of an adaptation. The rest of this chapter will show how these significant

elements essentially encompass the best analyzable factors in the process of translating a book to film. Each section refers to a singular feature when making a movie, but will also show how one choice influences the next. Every subchapter will give a short description of all the

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factors it encompasses before going into the portrayal of these factors in the two adaptations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

2.1 Characters

This first factor to be discussed in this chapter is the concept of characters. This aspect of making an adapttion is concerned with the process of finding visual representation, in this case, of the two main characters from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist. Choosing an actor to translate a book’s character to screen can be a real challenge for a director. In the search, many elements have to be taken into account: Do they have the right look? Can they act? Are they willing to take on the role? With this particular adaptation, the director needs to find actors who are prepared to perform the actions and events described in the book. It can be very confrontational, if not scary and intimidating, to act out a rape scene in front of a room full of people, which will afterwards be released worldwide. The transference of their characters into another medium, to other cultures does not mean that the same choices will be made in the transaction. This section will investigate the differences and perhaps remarkable similarities in the conversion of characters that are well described and developed on paper to their representation on screen as well as in two editions.

After being cast for a film, the actors may or may not have to change their appearance to correspond with their character. In both the Swedish and American version, the actresses playing Lisbeth Salander had to dye their hair black, put on an assortment of piercings and evidently needed to be covered in the iconic tattoos before filming could start. The male lead Mikael Blomkvist was played by Michael Nyqvist (Sweden) and Daniel Craig (America). Being less of an extreme character, the men had to undergo a particularly less radical

transformation. Not only do the actors have to change their appearance to fit their characters, but they are also required to adapt to the role by, learning accents, smoking and literally acting in a different way to themselves, but also compared to other roles they have taken on in the past. The audience needs to believe they are watching this film’s specific person instead of the actor or other character behind it. The next part of this section will show how the Swedish and American actors were presented in the movie next to their description from the book. Comparing the actors’ portrayal to the novel’s description, will show how different elements from the description were chosen to be used in the two versions.

The character of Lisbeth Salander can be described as many things; a list of reviewer’s descriptions is given in the introduction of “Rape in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy and

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Beyond: Contemporary Scandinavian and Anglophone Crime Fiction” appointing Salander as the ‘central point of interest,’ (Horeck et al. 5) and variously described as:

An outlaw fantasy feminist-heroine…A pitiless elfin avenger…A tattooed, pierced, vengeful, bisexual misfit…A feminist avenging angel…An androgynous, bisexual, computer-hacking, twenty something…A vision of female empowerment – a kind of goth-geek Pippi Longstocking…The most interesting character of our time. (5)

These reviews have all been based on the character from the book and set the bar high for who she should be in the movies. The best comparison between the different portrayals of Salander in the movies and Salander in the book can be made on account of an event in the book which has been adapted in both movies. In addition, this part provides a description of Salander in great detail. The scene depicts the first time Dirch Frode, Henrik Vanger’s lawyer, meets Salander.

Salander was dressed for the day in a black T-shirt with a picture on it of E.T. with fangs, and the words “I am also an alien”. She had on a black skirt that was frayed at the hem, a worn out black, mid-length leather jacket, rivet belt, heavy Doc Martens boots, and horizontally striped green and red knee socks. She had put on make-up in a colour scheme that indicated she might be colour-blind. In other words, she was exceptionally decked out (Larsson 44).

A director will have a clear idea of what his character should look like after a description like this. It is a safe assumption many people will picture Salander roughly according to this image. In the last existing interview with Stieg Larsson, he explains how he got the idea for the character of Salander. He clarifies that before he wanted to write the Millennium series, he was thinking about the “Twin-detectives” and what they would look like now that they were well in their forties (Larsson 2004). After that he came across a copy of Pippi Longstocking and thought about her and what she would look like as an adult. Would she be a Sociopath? A DAMP-child? Pippi had a different worldview than others, she did not look at society the same as other people (Larsson 2004). After these contemplations, he made that figure into Lisbeth Salander, 25 years old, with a feeling of being a total outsider (Larsson 2004). Her “counterbalance” as Larsson calls it would be Mikael Blomkvist.

Before she shows an interest in Blomkvist, the reader and viewer cannot clearly identify the sexual orientations of Salander. In all versions, she is clearly attracted to both men

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and women and is seen waking up next to a woman when Blomkvist first visits her at her apartment (Bryant 312). Swedish actress Noomi Rapace was cast for the role of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film. About the preparation for the role, she explains that she decided to make herself look more masculine by way of cutting her hair and losing weight (Rapace). In the description from the book, Salanders wears a skirt and make-up; not attire generally associated with a boyish appearance and it seems Larsson was not concerned with making Salader look like a boy. It is remarkable that Rapace resolved to look less feminine while the character is famed for its strong female position. Nonetheless should the way she looks affect her position as a woman. In that way, portraying the character with a dubious appearance could emphasize her character as transgressing gender conventions. Director Oplev expresses that he was almost convinced it would be impossible to find the right actress to play Lisbeth Salander. He thought nobody would be able to portray the complex character until he

auditioned with Rapace (Oplev). He continues to explain that Salander’s casting was subject to the highest expectations thanks to its bestsellers status and its position in Scandinavian drama. He considers himself extremely lucky with finding Rapace to play the role (Oplev). Finally he describes her as having “transformed herself into her character to a chilling perfection” (Oplev).

The character of Salander in the American adaptation is potrayed by actress Rooney Mara. Mara’s transformation to the character included bleaching her eyebrows, living in Stockholm before filming started and having her body pierced (Rich). Mara did not read the books before auditioning for the role but knew that it was going to be an intense. She really wanted the part but also had not decided if she could handle being Salander (Mara). In the end, her connection to director David Fincher convinced her she wanted to play the role. She explains that the set resembled that of an independent movie and there were no producers present (Mara). Fincher was filming with only the necessary crew and endorsed all the efforts were put into the film as opposed to taking care of the team (Mara). The dedication with which the movie was filmed made it necessary for many scenes to be shot multiple times. Mara explains that the only scene where this was not the case was the moment leading up to the rape. In the film, Salander’s guardian Palmgren chokes her and this could not be faked (Mara). Friends and family that saw her after filming this scene thought she was wearing make-up, but she was actually physically hurt. Another point Mara makes about Salander’s physical state which connects to Rapace’s comment about wanting to make herself look more like a boy, is that she is supposed to look like a 14-year-old boy as well as be purposefully unnatractive (Mara), in particular to place the focus of the character on her personality more

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than her sexuality.

To compare the final representations of Salander in the adaptations, a movie poster of each film has been provided below. The movie poster for the Swedish film (see fig. 1) is very different from the American adaptation (see fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Män som hatar kvinnor Movie Poster Fig. 2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Movie Poster

Movie posters are the way for the films to attract interest from the public. Every poster is made up out of different elements to try and influence the public and tell them what the movie is about (Humble & Jonasson 2). The way these posters are shown to the world is a

substantial part of the marketing and how they want a possible audience to view the film. The Swedish poster shows Salander and Blomkvist in what is presumably Henrik Vanger’s mansion. In the background is a picture of Harriet, hinting at the plot of the film. Both the actors’ names are on the poster, as well as a reference to the author Stieg Larsson and the title of the book and film. Salander is smoking, dressed in black and wearing a spiked necklace. Blomkvist sits behind her in the chair with a less remarkable choice of clothing. Both are looking at the viewer, breaking the fourth wall. The final noteworthy point is the fire from the fireplace, which seems to try and evoke a sense of aggression and power. Also, dragons

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breathe fire.

The American poster, considering the choice in portaying Salander as a boy, does not look very boyish. Horeck et al. even describes the image as a “hypersexualization” (7) of the character. In her role as feminist, the version of Salander presented in this movie poster is unlikely to be viewed as presenting the independent and strong woman she is supposed to be. The poster shows the actress Mara with an exposed upper body and behind her the male lead Daniel Craig with his arm around her chest to cover up what could not be bare (Horeck et al 7). The message here does not seem to be ‘look at this strong female’, but ‘look at her body and the man protecting it’. Perhaps the only thing proving her singularity is the barely hidden nipple ring (Horeck et al. 7). The poster is a clear example of how her character was chosen to be sexually aggressive as well as seductive, yet still in the arms of a man. The look on her face is not necessarily one of strength and determination, she rather looks insecure and reserved. It is mostly the attire that makes her look fierce, but her expression says otherwise. There are, of course, movie posters of Salander alone, but simply the existence of this poster, the fact that the conscious choice was made to also portray her like this, says a lot about how they chose to portray her in the movie.

A character’s physical description in a book is a good source to base an actor’s appearance on. While an author relies on words to tell what his book is about, what his characters look like and what they are thinking or feeling, a filmmaker can direct his cast to show thoughts and emotions by way of facial expressions (Bishop 266). The connection between a character’s appearance through words compared to on screen is made by the director. More on this will be discussed in the section on cinematography. Compared to her Swedish counterpart, Mara’s Salander wears a lot less make-up than Rapace’s Salander and more resembles the ‘Pippi Longstocking’ idea that Larsson started out with. She also has an asymmetrical haircut, which gives her a more disheveled look, as if she might be cutting her own hair. With only a five year age difference, the actresses in the leading female roles give a significantly different face to the character. Mara’s Salander is visibly younger and her slender and bony figure only adds to that idea. The woman who plays Erika Berger,

Blomkvist’s colleague and lover in the film, noted about the character that Salander is not a typical feminist, but describes her as invincible; like an animal, tough but soft (Wright 27). This summarizes very well how Salander has also been portrayed in the movie.

The ultimate appearance of Salander in the Swedish installment is provided by a full body shot right before Dirch Frode makes her acquaintance. When her boss Armansky and Frode walk into the meething room at Milton Security, Salander is seen from the back pooring

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herself a cup of coffee. As soon as the men arrive she turns around and the audience can see her from top to bottom. She resembles her description from the book very closely, showing her completely dressed in black, wearing goth-punk clothes and heavy black make-up. From the book it is clear that Salander’s boss Armansky usually keeps her out of contact with the clients, but Frode insists on seeing her and after meeting her is in fact quite fascinated by her appearance (Larsson 44). The scene shows Armansky warning Frose that Salander is “a special girl” (00:07:26) but that she is “their best investigator” (00:07:34). In addition, Salander does not speak or shake Frode’s hand when he extends her one and takes on a professional and detached attitude towards him and the investigation she has conducted. She does not make eye contact until she grows irritated with Frode and his persistence to obtain her personal opinion on Blomkvist and, while he has been found guilty of fraud, forces out of her that she believes him to be innocent. After this confrontation, she walks out of the room. The American version of this scene shows Armansky expressing his worry that Frode will not like Salander (00:06:50). Her introduction to the audience is less sudden and all-inclusive as in the Swedish version. Instead of one shot showing her top-to-bottom, the camera first shows her on her motorcycle. When she is in the building she is followed from behind, never

showing her face; she does not make eye contact with anyone, arrives late for the appointment and goes to sit on the side of the table on the opposite side of the room. Also, the nature of the exchange is different from both the Swedish adaptation and the book. More of this scene will be elaborated on in the next section of this chapter.

Finally, a last observation in the American version of this scene compared to the book is Salander’s reluctance to admit to Blomkvist’s affair with his partner Erika Berger. While in the book she is unwilling to admit her belief in Blomkvist’s innocence in the Wennerstrom case, she now appears to have trouble talking about Blomkvist in connection to another woman. Is it a director’s tactic? To hint at Salander and Blomkvist’s relationship later in the film? Or because they have adapted her character to be sensitive to Blomkvist from the beginning, instead of being cleverly aware of the truth?

Contrary to Salander’s extensively detailed description, Blomkvist’s appearance is not as well accounted for. Throughout the story, the reader learns that he is 42, has blondish brown hair and blue eyes. He does not exercise, but appears to have a good physique (Larsson 2004). Basically, he is an average man with little above average looks and generally falls into the liking of the women he meets. As mentioned earlier in this section, Blomkvist functions as Salander’s counterbalance. Since the extremity and drama surrounding her character,

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contrast to the “evil” men in the story, a force of goodness (Larsson 2004).

The Swedish actor playing Mikael Blomkvist is Michael Nyqvist. Unfortunately he has not done many interviews for the film and therefore his view on the character is a little unclear, but he has played Blomkvist for the whole series and thanks to the international success of this movie, he has been acting in other Hollywood productions. His portrayal of the role is very true to the spirit of the book. Nyqvist’s Blomkvist is calm and intelligent and functions as a believable personality next to Salander. There have been no significant changes to the character, except that instead of undertaking much of the investigation separately – as they do in the book – Blomkvist and Salander often spend time together. In the interactions, Nyqvist’s Blomkvist shows he is sincerely worried about what has happened to Salander in the past and shows a clear preference for her presence and can even be considered to be the more feminine one in the relationship. In this adaptation, he is more the dependent element in their relation, whereas she looks for his companionship for no clearly definable reason, he genuinely enjoys her company and feels safe with her.

Daniel Craig has taken on the part of Mikael Blomkvist in the American adaptation. Craig presents the ‘bankable’ star who can create an interest for the film based on his well-known role as James Bond. As a result, his familiarity from such an iconic part before playing this role has a certain effect on the expectant movie-goer. His participation may cause the film to reach a greater audience and guarantee to earn revenue” (De Vany and Walls 796). It also influences the perception of the character, many people share the opinion that in the casting of Craig as Blomkvist the character was given a certain “badassness”. To come across as a serious journalist, Craig made sure he was heavier in weigth than during his days as a

womanizing secret agent (Bryant 312). Apart from his previous work, Craig’s Blomkvist also maintains a sense of balance next to Salander. Opposite to the Swedish adaptation, Blomkvist and Salander work a lot more on their own accord, but are shown to communicate frequently over the phone.

2.2 Narrative Framework

Much of the story’s representation stands or falls with the selection of narrative plotlines from the original story. Choosing whether to focus on the main plotline or to include all or several subplots can make a substantial difference for the adaptation. Including every side story may satisfy the fans of the book, but it can likely cause the film to increase in runtime and

probably also in coherency. In that sense, a novel generally has no constraints in length, but film is limited in its time and should try and fit its story in approximately two hours (Davies

An Analysis of Adaptation: Bringing Bestselling Literature to the Big Screen

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Once upon a time

2. Shaken, not Stirred