Where is Lisbeth Salander? and will she kick Bella Swan’s ass?

 

The Guardian’s Film Blog recently published an interesting article (which can be found here) Contemplating if we would ever see a succesful movie franchise lead by a female actor.

The conclusion was that the two only female winners would appear to be Kate Beckinsale (“Underworld” franchise) and Cameron Diaz (“Charlie’s Angels” and “Shrek”). Personally I missed any real mention of Uma Thurman and her roaring rampage of revenge in “Kill Bill”. Though to be fair that was just one movie split into two, and technically not a franchise.

But perhaps the most profound point made was that it was in fact the “Twilight” franchise which was really the most succesful.

In spite of teen favourite Robert Pattinson’s looks and their not-insignificant impact in getting the film seen, the portrayal of the female lead Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in not without it’s own qualities. As much as she was portrayed for being wooden, and for drawing a negative, submissive, helpless and even straight-out idiotic picture of the american girl teen, this was far from enough to hurt the film’s box office succes. Quite the opposite probably.

Then there is also, the “Sex and the City” franchise which will get a theatrical sequel this year. Needles to say, too many anti-feminist arguments can be made against this franchise

This brings us to Lisbeth Salander, the pierced and abuses heroine of the late Stieg Larsson’s “Girl with the Dragon Tatoo” trilogy. Which is just about endin it’s unusually lenghty theatrical run in Scandinavia, and set for both re-release and remaking in North America.

Now, granted, there a more factors than one can count on three hands that have an effect on whether or not this remake will be a succes (I’m wagering that the re-release will only have a modest one if any – Americans never did like subtitles) but the inherent feminism in the material is certainly not the least of them.

While this has been a staple of the swedish crime novel scene, the violent female protagonist does not seem to be a thriving character in American movies. Either it will be over the top violence (Such as Beckinsale or Thurman – though to be fair, this goes for most male leads as well) or essentially a glorified update of the token girl. The realistic, gritty violence of Larsson’s work and their film adaptation might not be kindly received.

Still, though the chance of Salander beating Bella Swan or Carrie Bradshaw at the box office is staggeringly low. She will still have the victory of being a far more interesting character overall, and a glimmering example of how great a female character can be, with to few peers on the silver screen.