The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Swedish title of Niels Arden Oplev’s film is Män som hatar kvinnor, Men Who Hate Women. Stieg Larsson had refused to let his publisher change it; the novel appeared under that title in 2005, after his death, and the English edition changed it anyway. The film showing sexual violence openly is therefore not decoration but the subject. What played in cinemas is the compressed version. In March 2010 SVT1 broadcast the same material as the first two of the Millennium trilogy’s six television episodes, each about 90 minutes. Which version you open changes how far the investigation goes. Noomi Rapace built the part, by her own account, by changing her body: Muay Thai and kickboxing five days a week with a Serbian trainer, motorcycle lessons, cut hair, self applied piercings, all so she could play the fight scenes herself. At the 45th Guldbagge Awards it won Best Film, Best Actress for Rapace and the Audience Award; Sven-Bertil Taube, who plays Henrik Vanger, and cinematographer Eric Kress were nominated. At the 2011 BAFTAs it won Film Not in the English Language, with Rapace nominated for Leading Actress. A good fit if you do not mind Lisbeth’s own history taking as much room as the murder inquiry. Not for a viewer expecting the assault scenes shortened or handled by implication.