likeadoll:

Films Watched in 2011

35. Flickan som lekte med elden (2009)

Hi, everyone! So many apologies for my lack of updates lately; I am an incredibly busy college student who just got through midterms! I hope that I’ll be able to update more in the coming weeks.

This week is a very big week! THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE hit DVD and BluRay in the US on Tuesday, and it should be on sale near you! Amazon.com and all other online retailers also have good deals. Make sure you grab your copy! I will try and make graphics this weekend!

Also, THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST is now out in US theatres! I won’t be able to see it until next week, but my review will definitely be offered as soon as I do! You can see which theaters it is playing in here.

I hope you all enjoy/are enjoying your Lisbeth-filled week!

- Trai

- The Girl Who Played with Fire makes its DVD debut on the 26th! I just pre-ordered mine last night from Amazon.com, which has it on sale for $13, more than 50% off the list price. This is the time to order! :)

- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest comes to U.S. theaters on the 29th, and expands into more locations the next week, November 5th. You can view all those locations here!

The UK’s Telegraph has just published an interesting article about the one interview Larsson gave about the Millennium books, just three weeks before he passed away and before the books were published. It’s a very interesting, if sad, read that gives insight into the way Larsson had to live and about how Astrid Lindgren inspired the books. Check it out; it’s a great article.

I’ve seen it twice by now and while I didn’t love it as much as the first one, it’s still pretty damn good! It even succeeded at overcoming some of the book’s faults. Make every effort to see it if you haven’t! Locations can be found here: http://playedwithfirefilm.com. Since it only came out last week, it’s still expanding into wider release, so keep your eyes peeled!

jennyrose:

Just finished reading this yesterday. I loved it. Better than the first one, but now I can’t wait to get the third one. This might be one series that I find actually lives up to all the hype.

heatherinterrupted-:

five | The Millennium Trilogy

From a list of “the top five reasons why Sweden is awesome.” :)

Hey, everybody! It’s my 100th post! :) I’m grateful to all my followers and to the fans I’ve heard all over Tumblr reacting to Millennium. Everybody’s got a different opinion and it’s wonderful.

I meant to do this some time ago, but as a 19-year-old girl with some other blogging interests (my personal Tumblr and my book-reviewing blog), it slipped my mind. Now, however, having just walked out of The Girl Who Played with Fire and the fact that it’s nearly 11:30 and I have yet to sleep, I find my mind drifting to the subject of Millennium and how much it’s brought to my life. Christopher over at Sally’s Friends asked for fan input about the trilogy for potential use in a book related to the subject (more info here, if you wish to participate), and he was the one who planted the idea in my head for this post back when I first started this blog. I gave part of this story in my first post, but I’ll reiterate and add to it now.

How I Found Millennium

I’ve been interested in independent cinema since I was about 13 or 14. While I was waiting for a movie to start at an arts theatre, the trailer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came on. I’d seen the book on a few of my (many) bookstore jaunts in the weeks before, and shortly before or shortly after, it was reviewed on a blog I liked. Mysteries weren’t my thing, but I’d heard such great buzz about the movie that I was motivated to give the book a shot. I picked it up the next time I found myself at a bookstore.

I read a few pages that night, and took the book with me on a long bus ride the next morning. Once I met Lisbeth, I was hooked. Mikael was pleasurable and I liked reading about him, but Lisbeth piqued my curiosity. Who was this girl? How had she come to be so damaged? Like many others, Lisbeth was what drew me into the story.

I became emotionally invested fast. The pages started flying by. I had a job on my college campus, keeping track of the cameras we rented out to students. I had a five-hour shift one day each week, and I usually brought a book with me to pass the time. This was where I was sitting when I reached the second rape scene, when Bjurman brutally takes advantage of Lisbeth.

I still can’t fully describe how that scene made me feel. I’d read warnings about the violence in the book, but I wasn’t prepared for how utterly far it went. Never in my life have I been so revolted by a fictional character as I was by Bjurman. When I finished reading the scene, I was shaking and nearly crying. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and how trapped I was feeling had nothing to do with the tiny room I worked in. I will never be able to forget the intensity of my reaction.

I was rooting hard for Lisbeth to get her revenge, and I felt so utterly satisfied when she did. I have never been the target of sexual abuse, but I can empathize with being bullied and belittled. Salander fighting back felt so gratifying to me because I could feel for some part of that abused girl. After I reached that point, after my heart went out so fully to Lisbeth, there was no turning back.

Becoming a fan

Before I was even half over with the book, I knew I’d be wanting more. I went to the grocery store in town and bought The Girl Who Played with Fire. A day after I finished the first book, I saw the movie adaptation and fell in complete love with the incomparable Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyquist. Blomkvist and Salander, the characters whose exploits I had been so enthralled with over the last week, were coming to life in a whole new way.

Whenever people on my campus asked me about the books as they noticed me reading during every spare minute I had, I didn’t hesitate to recommend them or to encourage those stalled to keep reading. I warned them that while the subject matter was tough to read about, the payoff was so worth it in the end. By the time I reached the end of Fire, I had tears in my eyes and couldn’t stand the three-week wait for the third book. I started this blog in order to share my love of the series with other fans, people who could understand my emotional investment in a series, a story, that couldn’t be farther from my own experiences.

Millennium means so much to me because of the message it brings across to readers who might not fully understand the impact of violence against women all over the world. Larsson was pointing out the weaknesses in the Swedish government that must be addressed, and that men who hate women should be stopped. The message is delivered in a powerful way by a writer who knew how to grip a reader. My emotional reaction to the second rape scene was partly because it was written in a way that evoked some kind of deep-seated fear I had. I think almost any woman who reads the books cannot fail to be moved in some way by the message. I’ve read some theories that maybe Larsson had a problem with women and that that’s why there is so much violence in the books. To those people, I say: read them again.

The fourth book/The US remake

At first, I was all for the idea of a fourth book, and after seeing the end of the third book, I desperately wanted more. I wanted to see the continuing adventures of Mikael and Lisbeth. But in a way, I feel as though the series is complete with just the three books. The story came full circle. Lisbeth let Mikael into her life, cut him out, then let him back in again. She went from being someone with no control over her life to someone who has it all.

There’s also the question, posed by the New York Times, that a fourth book would involve a new contract, and that the new contract would open up the possibility of movies with Mikael and Lisbeth that would not come from the books (i.e. the James Bond series). I’m so upset by this idea that for now, as much as I’d love to see a fourth book, I’m currently in the “no unless something can be worked out” camp. Someone else would have to match Larsson’s plotting and sense of characterization, and I just don’t think another person could fully grasp Mikael and Lisbeth’s relationship and tell it the way Larsson did.

The US remake is something I am still firmly against, although I am trying so hard to be cautiously optimistic (something that may change to pessimism once the casting is announced). In my mind and my heart, my first love will always be Lisbeth and Kalle as they are played by Rapace and Nyquist. They both captured their character so perfectly that they cannot be topped. The violence was also preserved in every way, which is necessary when you consider that the violence is pretty much another character in the story. David Fincher, the director of the US adaptation, claims the violence won’t be toned down, but somehow I don’t think the US will allow as much to be shown as Sweden did, and I think that will lessen the story. It won’t be as shocking and thus it will not stick in a viewer’s mind the way it should.

If the casting is done right, there is the slightest chance I will like the movie, but my allegiance will likely always be to the Swedish versions. The movies were done right by the country who should have done them and for me, there is no reason to mess with perfection.

I hope you all have enjoyed reading my views (if any of you have taken the time to read them, that is! :D) and that you might feel inclined to share some of your own. Good night!

- Trai

tutorgirlx3:

Just got back from this. SO GOOD. I didn’t think it was as good as the first one, but my parents and a lot of people in the theater thought it was even better.

Noomi Rapace just cannot be topped. Michael Nyquist was awesome, too. *sigh* But the remake will inevitably happen.

Hey, all! This is my initial reaction to seeing The Girl Who Played with Fire, from my personal Tumblr. It was great! I’ll write up my official review and link to it tomorrow. Remember to check if it’s playing in your city by looking here!

homg, I spent almost all day reading this yesterday. I really, really liked it even though it’s so twisted and some of the characters are royally screwed up in the head. I can’t imagine what the movie would be like. I’m think I’m a tad too grossed out/scared to watch it but the book was really epic.

already started on the sequel: the girl who played with fire. sounds as messed up as the first book (if the prologue is any indication), but I mean it in a good way because it makes for an addicting read.

also, Larsson likes to use his own last name for minor, passing characters, doesn’t he? C;