Having seen all three of Noomi Rapace‘s outings as Lisbeth Salandar, the hacker-hellraiser protagonist of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels, I realize how oddly important a simple hairstyle is to the realization of that character. It’s almost antithetical to think that Lisbeth, a lesbian man-hater (with good reason), would care about a trifling thing like hair; however, her often gothic, harsh appearance acts as a strong front that closes off the feminine, exploitable elements of her identity from the world. Her hairstyle changes from short and asymmetrical, to relaxed and let-go, to loud and aggressive, in an aesthetic reflection of the narrative events. Anyone who has seen the final installment of the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, particularly the court room scenes, will know that this theory is totally legitimate.
And, now you also know how important it is for us to report on Rooney Mara’s new hairdo. It’s a necessary part of the equation needed to produce a badass like Lisbeth Salandar, whom Mara is playing in David Fincher’s adaptation of Steig Larsson’s Milleniumseries. We’ve seen other images of Mara as Lisbeth, in which the actress boasts a different, but equally rebellious look (picture after…
Having seen all three of Noomi Rapace's outings as Lisbeth Salandar, the hacker-hellraiser protagonist of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequels, I realize how oddly important a simple hairstyle is to the realization of that character. It's almost antithetical to think that Lisbeth, a lesbian man-hater (with good reason), would care about a trifling thing like hair; however, her often gothic, harsh appearance acts as a strong front that closes off the feminine, exploitable elements of her identity from the world. Her hairstyle changes from short and asymmetrical, to relaxed and let-go, to loud and aggressive, in an aesthetic reflection of the narrative events. Anyone who has seen the final installment of the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, particularly the court room scenes, will know that this theory is totally legitimate.
And, now you also know how important it is for us to report on Rooney Mara's new hairdo. It's a necessary part of the equation needed to produce a badass like Lisbeth Salandar, whom Mara is playing in David Fincher's adaptation of Steig Larsson's Millenium series. We've seen other images of Mara as Lisbeth, in which the actress boasts a different, but equally rebellious look (picture after the jump). This either means that Fincher re-shot scenes for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, or that his adaptation will give as much credence to the coiffure as the Swedish adaptations did, changing them up to symbolize Lisbeth's metamorphoses over the course of the films. While I'm not ecstatic about the new adaptation, I can at least appreciate that Fincher is headed in the right direction.
Update: Since drafting this post, more pictures have arrived of Mara as Lisbeth, this time, from her cover shoot for the magazine W.
Pictures after the break! Warning: they are borderline NSFW.
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