Stockholm, Sweden — The Hollywood version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be more Swedish than the Swedish version, my pal Ronny Stoddart said, quoting Soren Staermose, the Swedish producer of the Millenium films and co-producer of the Hollywood version, which is due out Dec. 21. She had interviewed him earlier in the week. [See her article in USA Today: ‘Dragon Tattoo’ tours lure visitors to Stockholm.]
Ronny and I were at travel writer Doug Landsky’s home in Stockholm, having dinner with he and his family and two other travel writer/editors. What does more Swedish mean, we pondered. Dark, we assumed. Stark, like Ingmar Bergman. I remember well how Bergman’s black/white movies were too black for me. I predict we’re right. Hollywood’s trailer stalks through dark, snowy woods, as black and white as color allows.
As we talked, Doug’s oldest daughter paid no attention. She was trapped with Anne Frank in her attic, like many tweens including me at that age. But unlike the somber Anne on the cover of my book, in the Swedish version, Anne smiled.
But why? If the Swedes suffer oppressive gloom, why does their Anne Frank smile? Is it because her death becomes more poignant for her living joy — because the Swedes with their summer midnight suns and winter dusk at noons understand the darkness is deeper when brightness has been lighter.
Or is it simply globalization? When I went to Amazon to grab a picture of the grave Anne on the U.S. edition, I discovered that she now smiles for readers here too.