The American Filmmaking Manipulation of a Translated Novel: David Fincher’s adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Abstract

Returning to the notion of the ‘cinematic fact’ and the ‘filmic fact’ adopted from the work of Gilbert Cohen-Seat (1946) by Christian Metz (1974), David Fincher’s 2011 film adaptation The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can be viewed as a manipulation of Stieg Larsson’s source Swedish novel. Metz recommended the ‘cinematic fact’ as the ‘vast phenomena’ that intervenes before and after the film production, distinguishing it from the ‘filmic fact’ that represents the textual content of the film, meaning that aspects of the cinematic object can be excluded from the domain of semiotic analysis. By reviewing behind the scenes footage on the production of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Fincher’s own director’s commentary as ‘cinematic fact’ it can be said that Fincher’s style within the American filmmaking machine is an interruption on the adaptive process that manufactures the ‘filmic fact.’ This intervening ‘vast phenomena’ includes acquiring a budget and developing a script through to on-set busyness and Fincher’s use of many takes, and then in post-production the continual use of CGI, that leads to a series of possible enhancements or limitations that can be found in the practice of adapting an already translated text into the American studio and distribution system. Fincher’s unique method within the ‘cinematic fact’ is expressed in these extra-textual materials, that will be used in this paper & presentation to authorize filmmaking’s innate ability to construct false realities from pre-existent material that moves beyond the analysis of medial differences in adaptations.