14 Solitaire
On the page: Live and Let Die (1954).
Solitaire has pale skin, blue eyes and heavy blue-black hair reaching her shoulders. Fleming specifies high cheekbones, a wide mouth, a delicately cut jaw and a pointed nose. The expression carries self-possession and will, not simply dreamy vulnerability. Mr Big uses her apparent ability to tell whether someone is lying. [5]
On screen: Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die (1973). [16, 32]
Seymour’s dark-haired beauty is less of a physical rupture than several villain castings. The larger change is the dramatic presentation of her gift. Tarot structures the film’s relationship between Solitaire, Kananga and Bond, including the Lovers card. [32]
It is easy to import that memorable imagery back into the novel. The book’s interrogation scene works through her observation of Bond, without a tarot reading. [5] Cards in a literary-inspired portrait therefore bring in a film association; they should not be presented as a reconstruction of that passage.
An interpretation that moves partway towards Seymour’s appearance remains an artistic choice. It can be persuasive precisely because the film preserves some of Fleming’s broad contrasts. Solitaire’s visual identity can combine textual features with a chosen casting interpretation, provided the reader can see where the evidence ends and the reconstruction begins.
