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Madeleine Swann is a character in the James Bond films Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021), played by actress Léa Seydoux. She is the only film character to have a child with Bond.[lower-alpha 1]

Madeleine Swann
James Bond character
Léa Seydoux as Madeleine Swann
First appearance	Spectre (2015)
Last appearance	No Time to Die (2021)
Portrayed by	Léa Seydoux
In-universe information
Gender	Female
Classification	Bond girl

Character biography

Swann is the daughter of Mr. White. No Time to Die relates how, as a child in Norway, Swann witnessed her mother being murdered by Lyutsifer Safin, because Ernst Stavro Blofeld ordered Mr. White to kill Safin's own family. Swann became a psychiatrist and worked for Doctors Without Borders.[1] In Spectre she is working in a private clinic in the Austrian Alps and meets Bond shortly after her father commits suicide and helps Bond capture Blofeld. Afterwards, in No Time to Die, Bond is ambushed and ends their relationship, believing Swann has betrayed him. Nevertheless, they have a daughter, Mathilde, whose paternity is revealed at the end of the film. She is now Blofeld's psychiatrist, and is forced by Safin to assassinate Blofeld. Bond ends up killing Blofeld, after he admits that he framed Swann, and Bond and Swann reconcile. In the end, Bond tells Swann before he dies that he loves her and Mathilde.

Production

The filmmakers originally looked for a "blonde, Scandinavian" actress to play the part of Swann, before casting their net wider to include French and German actresses as well, whereupon they chose Seydoux.[2]

Madeleine Swann's name is a tribute to Marcel Proust: Volume 1 of Proust's In Search of Lost Time is called Swann's Way, and it includes an episode in which the narrator enjoys a madeleine.[3][4][5]

Reception

Seydoux was nominated for the 2016 Teen Choice Awards in the "Choice Movie Actress: Action" category for her portrayal of Swann in Spectre.[6]

Evaluation

Thomas Lethbridge suggests that Bond's relationship with Swann parallels his earlier romance with Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale: "In both films, Bond seemingly finds himself in a relatively happy relationship, before it all comes crashing down as a result of apparent betrayal."[7] John L. Flynn and Bob Blackwood suggest that Bond's relationship with Swann is a very modern one: "Daniel Craig's interpretation of a more modern 007 may well help dissipate Bond's outmoded, chauvinistic approach to love and relationships, and establish more complicated and thus more realistic relationships with his leading ladies in the new millennium."[8]

Mary Rose Somarriba describes Swann as a "near match, if not equal, to Bond in combat, assassination know-how, and intellect." Sommariba goes on to say,[9]

Far from a one-dimensional character, Swann is remarkably multifaceted in her strength and smarts. Perhaps most striking is not her being equal to her male counterpart but instead what makes her different. There’s one way in which Swann is superior to Bond, and that is in how she sees beyond the assassin’s life—she sees it as ultimately lacking and wants more. Swann is highly educated as a doctor in psychology, and despite being trained in combat by her father, she prefers to live far away from things that would tempt her back to that life, hence her station in the Austrian Alps at a private medical clinic.

Notes

References

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