The study of the adaptation process from novel to film in addition offers an insight into the nature of expression through words and through pictures, respectively.in what context do the seducing powers and the suggestiveness of the film unfolds? And when is one word capable of saying more than a thousand pictures? Another very good reason for novels-into-film studies is that such studies clearly stimulate the interest for literature, for reading and there are numerous examples of film adaptations causing a demand for the books they are based on. Frequently, old and little known novels experience a revival. Long forgotten novels have been reprinted, published in paper-back with pictures from the films on their covers and sold in newsstands along with magazines, papers and comic books. Even an author with a more limited accessibility, like Virginia Woolf, gained a considerably enlarged circle of readers after the adaptation of her own Mrs. Dalloway (1997) and of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours(2002).
There is a also the new phenomenon of novelization. When Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations was filmed for the last time so far in 1998, lots of people wanted, as usual, wanted to read the book on which the film based itself. For a number of inexperienced young readers, however, Dickens’ original was too much of a challenge. Intead they chose to read the light version of the story, based on the film screenplay – a so called novelization. Naturally, tjis is a controversial type of novel but some people maintain that sometimes it is a good thing that young people read books at all, and that a light version is far better than no version. In any case, the reading of the novel is stimulated by the film adaptation.
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Works Cited
1 http://d2buyft38glmwk.cloudfront.net/media/cms_page_media/11/FITC_Adaptation_1.pdf
2 linda hutcheon, A Theory of adaptation, Ed. Linda Hutcheon. (New York; Rouledge,2006. Preface (pg
XVI )) Reason ; Defination of adaptation
3 franscesco Casseti ,”adaptation and misadaptation”,a companion of literature and film 2004, pg81 http://grad.uprm.edu/testis/mendezrodriguezsharon.pdf
4 Wolfgang Is ofer,The Implied Reader,2006,pg763-778
5Barbaera Tepa Lupack,introduction “Nineteenth Century women at the movies;adapting classic women fiction to film”pg 1-22
6 http://filmadaptation.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/files/2012/08/McFarlane-Backgrounds-Issues-New-Agenda.pdf
7 ariane Hudelet, The role of sound in-carnating jane austen www.jasna.org/persuasions/printed/number27/hudelet.pdf 8http://cassandrajade.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/10-reasons-movies-books/
When novels are adapted for the cinema, directors and writers frequently make changes in the plot, setting, characterization and themes of the novel. Sometimes the changes are made in adaptations due to the distinctive interpretations of the novel, which involve personal views of the book and choices of elements to retain, reproduce, change or leave out. On the contrary, a film is not just an illustrated version of the novel; it is a totally different medium. When adapting the novel, the director has to leave out a number of things for the simple reason of time difference. Furthermore, other structures and techniques must be added to the film to enhance the beauty and impressions of it. Like a translator, the director wants to do some sort of fidelity to the original work and also create a new work of art in a different medium. Regardless of the differences in the two media, they also share a number of elements: they each tell stories about characters.
Films of this era are criticized for substituting violence and special effects for "substance". Many believe that creating a movie script is a juvenile form of writing, a shrub to the oak of a novel. Upon reading both the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and viewing the film produced by Roland Joffe, one notices the tremendous effort put into both. This essay will explore the many differences and similarities between the book and movie.
Whenever books are adapted for film, changes inevitably have to be made. The medium of film offers several advantages and disadvantages over the book: it is not as adept at exploring the inner workings of people - it cannot explore their minds so easily; however, the added visual and audio capabilities of film open whole new areas of the imagination which, in the hands of a competent writer-director, can more than compensate.
As the case with most “Novel to Movie” adaptations, screenwriters for films will make minor, and sometimes drastic, adjustments to the original text in order to increase drama and to reach modern audiences. Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film interpretation of The Great Gatsby followed the 1925 classic great plot quite accurately, with minor deviations. However, Luhrmann made some notable differences to the characters and settings of The Great Gatsby in order for the story to relate to the current generation and to intensity the plot
Gender and the portrayal of gender roles in a film is an intriguing topic. It is interesting to uncover the way women have been idealized in our films, which mirrors the sentiments of the society of that period in time. Consequently, the thesis of this essay is a feminist approach that seeks to compare and contrast the gender roles of two films. The selected films are A few Good Men and Some Like it Hot.
Rascaroli, Laura. "The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments." Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 49.2 (2008): 24-47. JSTOR. Web. 08 May 2014.
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most respected and admired novels of all time. Often criticized for lacking substance and using more elaborate camera work, freely adapted films usually do not follow the original plot line. Following this cliché, Roland Joffe’s version of The Scarlet Letter received an overwhelmingly negative reception. Unrealistic plots and actions are added to the films for added drama; for example, Hester is about to be killed up on the scaffold, when Algonquin members arrive and rescue her. After close analysis, it becomes evident of the amount of work that is put into each, but one must ask, why has the director adapted their own style of depicting the story? How has the story of Hester Prynne been modified? Regarding works, major differences and similarities between the characterization, visual imagery, symbolism, narration and plot, shows how free adaptation is the correct term used.
It is said that around fifty percent of silent films were made by women, while not true due to the actual number being around to twenty to twenty-five percent; it doesn’t change the fact the ever since cinema was born, women were a vital part of it. Starting with Alice Guy-Blache who was the first woman director, starting in 1896 with the first narrative fiction film in history, La Fee Aux Choux(1896). The Silent Era of cinema had its doors open to women and they entered the industry in storm. Filmmakers like Guy-Blache, Clara Kimball Young, and Lois Weber were making their mark in the industry and eventually establishing their own companies. In fact, at least twenty film companies were run by women.
In our society, individuals might insist their own point of view and refuse to consider others’ opposite ideas, however, in an existing film, revolutionary and conservative standpoints can be accepted at the same time to make the film “neutral”. Through considering the collisions of opposite standpoints which occur in the noir movie named “Double Indemnity” which directed by Billy Wilder and had earned the label of “unfilmmable” in Hollywood because of the story between Walter Neff played by Fred MacMurray and Phyllis Dietrichson played by Barbara Stanwyck in 1943(Biltereyst 148) , this essay will illuminate the characteristics of traditional female image and another kind of female role named “femme fatales” which is opposite to the traditional
Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.
As stated numerous times throughout this essay, movies must stay true to their book predecessor for full effect. Books are normally beautifully described and written, and help the reader visualize a completely new world. Most movies, not just The Book Thief, normally omit several
When adapting a novel, there are three different ways directors can translate that into a film. They may take on the literal, traditional or radical interpretation of their adaptation of the novel; in Joe Wright’s 2005 Pride and Prejudice, he takes on the traditional interpretation. This translation demonstrates the same ideas, central conflicts, and characters as those of Austen’s novel 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice. Linda Costanzo Cahir, the author of Literature into Film, gives sufficient evidence to prove that this adaptation is in fact a traditional one.
In her essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, British film maker Laura Mulvey attempts to demystify how pleasure can be fulfilled in film. Contending that a pleasure in looking (scopohilia) and a pleasure in possessing the female as what to be looked at (voyeurism) fufills the audience’s desires, Mulvey suggests how filmmakers use this knowledge to create film that panders to our innate desires. In “Meshes of the Afternoon” by Maya Deren and “Vertigo” by Alfred Hitchcock, it is seen that Mulvey’s argument—the desire to look, the hunting, seeking, and watching, and harnessing of the female form is natural human desire. Deren and Hitchcock will use entirely different techniques to achieve that sense of fulfillment for the audience. But how does this watching and looking translate in to the written word? In “The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare, we will see the ideas approached by Mulvey and the themes used by Hitchcock and Deren utilized to create a sense of looking and objectifying the woman in the absence of the screen. Through this paper, the concepts of pleasure for Mulvey will be shown to have applicability not only in cinema but in art in far more universal terms. First, a discussion of pleasure and Mulvey’s definition of it will allow for clearer understanding as to what this fulfillment actually is. Secondly, Vertigo will be examined—as an example of “mainstream film” utilizing the ideas of scopophila and voyeurism in a perfect balance. Scottie and his search will then be contrasted with Leontes of Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, where again desires will be balanced in harmony with Mulvey’s principles. It is to become clear through...
Adaptation of any kind has been a debate for many years. The debate on cinematic adaptations of literary works was for many years dominated by the questions of fidelity to the source and by the tendencies to prioritize the literary originals over their film versions (Whelehan, 2006). In the transference of a story from one form to another, there is the basic question of adherence to the source, of what can be lost (Stibetiu, 2001). There is also the question of what the filmmakers are being faithful to or is it the novel’s plot in every detail or the spirit of the original (Smith, 2016). These are only few query on the issue of fidelity in the film adaptation.