Literature into Film: Theory and Practical Approaches

Գրքի շապիկի երեսը
McFarland, 24 դեկ, 2014 թ. - 315 էջ

For most people, film adaptation of literature can be summed up in one sentence: "The movie wasn't as good as the book." This volume undertakes to show the reader that not only is this evaluation not always true but sometimes it is intrinsically unfair. Movies based on literary works, while often billed as adaptations, are more correctly termed translations. A director and his actors translate the story from the written page into a visual presentation. Depending on the form of the original text and the chosen method of translation, certain inherent difficulties and pitfalls are associated with this change of medium. So often our reception of a book-based movie has more to do with our expectations and reading of the literature than with the job that the movie production did or did not do. Avoiding these biases and fairly evaluating any particular literary-based film takes an awareness of certain factors.

Written with a formalistic rather than historical approach, this work presents a comprehensive guide to literature-based films, establishing a contextual and theoretical basis to help the reader understand the relationships between such movies and the original texts as well as the reader's own individual responses to these productions. To this end, it focuses on recognizing and appreciating the inherent difficulties encountered when basing a film on a literary work, be it a novel, novella, play or short story. Individual chapters deal with the specific issues and difficulties raised by each of these genres, providing an overview backed up by case studies of specific film translations. Films and literary works receiving this treatment include The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Lady Windemere's Fan by Oscar Wilde and Shakespeare's Henry V. Interspersed throughout the text are suggestions for activities the film student or buff can use to enhance his or her appreciation and understanding of the films.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

From inside the book

Բովանդակություն

Foreword by James M Welsh
1
Preface
7
The Language of Film and Its Relation to the Language
44
The Film Industry and the Collaborative Work
72
Novels and Novellas into Film and an Aesthetic Rubric
97
Plays into Film
144
Short Stories into Film
186
Writing about Film
235
Appendix A The Aesthetic Rubric
263
Shakespeare Plays on Film
270
Glossary of Film and Literary Terms
281
Bibliography
297
Հեղինակային իրավունք

Այլ խմբագրություններ - View all

Common terms and phrases

Սիրված հատվածներ

Էջ 160 - Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ; Into a thousand parts divide one man, And make imaginary puissance ; Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i...
Էջ 160 - So great an object. Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France? Or may we cram Within this wooden O the very casques That did affright the air at Agincourt? O pardon, since a crooked figure may Attest in little place a million, And let us, ciphers to this great account, On your imaginary forces work.
Էջ 89 - We know now that a text is not a line of words releasing a single 'theological' meaning (the 'message' of the Author-God) but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash.
Էջ 42 - They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
Էջ 66 - If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.
Էջ 160 - On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth So great an object : Can this cockpit hold The vasty fields of France ? or may we cram Within this wooden 0, the very casques, That did affright the air at Agincourt...
Էջ 1 - WHAT is truth ?" said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief, affecting free-will in thinking as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins, though there be not...
Էջ 179 - After the division the two parts of man, each desiring his other half, came together, and throwing their arms about one another, entwined in mutual embraces, longing to grow into one...
Էջ 188 - When it most closely allies itself to Beauty: the death then of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world...

Հեղինակի մասին (2014)

Linda Costanzo Cahir is an assistant professor at Kean University and a contributing editor to Literature/Film Quarterly. Her publications include numerous articles and the book Society and Solitude in the Works of Herman Melville and Edith Wharton.

Բիբլիոգրաֆիական տվյալներ