Masterpiece Fitc Adaptation
Masterpiece Fitc Adaptation
Masterpiece Fitc Adaptation
A D A P TAT I O N : F R O M N O V E L T O F I L M
I used to teach Jane Austen, and in a way doing what I
do now is a bit like doing those lectures in which I say
This is the way I see it. Dont you see it like this? [Now,
as a filmmaker] I have got millions of dollars worth of
visual aids and actors to prove my point.
A N D R E W DAV I E S , S C R E E N W R I T E R F O R F O U R M A S T E R P I E C E
JA N E AUST EN FIL MS*
In novels, we often come to know characters best
not through what they say, but through what they are
thinking or what is said about them in the narration.
A narrator mediates the meaning of what we read
through his or her point of view: a coming-of-age story
reads much differently if we hear about what happens
from the point of view of the person growing up than
if we learn about it from that persons mother, sister, or
teacher. But in film, the narrator largely disappears.
Sometimes a narrators perspective is kept through the
use of a voice-over, but generally the director, cast, and
crew must rely on the other tools of film to reproduce
what was felt, thought, and described on the page.
For example, consider the famous scene from the
1998 film adaptation of Rebecca, where the narrator, a
young, nave girl who has just become the second wife
of the wealthy Maxim de Winter, first meets Mrs.
Danvers, the forbidding housekeeper of his estate,
Manderley. Rebeccas terror and awkwardness,
revealed in two pages of first-person narration in the
book, are made clear to the viewer in the film simply
by the way Mrs. Danvers first emerges from the
shadows with just her severe face lit and the way
the camera lingers there uncomfortably, making the
viewer cringe with the same fear that the new
Mrs. de Winter feels.
The major difference between film and books is
that visual images stimulate our perceptions directly,
while written words can do this indirectly. Reading the
word chair requires a kind of mental translation that
viewing a picture of a chair does not. Film is a more
direct sensory experience than readingbesides verbal
language, there is also color, movement, and sound.
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Yet film is also limited: for one thing, there are no time
constraints on a novel, while a film usually must
compress events into two hours
or so. (The 2002 adaptation of
David Copperfield, for example,
compresses a novel that runs to
800 pages into just 180
minutes.) For another, the
meaning of a novel is controlled
by only one person, the author,
while the meaning we get from
a film is the result of a
C OV ER, F IRS T S ERIA L
E DIT ION OF DAVID
collaborative effort by many
C OPP ER F IELD, 1 8 4 9 ,
B Y PH IZ
people. Film also does not allow
us the same freedom a novel doesto interact with the
plot or characters by imagining them in our minds.
For some viewers, this is often the most frustrating
aspect of turning a novel into a film.
How faithful to the original written work should a
film version strive to be? In Reading the Movies,
William Costanzo quotes George Bluestone, one of the
first critics to study film adaptations of literature.
Bluestone believes the filmmaker is an independent
artist, not a translator for an established author, but a
new author in his own right. Some agree with
Bluestone that a literal translation of a book is often
2008 BBC.
Source: wikipedia.com.
A DA P TAT I O N : F R O M N O V E L T O F I L M
LIT T LE D O R R IT ( C L A I R E F OY )
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A DA P TAT I O N : F R O M N O V E L T O F I L M
For other works, the problems of adaptation might
be even more difficult. Filmmakers working with The
Diary of Anne Frank, a contemporary classic that is,
after the Bible, one of the most read books in the
world, realized they needed to tread lightly if they were
to update a figure as beloved as Anne. Here is what
screenwriter Deborah Moggach says about her
decision to make Anne less sanctified in the
Masterpiece film version:
Like many people, I read the diary when I was young.
Now, on rereading it, Im struck by how contemporary
Anne isobsessed with boys, with her looksrebellious,
highly critical of her mother. In other words, a thoroughly
modern teenager. In past adaptations, she has been
somewhat sanctifieda bit cheeky and talkative maybe,
but also over-sweet. I want to be true to the real girl. Sure,
she got on peoples nerves; but she was also full of life, her
own sternest critic and, above all, she made people laugh.*
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about brilliant detection, dreadful villains and bloodcurdling crimesand frankly, to hell with the crinoline.
Other detectives have cases, Sherlock Holmes has
adventures, and thats what matters.* Reimagined,
however, the Holmes stories still retain the central idea
that any technologywhether it be the early forensic
science of the original stories or a Google search in
this versionis merely another tool for a detective
with a superior mind. (For more about the new
Sherlock series, see the Sherlock Book & Film Club.)
To show students how cleverly a literary classic
can be brought into the 21st century, you might invite
them to read just the first chapter of A Study in Scarlet,
the famous story in which Holmes and Watson first
meet, and compare it to the parallel scene, about ten
minutes into the film, called A Study in Pink. Note, in
particular, the brilliant way in which the original
famous first line to ex-soldier Watson (You have been
in Afghanistan, I perceive) has been reworked for
today.
AC T I V I T I E S
Students can use these activities to explore the process
of adaptation and the issues surrounding it.
1. How are film and literature alike? How are they
A DA P TAT I O N : F R O M N O V E L T O F I L M
* In an interview at http://www.geekosystem.com/sherlock-trailer-bbc-steven-moffat/.
2011 WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
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A DA P TAT I O N : F R O M N O V E L T O F I L M
A DA P TAT I O N : F R O M N O V E L T O F I L M
Company Pictures.
Exploring Screenwriting
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A DA P TAT I O N : F R O M N O V E L T O F I L M
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Funding for MASTERPIECE is provided by public television viewers. 2011 WGBH Educational Foundation.
Closed captioned for viewers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
pbs.org/masterpiece
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