Novel to Film Adaptation

"History Hysteria" is an analysis of Agnieszka Holland's 1981 film "Fever" in a feminist perspective. The film, which is a film adaptation of Andrzej Strug's novel "The Story of One Bullet" ("Dzieje jednego pocisku",1910) about the 1905 revolution, unlike the novel, it brings to the fore the female heroine, revolutionary, Kama.

This article traces depictions of the character Njai Dasima, created by G. Francis for his novel Tjerita Njai Dasima ('The Story of Njai Dasima', 1896), through Indonesian cinematic history. It examines four feature film portrayals of her—Njai Dasima (1929/1930), Njai Dasima (1932), Dasima (1940), and Samiun dan Dasima ('Samiun and Dasima', 1971)—, all of which were influenced by phenomena in contemporary society. The first two adaptations, produced during the height of the colonial period, depicted Dasima as a happy colonial subject who suffers after being waylaid by magic and deceit. In the 1940 "modern" version of the story, meanwhile, Dasima was transformed from the njai of a European into the assertive wife of an educated indigenous man, minimising the colonial context while simultaneously commenting on the importance of maintaining Eastern values. In the 1971 adaptation, produced following the fall of the Dutch colonial government and the dominance of Indonesian nationalism, the character again became a metonym for the colonial subject, but in this instance suffered because of her ties to colonialism.

Following the recent serial adaptation of Richard Adams’ novel Watership Down (1972), this paper will undertake a comparison of various serial and cinematographic adaptations, including the 1978 movie directed by Martin Rosen, the 1999-2001 TV series also produced by Rosen, and, of course, the latest production by Netflix and BBC (2018). Comparisons will be drawn with the original novel, as well as other audiovisual and literary media. By comparing these cultural productions, I will try to explore the purpose, the degree of fidelity to the original text, and public reception of each adaptation, touching upon such issues as genre and myth, intertextuality and adaptation theory, reception and the double address.
How does the initial medium, be it the original novel or the very first screen adaptation, influence perceptions of adaptations to follow? In what ways do the new adaptations engage with critical responses addressed to the previous adaptations (especially with the claims of the 1978 movie being ‘too dark’ for a younger audience)? How does each new adaptation embrace and reflect the contemporary ideologies (for example, stronger environmental message, female focus, etc)? How does the musical score contribute to the atmosphere of the adaptation? What is the role of the merchandise ‘spin-offs’ (film picture books and other products)? These questions, among others, will help us to understand the complex journey of Watership Down from pages to the screen and back.
From my own experience as a translator of the new miniseries, I will also briefly dwell on the role of translation strategies and previous translations of the source novel in the process of cultural adaptation.

“Adapting Children’s and Young Adult Novels into Anglophone TV Series” Conference, Université de Rouen Normandie (5–6 September 2019).

Keynote Speakers: Helen WHEATLEY (University of Warwick)
Claudia NELSON & Anne MOREY (Texas A&M University)

Les multiples facettes de Watership Down, récit d’une enfance qui s'en va
Suite à la nouvelle adaptation à l’écran du roman de Richard Adams Watership Down (1972 - trad. française (1976), “Les garennes de Watership Down”), la présente contribution  se propose d'en comparer les différentes versions cinématographiques et télévisées, à savoir le film réalisé en 1978 par Martin Rosen, la série télévisée également produite par Rosen de 1999 à 2001, et, cela va de soi, les productions en cours réalisées par Netflix et BBC depuis 2018. Nous en établirons les rapports avec le roman original, ainsi qu'avec d'autres interprétations audiovisuelles et littéraires. En confrontant ces réalisations culturelles, nous nous efforcerons d'en examiner les objectifs, la fidélité au texte original et l’accueil réservé à chacune, en abordant des questions telles que le genre et le mythe, en passant par l'intertextualité et la théorie de l'adaptation, ou encore la réception et la double adresse.

Comment l’œuvre initiale, qu'il s'agisse du roman original ou de la toute première adaptation au cinéma, influence-t-elle la perception des adaptations ultérieures ? En quoi chaque nouvelle adaptation apporte-t-elle des réponses constructives à celles qui l’ont précédée - surtout les affirmations selon lesquelles le film de 1978 est « trop noir » pour le public des jeunes ? Dans quelle mesure les différentes adaptations épousent-elle des idéologies qui lui sont contemporaines (message environnemental plus marqué, orientation plus féminine...) ? Comment la bande sonore contribue-t-elle à créer l’ambiance particulière de l'adaptation ? Quel est le rôle des produits dérivés, dont les livres d'images de film ? Ces questions, parmi d’autres, nous permettront de comprendre le parcours complexe de Watership Down, de l’écrit à l'écran et inversement.

Nous fondant sur notre propre expérience de traductrice de la nouvelle mini-série, nous reviendrons rapidement sur le rôle des stratégies de traduction et des traductions antérieures du roman source dans l'optique d'une adaptation culturelle.

***This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Feminist Media Studies on Dec 11, 2012, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2012.740493***

This article examines the violence inherent in the popular Young Adult Fiction series The Twilight Saga, considers how this violence can be re-coded as reassuring through the use of romance genre conventions, and further extends this analysis by applying the concept of the female gaze to the series. The article initially examines the gendered violence within The Twilight Saga, considering both the physical violence that occurs, as well as the mental and emotional violence, using Evan Stark's notion of coercive control. The series is then considered as conforming to the romance genre, using the work of Tania Modleski and Janice Radway, discovering how instances of violence can be re-coded as reassuring. This analysis is then further extended by introducing the concept of the female gaze, and considering how a female gaze might impact the way the potentially anxiety-inducing male body can be read as desirable, and how culturally determined understandings of what constitutes the desirable male body are evolving.

In March of 1939, ​The New Yorker ​ published “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” a short story whose namesake, Walter Mitty, would later become synonymous with “dreamer” in American political, economic, and artistic spheres. This paper analyzes the differences between the original short story - and its fairly obvious Marxist implications - and the 2013 Ben Stiller remake, which dramatically changes the tone and implications of Thurber's original version.

Après une première sortie annulée en 2013 pour des raisons obscures (a été mentionné un blocage de la part de la veuve Giraud en raison d'une possible violation des droits concernant les dessins de son mari, largement présents dans le film), le documentaire de Frank Pavich sur l'adaptation cinématographique avortée en 1975 du planet opera culte de Frank Herbert (Dune, publié en 1965) par le réalisateur d'origine chilienne Alejandro Jodorowsky, est finalement sorti dans les salles françaises en mars 2016 (après avoir été largement visible depuis 2014 et son édition en Blu-ray).

S'il permet effectivement d'entrevoir des esquisses inédites du fameux story-board de mille pages dessiné par Jean Giraud/Moebius (et d'imaginer à quoi celui-ci ressemblerait si on l'adaptait sous forme d'anime), le documentaire de Pavich ne fournit aucune révélation particulière à l'endroit du projet « donquichottesque » du réalisateur : son histoire ayant été moult fois relatée, à commencer par Jodorowsky lui-même (qui en publia un compte rendu dès 1985 dans le supplément au numéro 107 de Métal Hurlant : « Dune, le film que vous ne verrez jamais »). Malgré son aspect « bonus DVD d'un film qui n'existe pas », Jodorowsky's Dune permet tout de même d'apprécier la place que tient ce ratage légendaire au sein de l'histoire hollywoodienne, ou dans l'imaginaire cinéphile contemporain.

Enfin, étant entièrement acquis à la « cause » du réalisateur, il offre l'opportunité de se confronter à une nouvelle version des faits et de découvrir ainsi de nouvelles failles au sein de la « légende officielle » du projet ; de confirmer - au cas où cela serait encore nécessaire - que tout ce qui est dit à son sujet doit être pris avec prudence.

After the original one was canceled in 2013 for obscure reasons (it was speculated that the widow Giraud objected due to alleged copyright infringement concerning her late husband's drawings, prominently featured in the film), Frank Pavich's documentary, centered on the failed 1975 cinematic adaptation of Frank Herbert's cult classic planet opera (Dune, 1965) by Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky, finally premiered in French theaters in March 2016 (although it has been widely available since 2014 through its Blu-ray edition). While it does offer new glimpses of the famous thousand-page storyboard drawn by Jean Giraud/Moebius (and allows us to envision what it might have looked like as an anime), Pavich's film doesn't unveil any significant revelations about the director's quixotic project, the story of the latter having already been recounted numerous times, primarily by Jodorowsky himself (who published his own account as early as 1985 in the supplement to issue #107 of the French magazine Métal Hurlant: “Dune, le film que vous ne verrez jamais”).

Beyond resembling a “DVD bonus about a movie that never came to fruition”, Jodorowsky's Dune allows us to appreciate the significance of this legendary failure within Hollywood history, lingering in the depths of cinephile memory. Moreover, by fully immersing us in the director's cause, it offers an additional perspective on the project's backstory, allowing us to uncover potential new flaws within its official legend. This reaffirms, if there was any doubt, the need to approach everything told about it with much caution.

The Count of Monte Cristo appeared, under the pen of Alexandre Dumas, in 1844 and has been a favorite of the seventh art during the past century, not only in its homeland, but also across the globe. But from novel to the big or TV screen, The Count of Monte Cristo lost some or more of the complexity and depth of Dumas’ story.
Just like movies are not a faithful rendition of real life, but a selection of moments from real life, film adaptations are a selection of moments from the origin novel. The time factor has its say as well: it is difficult to imagine a faithful and complete transposition of a lengthy novel into a movie of 120 minutes or even into a TV series of 4-6 episodes. It is understandable that there are sacrifices (of characters, scenes, lines) to be made, not taking into account the alterations or additions brought by the vision(s) of the screenwriter and director. But what happens when these sacrifices affect maybe not the direct and most visible meaning of the novel, but the more subtle message of the author?
One of the most often sacrificed characters of Dumas’ novel is Haydée, Ali Pasha’s daughter, sold as a slave by Fernand Mondego and finally bought by the Count, and raised, under his guidance, in accordance with her rank as a princess. Screenwriters either diminished Haydée’s role, presenting her more as a shallow character, or eliminated her completely from the story. Although she is not a frequent appearance in the novel, her role in the story weighs a lot more than that of many other characters. Through her, the Count accomplishes his vengeance on Fernand Mondego, but most important she is the one that brings him back to life with her love and devotion.
Edmond Dantès, as Count of Monte Cristo, considers himself an unerring agent of Providence, whose mission is to bring divine justice where human justice has failed. Therefore, he leaves behind any human emotion that would prevent him from following his path. Dehumanized, only a few characters can reach to his heart: Mercédès, Maximilien Morrel and Haydée. Whereas Mercédès and the Morrels are connections to the past, Haydée represents his future, as it is revealed in the last chapter of the novel. Although sure of the love and gratitude of Maximilien, he is ready to leave this life and go back into the shadow of death. The only thing that stops him is the acknowledgement of Haydée’s love, which he understands as a reward from God. With her at his side, he can face life again, with all of its sufferings and joys. He is reborn again, this time leaving his destiny into the hands of God, and finally learning that “all human wisdom is summed up in these two words, wait and hope”.
Instead of letting Haydée honor her role, screenwriters have come up with various alternatives. Most of the times, whether with Haydée present or absent from the story, Dantès finally reconciles with Mercédès, with whom he finds happiness (the 1998 TV series and the 2002 movie). In one other case (the 1975 movie), the screenwriter decided to punish Dantès for his thirst for revenge by making him lose Mercédès, while Haydée was aiming only to punish Fernand Mondego for betraying her father.
As these examples show, although probably faithful to their own vision of the story, the screenwriters deprived the main character and the entire story of their depth and fundamental message.

The literary remediation is bound up with the improvisation, and each form of reworking the adaptation. The tenets of cinematic improvisation revolve around rethinking and reworking the original story. Remediation of Doyle's narrative 'Sherlock Holmes' has received substantial attention for alterations. Considering the significance of reworking in modern Sherlock, it's striking that the approach has garnered scant attention from critics. If Doyle’s narrative is the process of giving life to an art, improvisation can be the emendation to our sense of vibrance to the art. It can be perceived as a revitalising force, infusing cinematic art with a heightened dimension of verisimilitude by relying on the spontaneity of performers, writers, and filmmakers. Reworking in adaptation allows films to appear more intelligible to their intended audiences, with a wider scope and coherence than the original narrative. Viewing the novel facilitates improvisation and Reading the film entices reworking: This antithetical paradigm is the objective of the work which is hermeneutically discussed in this research article.
Keywords:- Sherlock Holmes, Film adaptation, Cinematic Improvisation, Reworking, Literary Remediation.

Adapting the  story of one of the greatest heroine’s in Literature  can be  a challenge  even for the smartest  film director.  Yet many  film makers  have  willingly  accepted the challenge and  have created  visual  narratives  of  Leo Tolstoy’s  master piece,  ANNA KARENINA  which  continues to be perceived  as  one of the finest  love stories  ever written.
This paper attempts an appreciation of the 1997 US film directed by Bernard Rose with Sophie Marceau  in the role of  Anna Karenina.  In appreciating the film, the  investigator examines how  Bernard Rose has exploited  mise-en-scene  viz; actors, lighting, décor, props, costume, music etc.  and used film techniques like  montage to create symbolism and  evoke  impressions which helps  transform  a  film into a work of art.
Key Words: Adaptation, Director, Mise-en-scene, Montage, Visualization

Published in "Offscreen", n. 9, vol. 19, Montréal, September 2015. ISSN: 1712-9559
http://offscreen.com/view/the-skin-i-live-in-pedro-almodovar


-------------- ABSTRACT ENGLISH: The Skin I Live In is a 2011 thriller from renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar.
Transgender characters are not unusual in the cinema of Almodóvar, but for the first time, with this film, the process of the sexual change is not the result of an epiphanic process that comes after the liberation from the character's arbitrary gender. A new imposed sexual identity turns into a cage for the main character, resulting in unpredictable reactions.
The research developed in this paper is based on the main character of the film and a comparison with similar ones that appear in other films by the director. This research is also connected with the idea of gender captivity and the results of releasing sexual identity through the act of a sex change.

The article explores the cultural relocation of James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans in the 1920 film adaptation made by Maurice Tourneur and Clarence Brown. The article argues that the cultural relocation was affected by the rising popularity of the western and also by the progressivist ethos of the 1920s. It is revealed that while some features of the western are already present in the novel, other  features were added by the film-makers to bring the structure closer to  that of a western.

Abstract
Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations pinpoints his Victorian literary heritage.
On the other hand, David Lean’s film adaptation of Dickens' novel conveys it
realistically in a period of post War II cinematic modernization.
In the present paper, different points are discussed and presented; First,
different critical opinions, by earlier and modern critics, as well as David Lean’s
personal opinion about film adaptation are revealed and discussed. Second,
Dickens’s eccentric and grotesque Victorian characters that are presented through
Lean’s visually and thematically rationalized postwar characters. Third, Dickens’s
extraordinary characters are contrasted with Lean’s realistic ones. Moreover,
Lean’s modernistic touches to the Dickensian novel which cater the postwar
audience’s need (for which reason Lean’s film is a completely intellectual one and
not at all Dickensian) are also unveiled.
Thus, trying to put some hope in the hopeless hearts of his audience in the
aftermath of the Second World War, Lean’s modernization of the Dickensian era
to fit in the world of his contemporary audience is proven.
Key words: Dickens, Lean, postwar, Victorian, grotesque, modern,
adaptation, audience, modernization, difference.

This paper tackles Jonathan Glazer's 2013 film Under The Skin using a psychoanalytical framework. Drawing on Lacan, Žižek, and Mulvey I decode the film's use of mirror imagery, it's gender politics as well as its enigmatic portrayal of its main character, played by Scarlett Johansson.

Η κυκλοφορία του πρώτου λογοτεχνικού βιβλίου του Γιάννη Τσίρμπα Η Βικτώρια δεν υπάρχει τον Σεπτέμβριο του 2013 συνέπεσε κατά τραγικό τρόπο με τη δολοφονία του ράπερ Παύλου Φύσσα από μέλος της νεοναζιστικής εγκληματικής οργάνωσης Χρυσή Αυγή. Η νουβέλα αποτελεί ένα από τα πρώτα κείμενα της λεγόμενης «λογοτεχνίας της κρίσης» που πραγματεύονται την έξαρση της ξενοφοβίας, του μισαλλόδοξου λόγου και της ρατσιστικής βίας εντός των ιστορικών συμφραζομένων της ελληνικής κρίσης χρέους. Τρία χρόνια αργότερα, ο σκηνοθέτης Γιάννης Σακαρίδης διασκεύασε και μετέφερε το κείμενο στον κινηματογράφο υπό τον τίτλο «Amerika Square/Πλατεία Αμερικής», μεταπλάθοντας τον αιχμηρό ρεαλισμό του Τσίρμπα σε μια νεο-νουάρ υφής ηθογραφία της κρίσης. Το προτεινόμενο άρθρο επικεντρώνει το ενδιαφέρον του στη σχέση ανάμεσα στο φιλμικό κείμενο και στη λογοτεχνική του πηγή, θέτοντας ως κεντρικό ερευνητικό άξονα τη διαμεσική αποτύπωση των κοινωνικών και πολιτισμικών όψεων της «κρίσης». Η επιχειρούμενη ανάλυση αντλεί το μεθοδολογικό της οπλοστάσιο από τις μεταδομιστικές προσεγγίσεις των σπουδών κινηματογραφικής μεταφοράς (Αdaptation studies) οι οποίες, απορρίπτοντας τόσο το κριτήριο της πιστότητας του φιλμικού στο λογοτεχνικό κείμενο όσο και την αποκλειστικά αφηγηματολογική προσέγγιση, αντιλαμβάνονται τις κινηματογραφικές μεταφορές ως αυτόνομα πολιτισμικά προϊόντα, ενταγμένα στο ιστορικό, κοινωνικό και ιδεολογικό συγκείμενο της εποχής κατά την οποία παράγονται. Εν προκειμένω, οι διαφοροποιήσεις που εντοπίζονται στο υπό εξέταση φιλμικό παράδειγμα σε σχέση με τη λογοτεχνική του πηγή (αναδιαρθρώσεις της πλοκής, αφαιρέσεις, προσθέσεις ή μεταπλάσεις επεισοδίων και χαρακτήρων, υφολογικές μετατοπίσεις κ.ά.) ερμηνεύονται υπό το φως δύο συνδεόμενων (αυτο-)εξωτισμών: α) αυτού που συνόδευσε την ένταξη του «νέου κύματος» του ελληνικού κινηματογράφου στη διεθνή φεστιβαλική αγορά και β) αυτού που λειτούργησε ως παραμορφωτικός φακός της προσφυγικής κρίσης του 2015-2016.

{Rachelle Claire Strub, University of Basel} In The French Lieutenant’s Woman, John Fowles uses metalepsis and metafiction as common devices of postmodern literature to create surprise and shock in the readers. These strategies connect his text to the genre of neo-sensation fiction. The aim of this paper is to outline how these instances of metalepsis and metafiction in both the novel and the film are connected to (neo)-sensation fiction.

This study focuses on Lynne Ramsay's adaptation of Lionel Shriver's epistolary novel We Need to Talk About Kevin and argues that the film should be seen as an example of feminist horror that subverts and challenges cultural mother myths. It considers the impact of feminist psychoanalytic approaches to horror before exploring the emerging genre of feminist horror films and the revised theoretical approaches to horror that the genre demands. The analysis of We Need to Talk About Kevin centres on the film's feminist representation of motherhood. The film's internal landscape and intimate exploration of Eva's fractured, unreliable memories has wider resonance and acknowledges the simple feminist truth that patriarchy would rather sweep under the carpet: mothers do not always bond with their children.

John D. McDonald's knight errant detective, Travis McGee, has had a rocky relationship with Hollywood over the years.  This article, updated for Impossibly Funky: A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection, traces the cinematic McGee and a few other failed attempts to franchise McDonald's book series.

El objetivo de este ensayo será encontrar las similitudes y diferencias entre la adaptación cinematográfica de Stanley Kubrick de la novela de William Thackeray y el género picaresco. Antes de proceder con un análisis comparativo, será necesario precisar algunas consideraciones acerca del estatuto de la novela picaresca como un género que traspasa (o no) las fronteras de su contexto de producción original, en la España del siglo XVI. Se precisarán cuáles son los elementos más relevantes a considerar al momento de catalogar una obra como “picaresca”. Para ello, me referiré a diversas fuentes que problematizan la noción de la picaresca como género, así como otras que tratan específicamente sobre el filme de Stanley Kubrick. También utilizaré el concepto de subtexto de Friedric Jameson, y su concepción de la obra de arte como acto simbólico, además de la noción del discurso.

These proceedings are a part of the international scientific research project on the narrative and aesthetic values in the Golden Five film by Goran Trenchovski, and it is a result of the two-day scientific conference that took place on March 9th and 10th, 2018 in Strumica, Republic of Macedonia.

After the special projection of the film at NUCK “Anton Panov”, the Symposium titled “Narrative and aesthetic values in the Golden Five film” was held in the “Gligorov” Hotel, when several renowned professors, intellectuals, artists and academics presented their works.

The occasion for this international scientific research project was the summing up of the up-to-date international achievements, positive critical reviews and confirmed qualities of the Macedonian film Golden Five which continues with the sale and distribution. So far, this film has been seen in cinemas by more than 80,000 viewers at home and abroad, and was the most watched and most awarded film in the 2016/2017 season in Macedonia. This already cult film has been screened at about 30 international festivals and has received about 10 awards. The screenplay for this film was inspired by true event and is based on prose and drama motifs of Bratislav Tashkovski. Director of photography is Apostol Trpeski, film editors are Andrija Zafranović and Aristid Filaktov, production designer - Kiril Spaseski, costume designer - Nela Todorovska, make-up artist is Irena Senokozlioska, and the music is composed by Darko Spasovski and Goran Kerkez. The cast includes the following actors: Slavko Shtimac, Jana Stojanovska, Ljupka Djundeva, Igor Angelov, Petar Arsovski, Vasil Mihail, Nenad Milosavljević, Biljana Taneski, Dine Drvarov, Stoyan Velkov, Aleksandar Ristoski, Vlatko Ilievski, Grigor Jovanovski, Igor Todorov, Viktor Jakimovski, etc. Producer is Dejan Miloshevski – “Revolution” from Skopje.

This collection consists of 17 peer reviewed papers by: Sofija Trenchovska, (1975) - doctorand (coordinator of the Symposium); prof. Marian Ţuţui, PhD (1961) - filmologist and critic; doc. Goce Ristovski, MA (1958) - critic and publicist (moderator of the Symposium); Atanas Chuposki, PhD (1969) - filmologist and writer, father Grigorij Jakimov (1976) - presbyter; prof. Mimoza Reyl, PhD (1971), aesthetician and philosopher; prof. Vesna Mojsova-Chepishevska, PhD (1967) - philologist and writer; prof. Aleksandar Prokopiev, PhD (1953) - prose writer and essayist; prof. Petar Grujičić, PhD (1967) - writer and critic; prof. Sasho Ognenovski, PhD (1964) - actor and writer; Vasil Gjorgiev-Likin, MA (1958) - historian and publicist; Niche Vasilev (1948) - academic painter; Vasil Mihail (1979) - magistrand and actor in the film; Nikola D. Sarajlija (1958) - magistrand and dramaturge; Dejan Miloshevski (1976) - producer of the film; doc. Goran Trenchovski, MA (1970) - director of the film, as well as text-interview with the director, by the reputable professor Albert G. Nigrin published in the New Jersey Stage.

This article aims to look at a Turkish film adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. The 1966 black-and-white film, directed by the renowned director Metin Erksan, carries the story to a farm on the hills of Bosphorus, Istanbul. Although Erksan emphasizes the issue of class in the film, he is particularly interested in recreating the novel’s atmosphere in his own cinematic language. A director very much drawn to dark, destructive love stories throughout his career, Erksan manages to capture ‘the spirit’ of the novel with the help of his two lead actors. Immortal Love is an example of the avant-garde, at the crossroads of the national and the universal. It is an affirmation of the novel’s seemingly endless appeal and inspiration.

KEYWORDS: Emily Brontë, literary adaptation, Metin Erksan, Turkish cinema, Wuthering Heights adaptations

Jane Eyre has a long classical history in the canon of British literature. One of the novel's most apparent theme particularly in the 21st Century is imperialism.
This essay looks in particular at the imperialism within the novel of Jane Eyre and how this theme has then been taken within the 2006 BBC film adaptation.

150 years ago, people read for the first time Alice’s immortal line “And what is the use of a book, without pictures or conversation?”  How she would have loved the movies! 

On Saturday 23 May 2015 I gave a paper at the Wonderlands: Reading/Writing/Telling Fairy Tales and Fantasy symposium at University of Chichester, organised by the Sussex Centre of Folklore, Fairy Tale and Fantasy.

I'll be talking about how three filmmakers have translated Alice from page to screen: Disney (1951), Svankmajer (1988) and Burton (2010).



In 1903 filmmakers began making narrative films, and in that year, Carroll’s Alice made her first film appearance in Britain’s longest running film to date.  Over the next 110+ years Alice and her adventures would become a staple source for film and TV.  There have been over hundreds of film/TV versions of this classic.  It has been re-told by countless directors many with all-star casts. In 1933 you could have seen Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, in 1966 John Gielgud and in 1999 Gene Wilder.



Alice has been referenced in cult films and TV such as The Matrix, Lost, Star Trek and The Simpsons.  Screenwritiers find news ways of returning to this childhood-classic. Danny Dyer starred in a gangster fantasy version Malice in Wonderland (2009) and in the forthcoming horror film Red Kingdom Rising.





I will be exploring how three auteurs (Disney, Svankmajer and Burton) took the same scene (The Mad Tea Party) from the novel and translated it to film. Through this gaining an understanding of how the director's vision shaped the look and feel of a film.

I chose these three, as they are creative filmmakers who are drawn to the surreal - which can be seen across their body of work. Therefore, it is interesting to see how they adapted the surrealist sensibilities of the original, whilst echoing their individual relationship with the alchemy of cinema and the art of illusion.

Referencing the heroine of William Shakespeare’s seventeenth-century play, Macbeth, and based on Nicolai Leskov’s nineteenth-century Russian novella, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (Ledi Makbet Mtsenskovo Uyezda), Lady Macbeth is a 2016 award-winning British film, written by Alice Birch, directed by William Oldroyd, and starring Florence Pugh in the leading role.
This paper investigates and critically analyses intertextual relationships between the film and its noted sources, and identifies other multi-layered aesthetic and narrative relationships with art-historical and classic literary influences. A particular focus is on the costume designs by Holly Waddington for the main character, Katherine Lester (Florence Pugh), in context with the architectural settings of production designer Jacqueline Abrahams, and Ari Wegner’s cinematic, compositional choices. Via this semiotic and iconographic framework, a reading of the protagonist’s emotional and psychological journey is examined.
Dr Kathryn A. Hardy Bernal is Head of Research and Postgraduate Studies at the Yoobee Colleges of Creative Innovation, across New Zealand. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Visual and Material Culture, and is a critical theorist, researcher, and international publisher on art, design, fashion, film, subculture, gender studies, psychoanalytical anthropology, and cultural history.

The Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker and self-styled spiritual teacher Alejandro Jodorowsky’s film The Holy Mountain (1973), is often referred to as a ‘surrealistic’ exploration of Western Esotericism, and was a pivotal cinematic moment for what Christopher Partridge (2004; 2005) has termed ‘occulture’. It is often claimed in secondary literature and informally online that the film is based on the unfinished novel Mount Analogue (1952) by René Daumal, French writer and follower of the esotericist G. I. Gurdjieff. The Holy Mountain is thus a clear candidate for testing theories about the cultural production of ‘Gurdjieffian’ film adaptations. A closer reading, however, shows that the two texts share few ideological or even structural elements. In the wake of the film’s reception and Jodorowsky’s growing cultural importance, this article maps the congruence of the film to the novel by focusing on the role played by the eponymous mountain as the only invariant symbol in both. Some of the biographical contours of the two artists’ relationship to Gurdjieffian and wider occultural esoteric discourses will also be traced to reveal the pre-critical and largely self-referential narrative of the film adaptation in the secondary literature as a species of academic urban legend-making.

Not only is Double Indemnity 1944) one of the most important films in the history of cinema, but the wake of its influence can be traced back to this day. For Woody Allen, this is the best film ever made by anyone. In any case it was a decisive work for all film noir filmed during the end of the Era of the Great Studios. This first noir film by Billy Wilder introduced something really new in American cinema: the criminals were no longer professional criminals, nor did they belong to the mafia; they were normal, middle-class people, swept away by sexual ambition and passion.

Perhaps the really unusual thing about this film is that, seven decades later, it still keeps its power of seduction intact. If Double Indemnity continues to fascinate not only by the adaptation work that turned the novel's unconvincing and banal plot into a script of complex scaffolding, rich in punching dialogues and endowed with a rhythm of jazz dyes, but also because Wilder was able to orchestrate the brilliant performance of his cast with an immersive staging, endowed with a rich and suggestive imagery

The article considers the structural differences between Il giorno della civetta and Una storia semplice. I track the evolution of Sciascia's pessimism by looking at his language and at the film adaptations of his two books. I finally propose in Il campo del vasaio, Camilleri is paying homage to his fellow Sicilian colleague.

For almost a century, Virginia Woolf has enchanted readers all over the world with her novel about the gender fluid and time travelling character Orlando. British director Sally Potter adapted Orlando into film in 1992, and her adaptation has since gained immense fame and a continuous presence in world cinema. Potter's Orlando has been the object of a great deal of scholarly interest. However, previous research has predominantly focused on questions of gender and sexuality. Considerably underdiscussed is the film's fascinating conception of time and space. This thesis therefore sets out to analyze Sally Potter's Orlando in order to demonstrate how time and space is shaped in the film.

Theories developed by George Bluestone and André Bazin form the theoretical framework of this thesis. Through a close reading of the film, this thesis demonstrates that Potter establishes an unconventional temporality and spatiality through constructing a nonlinear, often contradictory temporality conveyed through contrasts between the organic and the fantastic, the real and the fictitious. Furthermore, the analysis finds that spatiality in Potter's Orlando is presented as multidimensional, allowing certain characters the possibility to inhabit a "fluid spatiality". Through presenting the past and the present as fused, Potter's Orlando can be understood through the optics of Bluestone's concept of "the flux of time" and Henri Bergsons la durée réelle. Simultaneously, breaks in the narrative presented through intertitles can be read as representing Bergsons idea of l'étendu, while also establishing a tangible spatiality.

Although student-driven film adaptations of literary works require a substantial amount of classroom time, careful scaffolding, and access to specific electronic resources, these projects can promote active learning, meaningful collaboration, and media literacy among students.
The published version can be found here:
Kelley, James B. "Creating Short Film Adaptations in the American Literature Classroom." Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice 11.4 (Spring 2021): 51-58. https://www.cpcc.edu/sites/default/files/2021-10/taltp-spring-2021_0.pdf

In this paper, I will advance a critical perspective of some methodologies on appraising Indigenous films, in terms of their aesthetic as well as their cultural value. In doing this,
I propose a cultural and textual approach that gives the films a context for which they can be critically understood. With a heavy emphasis on the political content of many Indigenous films, here I argue for a more critical pedagogical evaluation that considers
the challenges of Indigenous films and problems that arise when we ignore to discuss them as ‘cinema’. Through surveying a number of recent Indigenous films, and the criticism that surrounds them, I concentrate on how they can be better used as texts to
enhance the study of world cinema and cultural issues of Aboriginality.