Novels Adaptation for Films - Coursework Example

Analysis of novels and their films A literary piece – a play or a novel – gets modifications and changes when it is adapted for a film and it is the prime duty of the director of the film to externalize the various aspects of the novel/play in the film version. The quality of the director or the movie adaptation depends greatly on how successful the director is in externalizing the different elements of the original work. It is normal that the movie version differs greatly from the original fictional version of the work and the alterations made by the director can either positively affect the movie or negatively. For example, Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, the 1984 film directed by Miloš Forman and adapted from Shaffer’s stage play, differs greatly from the original version of the story and the character development in the play and the film differs to the highest degree. The story of the movie and the film based loosely on the lives of two composers who lived in Vienna, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, has significant variations between the film version and the play. Similarly, the character development in the movie and the play fluctuates hugely mainly due to the adaptation technique, and Shaffer’s further revisions of his text. In a reflective analysis of the changes that the character of Salieri undergoes on his way from stage to screen, it becomes evident that the director of such a film version of a literary piece often brings about drastic changes by reason of the adaptation techniques of the film. Thus, the screen Salieri is Shaffer’s final and most ingenious version of this dark and tragic character, the Oscar-winning F. Murray Abraham superbly casts this character. it has been maintained that the character of Salieri remains the motivating force at the core of the action in the film, although Mozart’s personality has been considerably expanded. Significantly, the changes made in the film can be comprehended as the logical continuation of the changes that Shaffer had already made between the London and New York productions of his play. “The most important of those changes was the removal of Salieri’s servant Greybig who played the part of the masked figure in place of Salieri.” (The characters in the play and the film) As Shaffer recognized that the presence of Greybig meant more disadvantages than benefits, changes were made in the film version Salieri himself replaces this character as the agent of destruction in the film. Therefore, there are several marked alterations made by the film version of the play which have contributed to the success of the movie and the various international awards including those Academy Awards and Golden Globe awards. Similar instances of variations from the original works of literature can be seen in the airplane sequence in The Sweet Hereafter, the revolution in Like Water for Chocolate, the character of Tina Lombardi in A very Long Engagement, and the use of the Holocaust in The Reader. Therefore, the film adaptations of an original novel or play are rated on the basis how effectively the director is able to externalize the internal aspects of the work through his adaption techniques. This paper undertakes an analysis of the character of Salieri in Amadeus, the revolution in Like Water for Chocolate, and the character of Tina Lombardi in A very Long Engagement in order to identify how internal aspects of the novel/play are externalized by the director in the movies. Although it is a challenging task for the directors of such movie adaptations of literary pieces to externalize the internal aspects of the novel/play, it is on the basis of how effective the director is in this attempt that the success of such movies are determined. The original play Amadeus was premiered in 1979 in the National Theater of London and it was adapted by the director Miloš Forman in the year 1984. In a close analysis of the plot, characterization development, and presentation of the play and the movie, it becomes lucid that there are distinct differences between the original play and the movie adaptation, though they appear to be very similar. Whereas a play has a great advantage as it can be viewed as a fantasy, it is not the case with a movie version which needs to present the story in a realistic way so as to draw the attention of the audience. Therefore, it is logical enough to understand that the movie adaptation of Amadeus differs greatly from the original play and it is most obvious in the case of the character of Salieri. In one of the marked differences in the movie, that Salieri is presented as confessing to a priest in a mental institution rather than to the audience in the play. Similarly, there are distinct differences in the way director presented Salieri in the movie and the cinematography, and the director does not add all the elements of this character from the play. In the play, the central conflict is between the composer Antonio Salieri and his more gifted contemporary Mozart. The play raised several challenges to the director when it was adapted for the film and it was a great effort to transform the essential theatrical design. According to Erskine, et al, the most important challenge in adapting this play to cinema was to transform its essential theatrical design in such a way that Mozart’s musical genius would become more central and obvious. Thus, the director Shaffer revised the play in order to make the character of Salieri clearly ‘the wicked center of the action,’ for the screen version that starred F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as an astonishingly vulgar Mozart. “The film is not a biography but a dramatic meditation on the nature of evil and he corrosive effects of vanity and jealousy. A major change in the screenplay is the newly invented character of a young priest who visits Salieri in order to hear his confession after an attempted suicide.” (Erskine, et al, 8-9) Therefore the film adaptation of the play Amadeus brings about several significant changes from the original story and character development which have been essential to provide a touch of reality for the audience. In the film version of the play Amadeus, the director and the writer bring about several other changes which help them in presenting the story in a convincing manner to the audiences and it is arguable that the play is both clarified and improved by the film. Thus, one notices that the film reverses the incident from the play in which Salieri cuts his throat at the end so as to set up the confessional framework at the opening which helps the director in presenting the story in voice-over to the priest, rather than through Salieri’s theatrical monologues. In the film, there is also another added character in the form of the maid whom Salieri hires to spy Mozart. There are also other theatrical devices, such as the ‘Venticelli’ chorus, which are excised from the film. Similarly, the film also avoids the scenes encompassing Salieri’s seductions of the ‘songbird’ Katherina Cavelri and of Mozart’s wife, Constanze (Elizabeth Berridge). It is also relatable here that Constanze, in the play, was willing to prostitute herself to advance husband’s career. “In the film Salieri does not rant about poisoning Mozart; instead, he kills Mozart by overworking the composer on his deathbed to complete a commissioned Requiem Mass.” (Erskine, et al, 9) Whereas these changes in the movie version of the play Amadeus are helpful in presenting the story in a realistic manner, they also contribute to the overall structure of the film. The changes made to the character of Salieri provide a realistic nature to the story and the film version clarifies and improves the play. “The film amplifies Salieri’s hatred and jealousy effectively, making perfectly clear why he belongs in a mental institution. Arguably, the play is both clarified and improved by the film.” (Erskine, et al, 9) Another important movie adaptation to analyze in this respect is the 1992 film Like Water for Chocolate which is based on the popular novel by Laura Esquivel in 1989 and it received great recognition worldwide. According to Ching, et al, Como agua para chocolate, the novel by Laura Esquivel, is a story of forbidden love and it was made into a movie by Alfonso Arau, her husband at the time, in 1991, a year after its publication. “Esquivel also wrote the screenplay. The story revolves around a romance involving Tita and Pedro, the main characters.” (Ching, et al, 286) However, the more essential aspect about this analysis is the way the novel and the movie represent the revolution. In an analytical overview of the novel Like Water for Chocolate, it becomes lucid that the novel, which is set on an isolated ranch in northern Mexico near the Texas border, has the Mexican Revolution (1911-1919) as the main historical background of the story and the novel touches a variety of contemporary themes and issues. In the novel, the authoritarian Mama Elna offers Pedro in marriage her eldest daughter rather than the younger one, Tita and the second of the three daughters, Gertrude, runs off to join the Revolution. According to Hart, Like Water for Chocolate can, in essence, be understood as a feminine counter-version of the Mexican Revolution, and it offers a kitchen-eye’s view of those turbulent years. Significantly, this version of history is at odds with the masculine rhetoric of the history books which emphasize the battles and the struggle for civic power. He also suggests that the most striking characteristic of the novel is the use of food as metaphor for human emotions and its title suggests this fact. (Hart, 173) As a novel, Like Water for Chocolate can best be comprehended as a novel, written from a feminine perspective – as its thesis is that women are closer to food, love, and life – which was able to give a clever, feminine and humorous twist to the genre of magic realism. The novel also has been a magnificent work of art in the manner it dealt with the revolution in the country. It is significant to note that the movie version of the novel Like Water for Chocolate could not keep all the internal aspects of the novel by externalizing them in the movie and it is only understandable the limits of the film adaptations in doing so. However, it is, unlike the other movie adaptations, closest to the original novel in that the original novel was written as a screenplay. Therefore, it is essential to recognize that “… the film does not divergent in any significant way from the novel… The dialogue is retained almost intact, the ordering of the narrative events is retained, and there are only minor changes.” (Hart, 174) According to Hart, the changes in Alfonso Arsu’s version of his then wife’s novel are minimal which is unlike the film versions of the other literary classics where the difference between novel and film are quite extensive. Hart suggests that this feature of the movie is in some ways due to the fact that the original novel was written like a screenplay. (Hart, 174) Thus, the novel provides short cinematic information, focuses greatly on dialogue and has a smooth, forward-propelled plot containing clearly drawn characters. The director himself has asserted that his main aim was to put the author’s novel on the screen rather than creating a new cinematic version of the original novel. One of the most essential factors about Like Water for Chocolate is that it was an international phenomenon as both novel and film and it deals with the revolution in a convincing manner. Balderston and others maintain that this woman-centered narrative mainly focuses on three generations of land-holding female members of the de la Garza family. In this historical melodrama, which is largely set between 1895 and 1934, the core section focuses on the period of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, the event that marks Mexico’s entry into modernity. Significantly, in Como agua para chocolate the revolution is of secondary importance, unlike the traditional novel of the revolution. “The revolution provides the moment for representing shifting gender power relations and generational tension… Director Alfonso Arau’s 1991 fillm adaptation is the Mexican film industry’s biggest international commercial success to date.” (Balderston, et al, 405) A Very Long Engagement (Un long dimanche de fiançailles), the 2004 French romantic war film by Jean-Pierce Jeunet, which was based on Sebastien Japrisot’s novel of the same name in 1991, provides another case of analysis in this paper. This movie deals with the fictional account of a young woman’s hopeless search for her fiancé who is thought to be killed during the World War I. A close analysis of the character of Tina Lombardi in the movie, in comparison to her characterization in the novel, it becomes lucid that the director is highly successful in presenting the character. There are several instances in the movie which present Tina Lombardi in such tremendous way and the scenes where she kills all the people who were responsible for her lover’s death illustrate this effective presentation of the character by the director of the film version. The scene that shows how she shoots on the glass to kill a person as well as the scene where she shoots from under her belt by pulling her glasses make clear how successful the director is in portraying Tina Lombardi. “The barbarity if war and the implacable logic of revenge are softened by the voluptuous beauty of Jeunet’s visuals and the magic of his storytelling. Here is a director who love –adores!– telling stories that we sense his voluptuous pleasure in his own tales.” (Ebert, 731) Therefore, the example of this movie adaptation of the original novel illustrates how a director can bring about great success by enhancing the appeal though providing a technical touch to the original version of the story. In conclusion, it is essential for the director of a film version of a novel or play to recognize the internal aspects of the literary piece to try to effectively externalize them in the movie. It is often on the basis of how successful the director is in doing so that the success of the director as well as the movie is determined. A profound analysis of the character of Salieri in Amadeus, along with the Mexican Revolution presented in Like Water for Chocolate and the character of Tina Lombardi in A very Long Engagement, confirms that there are several essential challenges confronted by director in this effort of externalizing the internal aspects of a literary version in the film version. However, these movies are some significant examples which illustrate that a director can be highly effective in this attempt of externalization which in turn contributes to the success of the director as well as the film version of the novel/play. Works Cited Balderston, Daniel et al. Encyclopedia of contemporary Latin American and Caribbean cultures. CRC Press, 2000. P 405. Ching, Erik Kristofer. et al. Reframing Latin America. New York: University of Texas Press, 2007. P 286. Ebert, Roger. Roger Eberts Movie Yearbook 2006. Andrews McMeel Publishing. 2005. P 731. Erskine, Thomas L. et al. Video Versions. New York. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. P 8-9. Hart, Stephen M. A companion to Latin American film. New York: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2004. P 173. “The characters in the play and the film.” Amadeus. July, 11, 2009. . Read More