P&P3 in Top 50 Greatest Adaptations
Readers of The Guardian chose P&P3 as No. 31 in their top 50 film adaptations reader poll. (Readers may remember the list previously compiled by writers at The Guardian.)
Another article in The Guardian discusses which authors have had many of their works filmed, and certainly Jane Austen falls into that list.
Although this variation of approach warns that different stories demand different solutions, it can be seen that transfers from bookshelf to multiplex raise the same consistent problems. The greatest of these is tone of voice. A novelist achieves atmosphere and moral stance through choice of words and it is almost impossible to duplicate that visually.
The standard case study in this regard is Austen. Despite her very high strike-rate as an inspiration for films, appreciation societies have consistently objected to the loss of the signature controlling wit. Emma Thompson and Deborah Moggach - in their scripts for Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Pride and Prejudice (2005) - managed to distil some of that narrative voice in the dialogue.
Yeah, well, sez you, bubba.
June 5th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Uh,why,exactly, was Shakespeare included in this story? His stuff was written to be performed, not read. Does the Cluebat work on people who say stupid stuff about non-Austen authors?
June 6th, 2006 at 3:06 am
With To Kill a Mocking Bird, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Kes and The Maltese Falcon in the Top 20, it seems clear that Miss Austen would have done better had she had birds in the titles of her works.
Mansfield Hawk?
Hens and Sensibility?
You know it makes sense.
June 6th, 2006 at 10:13 am
I just noticed this part:
18. Rebecca
Alfred Hitchcock (1940)
Adapted by Philip MacDonald from the 1938 novel by Daphne du Maurier
This was the novel that made Du Maurier’s name, a classically English mystery influenced by Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey.
How the hell does NA influence Rebecca? Other than Henry Tilney snarking it in my ear the whole time I was reading it, that is. NA is the anti-Rebecca.