It’s all about the story
Alert Janeites Lisa and Laurel Ann sent us an article about Welsh filmmaker Peter Greenaway, who protests that modern films (including the many adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels and adaptations of novels that are related to Jane Austen’s novels) are simply “illustrating novels.”
He said, “Cinema is predicated on the 19th-century novel.
“We’re still illustrating Jane Austen novels – there are 41 films of Jane Austen novels in the world.
“What a waste of time.”
We submit that the best films, like the best books, are all about the stories they tell. Film and books become classics because the stories are timeless and universal. This sharing is probably why there is so much crossover between the genres.
Parenthetically, we wonder if Mr. Greenaway is any relation to the marvelous Kate Greenaway, whose charming drawings…illustrated books. Perhaps he has issues.
October 17th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Let’s say films are ‘visualizing’ the novels. There’s a difference between vision and illustration: the former is seeing through an interpretive lens, rather than transferring images from one medium to another like the latter. That’s why we may like a certain adaptation over another one of the same Austen novel, and that’s why there can be more than just one movie on the same story… Just as Bach had created Theme and Variations, we can have Story and Adaptations. As a filmmaker, Mr. Greenaway should have grasped this very basic notion.