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TOPIC 61: THE IMPACT OF CINEMA ON THE DIFFUSION OF LITERARY WORKS IN THE…
TOPIC 61: THE IMPACT OF CINEMA ON THE DIFFUSION OF LITERARY WORKS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
1. BACKGROUND
Origins
Lumère brothers, 1895
Popular and humble origin :arrow_right: circus ad fairs
before 20s :arrow_right: approached narrative fiction and novel
Cinema in the 1920s
20s :arrow_right: consolidated as a popular show
Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton
Hollywood as the centre of the film industry
When
sound
introduced :arrow_right: English the language of the cinema
Golden Age (1930-1960)
Great number of masterpieces
Westerns
directors like John Ford (
The Stagecoach
) and Howard Hawks (
Rio Lobo
)
Black cinema
directors like John Houston (
The Asphalt Jungle
or
The Maltese Falcon
)
Comedies
by Billy Wilder (
Some Like it Hot
), Howard Hawks (
Bringing Up Baby
) and The Marx Brothers
Cinema from the 1960s
New technological innovations :arrow_right:
special effects
and
computer designs
Outstanding directors :arrow_right: Francis Ford Coppola (
The Godfather Trilogy
) and Steven Spielberg (
Shindler's List
and
Jaws
)
Importance of the cinema in the 20th century
Spread of
television
:arrow_right: new means of diffusion :arrow_right: enlarging its market and influence
Hollywood's big productions :arrow_right: Walt Disney or Steven Spielberg
Movie stars :arrow_right: Sharon Stone, Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks :arrow_right: worshipped and imitated
Nowadays the most popular
and influential of arts
Capable of diffusion the
Anglo-Saxon culture, history
and
way of life
2. THE CINEMA AND LITERATURE
2.1. Film and novel: a comparable analysis
Common characteristics
Watching a film = as sophisticated a
mental process
as = reading
Film = novel :arrow_right: not simply a direct representation of reality (
subliminal processes
involved)
Relation
shot/montage
= relation
word/sentence
Differences
Different codes :arrow_right:
image-word
vs.
word
Films difficulties
showing detailed representation of
subjective states of mind
communicating
concentrated doses of information
expressing
shifts of time
:arrow_right: flashback technique
Films advantages
dealing with
space
:arrow_right: detailing locations may need pages of description in a novel
Economic considerations
Producing a film = more expensive :arrow_right: more
financial pressure
to be popular and find a large audience
2.2. Importance of literature for film scripts
First years of silent cinema :arrow_right: means of
dignifying cinematography
Golden Age (1930-60) adaptations of
classics from 19th century
Audience's literary background
(Dickens, Brontë sisters, etc)
Change of the
type of spectators
Best-sellers adaptations
:pencil2:
The Shining
by Stephen King or
The Silence of the Lambs
by Thomas Harris
Literature provides
endless flow of stories
:arrow_right: already successful & proved to be appealing
Readers = potential viewers :arrow_right: producers are aware
Current tendency in Hollywood = buy
rights of literary works massively
30-50% American movies = based on movies
2.3. Film adaptation of literary works
Transposition
Copying
the literary source / scarcely
any intrusion
Inevitable :arrow_right: to be
condensed
(film of reasonable length)
Important
selection process
Leaving out subplots, scenes, character's complexities, etc.
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen (1813) and adapted by Robert Z. Leonard (1949) :pencil2:
Nicholas Nickleby
by Charles Dickens (1838) and adapted by A. Cavalcanti (1947) :pencil2:
Re-interpretation
Preserving the original / doing a
substantial re-interpretation
(connected with the
contemporary world
)
Simplification
and
selection
used more freely than type-1 versions
Best film versions
of literary works
Francis Ford Coppola's
Dracula
(Bram Stoker, 1897)
Luis Buñuel's
Robinson Crusoe
(Daniel Defoe, 1719)
Free adaptation
Literary source =
raw material
inspirational force
at the beginning of the creative process
Certain situation, characters, etc. might remain BUT
substantial deviations
:arrow_right: result is a
different work of art
La Dolce Vita
by Federico Fellini = an
analogy
of T. S. Elliot's poem
The Waste Land
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Philip Dick = inspirational source of Ridley Scott's
Blade Runner
Moving from
literary discourse
to
film language
(word :arrow_right: word-image medium) implies
changes
2.4. The incidence of the cinema on literature
Writers' attitude
towards cinema = disdainful and negative
BUT part of the education of modern writers :arrow_right:
affected
the way they
tell stories
+ way the
structure a novel
Sudden beginning
- straight into the action = way cinema attracts spectator's attention from the very beginning
Writer of
Lost Generation
+
realistic writers of the 50's
used
character's behaviour + external appearance
:arrow_right: reader to deduce their real nature = as cinema does
3. THE ROLE OF THE CINEMA IN THE DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
Many cases
film
becomes
better known
than the original
book
All children know
Gulliver, Tom Sawyer, Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe or Oliver Twist
:arrow_right:
movies and cartoons
BUT not heard about Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Defoe or Dickens
English literature
adapted to films
The Adventures of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table
/
Canterbury Tales
Shakespeare's plays
:pencil2: Lawrence Olivier's
Hamlet
one of the most remarkable
Great
novels of the 17th and 18th centuries
by Defoe, Swift and Fielding
19th century novels
:pencil2:
Wuthering Heights, Sense and Sensibility
20th-century fiction
:pencil2: James Ivory's adaptations of several of E. M. Forster's novels
A Room with a View
or
A Passage to India
American literature
adapted to films
18th-century classics
:pencil2:
Moby Dick
or
Tom Sawyer
20th century
cinema acquired huge importance in the USA :arrow_right: relationship btw
contemporary writers
and the
film industry
= very close in some cases
William Faulkner wrote several scripts for several successful films :pencil2:
The Big Sleep
or
Sanctuary
Hemingway's novels repeatedly taken to the screen :pencil2:
For Whom the Bell Tolls
or
The Killers
Scott Fitgerald's novel
The Great Gatsby
with Robert Redford playing Jay Gatsby and Mia Farrow as Daisy