![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Fannish Friday: The Movie
As an extension of last week's topic, let's talk about movie adaptations.
1. Tell me which book/book series you'd like to see made into a television show, assuming that everything--writing, casting, direction, etc.--went right.
2. Alternatively, tell me about a book/book series that has been adapted to movie, but that didn't do it very well and you wish someone who really got the heart of the text could take another shot at it.
3. Film adaptations that don't work as adaptations but do work as films if viewed on their own.
4. Film adaptations that are wonderful and either match or improve on the book.
My answers!
1. I'd love to see a Witch of Blackbird Pond film done right! I know this is weird, but if the team behind The Babysitters Club would take it on, I would trust them to do right by a beloved Gen Z/Millennial childhood text.
I also think it would be very cool to get an adaptation of a Frances Hardinge book, though that would take a director/crew that are unhinged in just the right way, and that would be hard to find.
2. I have so many of these! The first one is obviously Ella Enchanted--I don't know that I've ever been that viscerally angry about an adaptation, but that movie had absolutely none of the joy and charm and color of the book and I have never recovered. And it would make such an adorable movie!
I'd like to see an actual good take on Mansfield Park, too. It's nobody's favorite Austen, but Austen alone is a big enough draw if only they did something interesting with it!
A couple of years back, my heart was broken when Emma Thompson wrote a good (but not wonderful) screenplay adaptation of the life of Effie Gray, and then getting the casting and direction got Effie herself totally wrong. Since Suzanne Fagence Cooper's biography is a favorite of mine, I was so annoyed! And I would still love to see the same film made by a director and actor who actually understand Effie's personality.
3. The classic example is Joe Wright's 2005 Pride and Prejudice. I don't feel like this movie understands the book or Austen at all. However, I find it a delightful and beautiful movie.
4. Picnic at Hanging Rock comes to mind as one that works just about perfectly in bringing the book to screen. So does the 1993 Agnieszka Holland version of The Secret Garden.
If I am perfectly honest, Gillian Armstrong's 1994 Little Women is more beloved by me than the book is. (Except for adult!Amy. Adult!Amy is better in the book.) And I have never been able to read The Manchurian Candidate but the movie is one of my favorites.
1. Tell me which book/book series you'd like to see made into a television show, assuming that everything--writing, casting, direction, etc.--went right.
2. Alternatively, tell me about a book/book series that has been adapted to movie, but that didn't do it very well and you wish someone who really got the heart of the text could take another shot at it.
3. Film adaptations that don't work as adaptations but do work as films if viewed on their own.
4. Film adaptations that are wonderful and either match or improve on the book.
My answers!
1. I'd love to see a Witch of Blackbird Pond film done right! I know this is weird, but if the team behind The Babysitters Club would take it on, I would trust them to do right by a beloved Gen Z/Millennial childhood text.
I also think it would be very cool to get an adaptation of a Frances Hardinge book, though that would take a director/crew that are unhinged in just the right way, and that would be hard to find.
2. I have so many of these! The first one is obviously Ella Enchanted--I don't know that I've ever been that viscerally angry about an adaptation, but that movie had absolutely none of the joy and charm and color of the book and I have never recovered. And it would make such an adorable movie!
I'd like to see an actual good take on Mansfield Park, too. It's nobody's favorite Austen, but Austen alone is a big enough draw if only they did something interesting with it!
A couple of years back, my heart was broken when Emma Thompson wrote a good (but not wonderful) screenplay adaptation of the life of Effie Gray, and then getting the casting and direction got Effie herself totally wrong. Since Suzanne Fagence Cooper's biography is a favorite of mine, I was so annoyed! And I would still love to see the same film made by a director and actor who actually understand Effie's personality.
3. The classic example is Joe Wright's 2005 Pride and Prejudice. I don't feel like this movie understands the book or Austen at all. However, I find it a delightful and beautiful movie.
4. Picnic at Hanging Rock comes to mind as one that works just about perfectly in bringing the book to screen. So does the 1993 Agnieszka Holland version of The Secret Garden.
If I am perfectly honest, Gillian Armstrong's 1994 Little Women is more beloved by me than the book is. (Except for adult!Amy. Adult!Amy is better in the book.) And I have never been able to read The Manchurian Candidate but the movie is one of my favorites.
no subject
no subject
I feel like the LotR movies and the books are doing very different things and have a very different appeal, so it would make sense that some people like one more than the other--I can definitely understand enjoying the movies more. For me, which I prefer depends on my mood, though I'm not a megafan of either one.
no subject
Excuse me! :P
...I have heard enough about the existing adaptations to know I don't want to watch any of them, and I agree that it would be really good to have a film (or TV, I'll not be picky) adaptation that really gets the book right. There is so much interesting stuff to be explored in there!
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
2 and 3: "The heart is a lonely hunter". It's not a terrible movie in itself, and the acting is good, but it really doesn't capture the characters or the subtle sadness of the book, and one day, I'd love to see an adaptation that can!
Which brings me to 4, and another adaptation of a McCullers book, "The ballad of the sad café", which is a Merchant+Ivory production, and I feel that it really gets the essence of the book just right. Also: Vanessa Redgrave! <3
And I agree with you, the 1990s versions of "The Secret Garden" and "Little Women" are wonderful... I don't know if it's partly my nostalgia, but I love them too! <3
no subject
I feel like McCullers' tone would be difficult to translate to scream, but I have not seen the Merchant+Ivory one.
I don't know if it's partly my nostalgia, but I love them too! <3
I freely admit that nostalgia has a role in my love for LW, but I really do think that TSC is just a fantastic movie and would be to anyone who sees it at any time.
no subject
I agree about McCullers's tone being difficult to get right in a movie. I feel that the Merchant+Ivory one gets it, though... and not entirely because I'm biased about their stuff, hehe! XD
"The secret garden" gives me such a happy feeling! <3 I haven't seen the new one partly because I don't think it will manage to capture this! Have you seen it, and if so, what did you think?
no subject
I haven't seen the new one, no. It looked too CGI-y. To me, that would rob it of any joy. The reality of the garden is the whole point!
no subject
1. This is such a dorky and specific answer, but I'm obsessed with the idea of a sequel film to Austenland adapting Midnight in Austenland, with Jennifer Coolidge back as Miss Charming, James Callis as her Regency husband for hire, Jane Seymour as Mrs. Wattlesbrook, and more of the absolutely deranged bonkers energy of the first film. I like Midnight in Austenland more than I liked Austenland the book, and I think it would make SUCH a fun movie. It's spoofing Northanger Abbey, so: Gothic nonsense + that whimsical, weird Jerusha Hess movie vibe = my utmost dream!
I haven't even been following it, but Dracula Daily has also had me feeling v. aware that I would love a Dracula film that doesn't go the annoying-ass Mina/Dracula route! That virtually always taints Dracula adaptations for me.
(Also, re: Hardinge, I especially think The Lie Tree would be a GORGEOUS, eerie movie. Do you have a favorite of hers for seeing onscreen?)
2. I would love a Rebecca film made by a woman. PLEASE! I just want so badly to see what it would be like. Also: Joel Fry/Sarah Snook Persuasion!!!
3. Mansfield Park '99! I really appreciate it as a film in conversation with Austen in a lot of ways, even though Fanny's character is so different from her book self that it fundamentally doesn't feel like a true MP adaptation to me. Also Peter Rabbit 2018, lololol. (Leave me alone, world!)
4. I second Stardust! And of course, my beloved Austenland. But my most, most favorite improvement-upon-the-book film of all is Jurassic Park. Book = meh to me, movie = forever fave! I think the simplicity of the emotional arc in the movie (man thinks he doesn't want kids with partner, has experience with kids, decides he's actually open to it!) is just perfection and I badly missed it when I read the book.
no subject
Aww, I am charmed by your dorky and specific answer.
It's spoofing Northanger Abbey, so: Gothic nonsense + that whimsical, weird Jerusha Hess movie vibe = my utmost dream!
This does sound so fun!
OMG YES we need an actual faithful Dracula adaptation!!! Why has there never, ever been one??? Harkers otp!
I agree that The Lie Tree is probably the Hardinge that would be best to adapt to film, and I would love to see it. But I would also love to see someone try to do A Face Like Glass because I have absolutely no idea how that would work.
I would love a Rebecca film made by a woman. PLEASE! I just want so badly to see what it would be like. Also: Joel Fry/Sarah Snook Persuasion!!!
GOD YES to both of these!
Mansfield Park '99! I really appreciate it as a film in conversation with Austen in a lot of ways, even though Fanny's character is so different from her book self that it fundamentally doesn't feel like a true MP adaptation to me. Also Peter Rabbit 2018, lololol. (Leave me alone, world!)
You are precious.
Oh! Jurassic Park is such a good answer! Not that I've read the book, but I can easily see how the movie is just so much better!
no subject
2. Ghibli Earthsea! Someone with animation chops (or alternately the team who did the live action Life of Pi? I could see that) needs to redo it -- but actually do The Tombs of Atuan, unless that's cheating.
3. Ghibli again: Howl's Moving Castle as a book is as thematically, tonally, and plottily different from Howl's Moving Castle as a film as can be, but I love them both intensely and think both of them are perfect in their own way!
4. Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men is much better than PD James' original. Cuarón is a master, the addition of Kee (played by Clare-Hope Ashitey) was necessary imo, and the whole visual language is great.
no subject
Ooooh, I love the contrasts with these!
I have never been able to bring myself to watch Ghibli Earthsea, but I agree that Tombs would make a fantastic movie.
Howl's Moving Castle as a book is as thematically, tonally, and plottily different from Howl's Moving Castle as a film as can be, but I love them both intensely and think both of them are perfect in their own way!
I love this!
SO AGREED about Children of Men. I've never been able to make it few more than a few pages of the book, but the movie is fantastic. I love Cuarón.