Adaptation and Transformation

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Adaptation and Transformation

• FS 101
• Week 10

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Quiz 3

• Leave all coats, bags, and books at the front of
  the room
• If you finish early, leave quietly
• do not stand outside the lecture room talking
• BA110 (downstairs)
• Tuts 1 and 2 (Ackerman)
• BA 111 (downstairs)
• Tuts 3 and 4 (Bulter)
• BA 201 (this room)
• Tuts 7 and 9 (Rebry)
• Tuts 10 and 19 (Poluyko)
• Tuts 11 and 15 (Springer)
• Tuts 12 and 13 (McLean)
• Return to BA201 by 615pm for the lecture

3
Lecture

• Essays due next week in tutorials
• Must be submitted to turnitin.com within 24 hrs
• Essays will be returned on Mon Dec 6th
• Quiz 4 430pm Thurs Dec 2nd in BA3X
• Exam 900am Friday Dec 10th in BA3X
• Last week adaptation authenticity
• This week adaptation transformation
• Week 11 postmodern film and narrative
• Week 12 exam info and review

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Fidelity to the Author
Film producers know the value of
fidelity Hamlet (1996)...aka William
Shakespeare's Hamlet Julius Caesar (1953)...aka
William Shakespeare's Julius Renaissance Man
(1994)...aka Opération Shakespeare (Fr) Romeo
Juliet (1996)...aka William Shakespeare's Romeo
Juliet (1996) (USA complete title) Midsummer
Night's Dream, A (1999)...aka William
Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
(USA complete title)
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Fidelity in Adaptation

• Ideas about 'fidelity faithfulness to the
  original
• Have characterised the critical evaluation of
  adaptation
• There is a perceived valuation of the 'literal'
  translation praised
• V one which has only the spirit' of novel
  criticised
• J. Dudley Andrew says that adaptation tends to be
  defined as
• the 'appropriation of meaning from a prior text
• McFarlane says that the reading of a novel is
  replaced with
• the experience of film but 'the collective
  memory should be disturbed 'as little as
  possible'
• So films are frequently criticised for failing to
  be accurate or faithful to the original or
  historically authentic
• This seems to suggest that
• a faithful reading rarely occurs between the
  two media
• AND adaptation only works if viewer familiar with
  the novel
• Fidelity depends on there being one 'correct'
  reading
• to which the filmmaker is faithful or not

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Fidelitynot an issue?

• BUT there is large part of the audience for whom
• the fidelity issue is not important
• fidelity issue gives primacy to one aspect of
  film at the expense of many others
• Stars direction genre cinematography social
  commentary
• Contemporary adaptation critics argue
• That debating fidelity is a fruitless exercise!
• McFarlane says 2 key aspects to consider
• What is possible to transfer from novel to film
• What other factors have impacted upon it?
• Maurice Beja asks
• What relationship should a film
• have to the original source?
• Should it be "faithful"? Can it be?
• And faithful to what exactly?

Picassos Woman is it faithful to the
original?
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Narration

• McFarlane says for film
• It is less easy to distinguish between
• narrational modes
• 1st 2nd 3rd person
• omniscient limited dramatic
• For film debates about differing types of
  narration
• including 'camera discourse
• is the camera an impartial 3rd partyie.
  objective?
• does selection of shots mean it is always
  subjective?
• does it play with the modes more easily?

• McFarlane
• If film did not grow out of the
  nineteenth-century novel it grew towards it
• Novel film both have
• the centrality of narrative in common
• Film moved from documentary to narrative
• narrative the recounting of a sequence of
  events
• Thus adaptation
• A logical conclusion
• A narrative from fiction to film

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Relocation and Authorship

• Metamorphosis of novel into film involves
• a movement between two media a relocation
• Removes original author from the new production
• Study of the adaptation is thus also a study of
  authorship
• Adaptation tends draw its audience because of
• the value attached to name of author Orig author
  v new
• But new author may also attract audience
• Quentin Tarantino or Alfred Hitchcock
• Questions to think about
• How is the narrative transformed?
• How do the 2 different media tell stories?
• How does the audience plays a role?

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Different audiences

• Shift in audience
• From C19th to C21st ? From family to adult ?
• From literature to film ? From film to TV ?
• Ratings, primetime, commercials, stars, etc
• Source and adaptation produced for different
  audiences
• McFarlane argues that in attempting to be
  faithful
• ie. recreating Dickens London or Austens
  village life
• a film can produce a quaint period-piece
• BUT the novel would have had a contemporary feel
• For its contemporary audience
• Like Stephen King or Michael Crichton for us
• Think of an adaptation of Jurassic Park in 2075 ?
• Ah, the good old days before cloning
  degeneration!

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There are more important things

• Soan adaptation might be better understood
• by addressing the way it
• Reflects Hollywoods representation of
  Englishness
• Relates to other films of the same genre
• or from the same director (film authorship)
• Is the product of
• the commercial impulse ie. casting, marketing,
  etc
• Or different market TV, video, film

Or diff audience ie. C19th to C21st
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What Kind of Adaptation?

• An adaptation might be thought of
• like a critical essay
• a commentary upon a particular novel
• an adaptation can take a certain position of
  commentary on the original source from which it
  hails
• McGraths Emma vs Austens commentary on C19th
• McFarlane thinks it is important to establish
• what kind of approach an adaptation takes
• allows the critic to move away from
• 'the primacy of the printed text and
• away from the fidelity trap
• Avoid debate of trueness to novel

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Dudley Andrews Paradigm

• 1. Borrowing
• attempts to reproduce the original as accurately
  as possible
• 2. Intersecting
• attempts to sustain, in an altered form, the
  original
• 3. Transforming
• observes no fidelity to original but uses text as
  an inspired point of departure

• Borrowing
• in which the literary text remains in control
• Intersecting
• in which differences in media are respected
• Transforming
• in which the film controls the literary text
• equivalents are found in the medium of film for
  elements that are purely verbal in the original
  text

www.folger.edu/institute/visual/fvintro.htm
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BorrowingIntersectingTransforming
(Olivier 1944) Shakespeares Henry V Heralded for
decades as authentic
(Branagh 1993) Shakespeares Much ado about
Nothing Uses visual medium to advantagevisually
stunning
(Junger 1999) Shakespeares Taming of the
Shrew Good eg of altering the text to meet
demands of new audience
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BorrowingIntersectingTransforming?
QUES Which one is which and why?
Luhrmann 1996
Zeffirelli 1968
RobbinsWise 1961
Are they all Shakespeares Romeo Juliet?
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Borrowing
Zeffirelli 1968 - This version is usually
heralded as very faithful The quintessential
RomeoJuliet Taught in high schools everywhere
Faithful
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Intersecting
Luhrmann 1996 This version is seen as
intelligent and novel Updates Shakespeare for the
contemporary audience But original dialogue and
themes
Something New
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Transforming
Completely Different
Robbins Wise 1961 This version was seen in its
time very much as Luhrmanns was in late 90s Ie.
Clever and updating but it is also divergent
from original language is modern it
is a musical set in
contemporary NYC explores problems of racism and
gang violence
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Transforming?
Adaptation or a cultural narrative
?
Romeo and Juliet at sea ?
Titanic (Cameron 1997)
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BorrowingIntersectingTransforming?
Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice
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BorrowingIntersectingTransforming?
Les Liaisons Dangereuses C18th French novel
(Kumble 1999) (Frears 1988)
(Forman 1989)
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BorrowingIntersectingTransforming?
Jane Austens Emma
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Borrowing
Attempts to reproduce original as accurately as
possible
Fidelity Accuracy
Authenticity - The key words associated with a
borrowing adaptation
BBC TV (1972)
BBC TV (1997)
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Intersecting or Borrowing?
Attempts to sustain, in an altered form, the
original
Maybe too much comedy? Maybe too much C20th
society? Not enough fidelity to Austen,
her themes, and time?
McGrath 1996
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Transforming or still Intersecting?
Transforming? Observes no fidelity to
original but uses text as an inspired point of
departure
Intersecting? Attempts to sustain, in an
altered form, the original