Film Adaptation Analysis

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This paper tries to through light on the important issue of deciding upon the right parameters of evaluation of film adaptations. After dealing with the historical perspective right from the beginning of Hollywood, the definition of adaptation has been dealt with. An interesting observation regarding adaptations that, “second-rate novels make very good movies while great works of prose produced films that have tumbled” has been referred to them. How a creative film maker, like R.K. Narayan raised an important issue is ‘fidelity to the text’ the only litmus test of an ideal adaptation? is discussed in greater details. The task of adaptation of a novel has been further clarified by quoting Balazs, an authority in the field of adaptation. Finally …show more content…

In the filmed novel, literature and cinema both overlap. In spite of the obvious similarities there are certain hidden differences that startle the filmmakers and the critics. These differences always prove to be problematic to the filmmakers. The basic difference between the novel and the film is in the form of certain distinguishing traits of both the mediums of expression. The novel is conceptual and discursive in form while the film is perpetual and presentational in form. The novel is a linguistic medium, the film is essentially visual (as music and dialogue reinforce the images and can be subsidiary lines in the total film composition). The governing conventions of each medium are also conditioned by different modes of production. The novel is supported by a small, literate circle and is produced by a single person 'the novelist. ' The film, on the other hand, is supported by masses and produced by a group of artists called 'the production crew ' and is restricted by certain cinematic conventions. One discovers, therefore, in the film version of the novel an inevitable desertion of 'novelistic elements. ' As a result, the characteristic contents of language in the form of tropes are converted into the images of physical

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