From Print to Big screen

From Print to Big Screen: Critical Discourse on

Adaptation Theories and Techniques

N.Nagajothi, M.A.,M.Phil., Research scholar/Dept. of

English

V.V.Vanniaperummal college for women, Virudhunagar ,

Tamilnadu.

Research Guide: Dr.N.Velmani M.A.,M.Phil.,Ph.D., Associate

Professor in English

V.V.Vanniaperummal

college for women, Virudhunagar, Tamilnadu.

Adapting literary works to film is a creative

undertaking which requires a kind of selective interpretation,

the ability to recreate and sustain an established mood. Literary

world is the perennial source of archeological mythic site where

film makers would dig in again and again for excavating heirlooms

and treasures of aesthetic values. Their continuing phenomenon is

due to their high-minded respect for literary work blended with

ambitious mood of crass commercialism. Adaptation is not a new

phenomenon at all. Intertexual studies show that stories always

seem to derive from other stories. As Deborah Cartmell

observes, adaptations have reaped three-quarters of best picture

awards. Dudley Andrew supports the statement “well over half of

all commercial films have come from literary original… (10)”

(qtd. in Cora). Morris Beja reports that more than three fourths

of the awards for ‘best pictures’ “since 1935, the largest

proportion have been film adaptations of novels (78)” (qtd. in

Cora).

Divergence of Literature and Cinema

Films adapted from novels are diluted versions of

novels. It is like putting old champagne in ne w glossy colourful

bottles. It is crucial to compare the differences between novel

and film to reach the depths of understanding the aspect of these

two media. Novel is a lingual medium with vast vocabulary, while

film is a visual one with visual images. Novels demand our

imagination. Moving pictures demand observation. The one tilt

towards creative and the other towards analytical. Film cannot

present action in the past tense as novels do. Linden (157)

points out the fact that in the cinema the “pictures are moving”,

which supports the film’s present tense. There is a vast

difference between two language systems of fiction and film – one

of which works wholly on a symbolic platform while, the other

works through the interaction of codes.

Monaco finds that watching a film can be a richer

experience than reading a novel, as the spectator can be more

active in encountering events on the screen. At times, the film

also can be a poorer experience, because in film, “the persona of

narrator is much weaker than in the novel (Monaco 46). Novel

leaves much room for imagination. The reader of the novel has to

imagine while the spectator of the film has to read the signs and

thus both have to undergo the process of interpretation of signs.

(159).

Film and Fiction are two different art forms, two

distinct vehicles of storytelling. They are different in terms of

the structures, perception and the narrative. It is inevitable to

deviate from the original story while transforming novel into

films. Cinematic considerations must be made when novel is to be

successfully adapted to the filmic media. Time is the element of

the novel, while time and space are elements of cinema. In a

motion picture the director visualizes in relation to time and

space. Thus film’s spatial as well as temporal orientation gives

it a physical presence which is denied to the novel’s linearity.

Brimming with ‘creative inspirations’, adapting the necessary

literature of hundreds of pages onto a three hour movie is not an

easy task. While a book takes a couple of words to express a

particular message, a movie will require a combination of precise

sound, script, setting to create the delivered impact on his

audience.

Typology of Adaptation and its Critical Paradigms

In the prospect of evaluating a film based on novel,

critics often found their judgements in assessment of the

effectiveness of adaptation. The differences in judgement stem

from the critical adoption of differing paradigms for evaluating

the film adaptation.

Kline categorizes film adaptations into four main paradigms:

a) Translation: A critic adopting this prospective judges the

film’s effectiveness in terms of its ‘fidelity’ to the novel.

Such adaptation remains faithful to the letter of the text. b)

Pluralist: A successful film adaptation presents ‘analogies’

between the novel and the film, in which differences between film

and literature are “acceptable” but “similarities are expected as

well”. This kind of adaptation “remains true to the spirit of the

novel”. c) Transformation: critics adopting this approach

consider the novel as the raw material in which the film maker

adopts significant changes so that the “film becomes an artistic

work in its own right”. d) Materialist paradigm: Critics adapting

this approach examine the film as the product of cultural-

historical process. They consider the “institutional factors

affecting cultural productions” and give much less weight whether

or not the film adaptation is comparable to the original literary

work. (qtd. in Cora)

Another comparable categorization system was proposed

by Geoffrey Wagner with three possible routes of adaptation; “a)

transposition, in which a novel is given directly on the screen

with a minimum of apparent interference. b) commentary, where an

original is taken and either purposely or inadvertently altered

in some respect… rather than infidelity or original violation.

c) analogy, which must represent a fairly considerable departure

for the sake of making another work of art”(qtd. in Joy Gould,

Boyum 69).

The widespread common types of adaptation prevails as

follows;-

1. Literal: A film adaptation in which the dialogue and the

actions are preserved more or less intact. (e.g. Peter Brook’s

Lord of the Files).

2.Faithful: A film adaptation based on a literary or other

original source, which captures the essence of the original,

often by using cinematic equivalents for specific literary

techniques. (e.g. Mike Nichols’s Catch-22).

3. Loose: A film adaptation in which only a superficial

resemblance exists to the original source. (e.g. Amy Heckerling’s

Emma).

Quest for Fidelity with inevitable changes

A film adaptation can make an apt homage to the

original literary work. The literary works are natural expression

of emotive feelings from inner heart and soul. So the writer

neither cared for his own intention nor for that of his audience

while conceiving thematic structure and narrative of the novel.

But to the film maker glaring reality of the audience psychology

has loomed large. In telling the story from a visual and sound

perspective it may need to adopt remarkable mutations to the

source material. Indeed literature is an art for art sake while

the film is an art for audience sake.

The novel can be pretty long as the reader has time at

his disposal. But a film viewer cannot be constrained to sit in

the theatre more than two hours. So the film maker has to pour

ten gallons of voluminous story into one gallon jug of film.

Since a transcription of a novel into film is impossible and

holding up a goal of accuracy is absurd. So changes in adaptation

are essential and mandatory but how much is always a balance.

Some film theorists have argued that the two works of art must be

seen as separate entities. Others argue that what a film

adaptation does is change to fit and the film must be accurate to

either the effect of a novel or the theme of the novel and the

film maker must introduce necessary changes to fit the demands of

time and to maximize faithfulness along one of these axes. As

Stam (58) points out a variation on the theme of fidelity

suggests that an adaptation should be faithful not so much to the

source text but rather to the “essence of medium of expression”.

Incision and Interpolation

Weaving a fine thread of imagination, literary writer

fabricates novel. To tailor a fit garment (film) out of this

gorgeous fabric, the film maker has to adopt incision and

interpolation. Eric Von Stroheim attempted a literal translation

of Frank Morris’s novel Mc Teague in 1924 with his film Greed. The

resulting film was nine and half an hour long. Therefore elision

is mandatory but how much is always a balance. In some cases

however, the director may wish to interpolate scene or invent new

characters to cater the taste of his audience. For example

William Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel IronWeed had a

very small section with a prostitute named Helen. Because the

film studio anticipated female audience and Meryl Streep for the

role, Helen became a significant part of the film. However

characters are sometimes invented to provide the narrative voice.

Thus in adapting a novel the screen writer is always faced with

difficult choices; what to include/exclude, how to compensate for

necessary excisions, how to conflate characters and incidents,

how to show that what the writer tells.

Syntax of Film Adaptation

Both the films and novels tell us stories via

narratives. But these two genres are different in their

techniques, methods and presentation of narrative with different

code systems. A major difference between novel and fiction is

that, the narrative in one media is presented in words and the

other in frames. The writer is God-like whose creations are with

innate beauty and integrity. But the film maker like sculptor has

to chisel his artistic creation with cinematic devices and

strategies to enthrall his audience.

As stated by Monaco “the structure of the cinema is

defined by cinematic codes” (175), as the film lacks language

codes. These codes enable us to read film narratives and learn to

ascribe its meaning. He classified codes into six categories:

culturally derived codes (which are outside the film), shared

artistic codes (e.g. a gesture), unique artistic codes (montage),

framing codes (lighting, colour etc), codes of shot (distance,

focus angle, point of view etc.), sound codes (sound track, sound

effect etc.) (179-214).

Mc Farlane paid special attention to ‘extra cinematic

codes’ (28-29), without which criticism of film adaptation

remains inadequate. These include – language codes (involving

response to particular accents or tones of voice), visual codes

(interpretational aspects of mostly the film makers’ view of

verbal codes), Non-linguistic sound codes (comprising musical and

other aural codes), cultural codes (the way people eat, dress and

live at a particular times and places). In the opinion of Monaco

the cinematic codes include Mise-en-scéne and Montage all put

together may configure the syntax of the film. The difference

between the operating system of these codes in film and the

novel’s reliance on the written representation of language codes

has been a key element in analyzing these two genres.

Narratological inventory in Film adaptation

The old screen adage, “Show, Don’t tell”, applies more

than ever in adaptation. Narration in the fiction-writing mode is

an explicit narrative, whereby the narrator (first person or

third person or omniscient narrator) directly communicates the

reader. But the narratological inventory, when applied to cinema,

is bound to incorporate and combine a large number of “co-

creative techniques” “constructing the story world for specific

effects” and creating an overall meaning only in their totality

(Bordwell 12) (qtd. in Schmidt). The absence of a narrative

subject is to be compensated for by the construction of a “visual

narrative instance” (Deleyto 219) (qtd. in Schmidt) mediating the

paradigms of cinematographic devices (elements relating to

camera, sound, editing), the mise-en-scéne (arranging and composing

the scene in front of the camera) and a distinctly filmic

focalization.

Mise-en-scéne is a cinema studies term that literally

means “putting in the scene”. It refers to almost everything that

goes into the composition itself: setting, props, lighting,

movement of the camera and actors, costumes even soundtrack as it

helps to elaborate the composition. The narrative style of the

movie depends mostly on the screenplay of the movie embedded with

purposeful mise-en-scéne. It bequeaths the film some

verisimilitude. In adaptation of novels, the director has to

invent all mise-en-scéne by himself, unlike plays. Setting has the

ability to add meaning to the narrative .The props, which are

part of the setting can amplify specific significance to the

total action. The intensity and quality of lighting can influence

the audience’s understanding of characters, actions, themes and

mood. Costume can serve to enhance the narration, by implying

psychological disposition and social position of characters. It

also hints at character development in the film. Makeup and

hairstyles too can reveal character traits and signal changes in

character. Figure Behaviour provides artistic power to the

director because the actors in film are used as vehicles of

expression by the director. An intelligent and nuanced

performance of actor can bring out the literary essence unfurling

the thematic matter, characters and conflicts and above all, the

humanity embedded in the text. Human voice has the power to move

people’s feelings and adds new force to the text itself. The

sensual force of the spoken word is intensified by the music in

the film. Music reinforces the symbolic richness of the literary

work, by shedding new light on its “meaning, mood and textuality

(Foulton 108)” (qtd. in Schmidt).

Editing is one of the decisive cinematographic

processes for the narrative organization of a film. It connects

montage (splitting, combining and reassembling of visual

segments) with the mix of sound elements and the choice of

strategic points in space (angle, perspective). The early days of

filming used one continuous take without cuts, jumps or fades.

Then came Sergei Eisentein the renowned Russian film maker who

coined the term ‘Montage’. Montage is an art of creative editing

in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence, to

condense space, time and information. The montage effect is

accomplished by fading one shot into another, cutting shot and

positioning them that drive their meaning from complex internal

relationship to form a kind of visual poem in miniature. Simple

cut, cross-cutting, parallel montage, cut-in, continuity editing

(analytic montage) and internal editing are various typology of

creative editing.

Brand-new cinematic adaptations

Today, the Filmdom is turning to literary world to

establish a standing in international cinema. Lana Wachowski’s

cinematic adaptation of David Mitchel’s Cloud Atlas is said to be

the most expensive independent film this year. The film premiered

on September 9, 2012 at the 37th Toronto international Film

Festival, where it received a ten-minute standing ovation. The

film adaptation of Jack Kerouasc’s classic novel ‘On the Road’ by

Walter Salles premiered on May 23, 2012 at the 2012 Cannes Film

Festival. It was flagged as “most beautifully executed “by The

New York Times. Deepa Meta undertook the film adaptation of

Salman Rushdie’s Booker Prize winning novel Midnight’s Children. The

film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival,

the 2012 Vancouver International Film Festival, and the 2012 BFI

London Film Festival, but has not yet found a distributor in

India. Joe Wright adapted Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna

Karenina. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival has

been critically acclaimed. Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fu is a

political thriller based on the Booker prize winning novel of

British-Pakistani author Moshin Hamid, it premiered at the 69th

Venice International Film Festival in August 2012. Anglee’s 3D

adventure film Life of Pi, adapted from Yan Martel’s Booker prize

winner is now released with many accolades.

To Sum up

Visualization (filmic media) has been regarded as

destroying many of subtleties of the printed word of the literary

work. In the last decade of research there has been a significant

shift towards this dihierarchizing attitude. The discussions

“have moved from a moralistic discourse of fidelity and betrayal

to less judgemental discourse intertextuality”. (Robert Stam

209). Adaptations are now being analyzed as “avatars of artistic

creativity” which can embed printed book in network of creative

activities and interpersonal communication. So an adaptation

capturing all the nuances of book’s complexity is not a norm of

an adaptation. It has to remain a work of art, an independent,

coherent and convincing creation with its own subtleties of

meanings. In other words it has to remain faithful to the

internal logic created by the new vision of the adapted work.

Cinematic adaptations blur boundaries between the different

media, they force the film makers to penetrate the surface of a

written text, to read out what lies beneath this surface and

recreate it in the visual and aural medium. A specific

combination of images and sounds can provide insights into the

nature of the deep-seated meanings that do not lend themselves

easily to verbal exploration. Thus film adaptations as

independent texts, adhering to their own conventions and with

their own stylistic repertoire, neither inferior nor superior to

but different from their literary antecedents. They both promote

a symbiotic relationship between scientific and artistic

activities. We should treat them not as rivals, but as forms of

expressions that may complement each other.

Works cited

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