Cinematic Adaptation Research Articles

КІНЕМАТОГРАФІЧНА ТРАНСПОЗИЦІЯ КОДУ СЕРВАНТЕСА У ФІЛЬМІ "ДОН КІХОТ" ОРСОНА ВЕЛЛСА

The article is dedicated to the problem of transposition of the Cervantes’s Code in the cinematographic adaptation of the novel Don Quixote by Orson Welles (1957-1992). The study focuses on identifying and revealing the aesthetic and ideological kinship of the film adaptation of the American director with the work of the Spanish writer, as well as on the analysis of methods and mechanisms of actualization of the main thematic, problematic, structural and narrative aspects of the novel of Cervantes at various levels of the Welles’s cinematic poetics. Welles retains the "intellectual" skepticism of Cervantes, but demostrates a greater affinity with the romantic tradition of reading this text, which at his time dominated the cinematic and scientific-critical discourse. The actualization of the anachronism of Don Quixote as one of the key thematic codes of Cervantes's novel is carried out by transferring the action of the novel to the Francoist Spain. The structure of the film reproduces the plot mostly on the basis of the first volume. Working in the "manner of Cervantes", the author of the cinematic adaptation uses a wide range of ludic, metatextual and metanarrative techniques that reveal the "auto-reflexivity" of his text. In addition, Welles' adaptation of Don Quixote transposes the linguistic and stylistic codes of the Spanish author's novel by using the cinematic montage techniques, oblique angle shots, and stylized mise-en-scène (in-depth). Those features, in turn, demonstrate the inherent kinship with the baroque style of the second volume. Welles stresses the ambivalence inherent in Cervantes's text: he criticizes modernity, but uses its achievements (especially the cinema) to implement his own utopian cultural program of the new knight of cinema. Welles's film chosen as the object of our study essentially and aesthetically remains "faithful" to the original and at the same time contributes to a deeper understanding of the Cervantes’s code in the modern media space and culture in particular. The film reveals the ability of Cervantes's code to adapt to modern communication technologies and changes in life (cinema, advertising, tourism) that not only present Don Quixote and Sancho Panza as anachronisms, but also ensure their immortality, proving the validity of Welles's idea who states that they are heroes for all ages.

Don DeLillo’s Adapted Novels: The Treatment of Language, Space, and Time on Screen

Don DeLillo is an author who pays special attention to language, time, and space when constructing characters’ identity as well as their milieu. Considering this aspect of his fiction, the present article looks at how cinematic adaptations of his novels translate time, space, and the use of language onto the screen. Two of DeLillo’s novels have been adapted so far: Cosmopolis (DeLillo 2003) by David Cronenberg in a 2012 movie of the same name, and The Body Artist (DeLillo 2001) by Benoît Jacquot under the title À Jamais (2016). In light of the importance that the aforementioned elements play in the author’s works, this article delves into how they are represented in the two adaptations and analyzes the role that they play in the movies compared to the novels.

More Human Than Human: The Exile in Blade Runner

More Human Than Human: The Exile in <i>Blade Runner</i>

The Afterlife of a Tang Monk: Buddhist Masculinity and Transformations of the Image of Xuanzang in East Asia

Abstract This study focuses on how Xuanzang (602-64), the well-known monk who procured Mahāyāna Buddhist scriptures from India and translated them into Chinese, posthumously became an icon of soft and queer masculinities in East Asian popular culture. Through a historical survey of the transformation of this image in various cultural forms, including literature, films, TV shows, anime and manga, computer games, and memes in China, Japan, and Korea, this article explores the interplay between religion and gender in East Asia, and argues that the image of Xuanzang is the product of the negotiations among a variety of cultural and economic forces and factors, such as the Buddhist notions of gender transgression and reincarnation, the Confucian discourse of scholar masculinity and androgyny, the cult of homosocial bond and brotherhood, as well as commercial concerns in TV and cinematic adaptations. Despite concerns over the character’s effeminacy and various attempts to re-masculinize him, the most popular and widely accepted image of Xuanzang remains that of a young scholar characterized by vulnerability and feminine beauty – a prototype of the fashionable “little fresh meat” aesthetic today.

Self and Society in Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice

The research paper attempts to probe into the concept/idea of ‘self’ by analyzing the ‘self’ of the characters in Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice its Indian cinematic adaptation Bride and Prejudice. It will explore the hybrid or diasporic identities as against the British national identities of Austen’s characters. One of the texts explored is an adaptation of the other thereby resulting in the similarity as far as the plot and characters are concerned. However, society and culture have changed during the process of adaptation. The adapted version has a global approach. It is not only a different culture and society but also a larger world weaved in one thread. The native setting of the original novel is but a part of the larger setting of the adapted movie. The globe has taken place of Britain. Not only that but the source text belongs to the imperial nation whereas the adaptation belongs to the third world. The central setting of the adaptation is a country which was once a colony to the imperial nation of the source text. In spite of this major difference of settings, not only the plot but even the characters remain unchanged. Their position in the plot, their role and the experiences they go through remain the same. Hence, they should be the same too. What is worth exploring here is the impact of the changed society, culture and setting upon these characters. The given paper attempts to explore this aspect.

Adapting the Grimms: Going Against Patriarchy in Singh’s Movie Mirror Mirror

Many cinematic adaptations were produced for the Grimms’ “Little Snow-White” (1812) including Mirror Mirror movie (2012), the contemporary version adapted by Taresm Singh. Singh’s version was able to depict the modern reality of women and went against patriarchy by embracing feminist ideologies of the fourth-wave feminism. Therefore, he challenged the ideologies of the mainstream cinema dominated by the patriarchal élite’s capitalist mode of production that still adhere to the stereotyped patriarchal image of women’s ‘victimization,’ ‘objectification’ and ‘marginalization,’ which did not represent women’s modern reality anymore. This paper, however, is a qualitative study aimed to prove that the feminist ideologies could only be retained after a cultural transformation process from the patriarchal élite culture to the popular culture of mass media after the World War II, which noticeably affected women’s image in the cinema. And thus, this paper is an analytical study of Mirror Mirror that used the analytical textual and production approaches to popular culture along with the Marxist and feminist film theories to unfold the feminist ideologies prevailed in the movie. The study has concluded that the cultural transformation from the patriarchy into the popular culture of mass media led to the emergence of counter-cinema or cinefeminism that encouraged the reversing of the traditional gender roles in cinema. It has also shown that class conflict and economic power caused by the cultural transformation helped in redefining women’s role and place in society. Thereby maintaining the feminist ideologies of the fourth-wave’s ‘women’s empowerment’ positively affected women and girls to reflect their modern reality

Re-viewing the woman as fan: an examination of the narrative framing of the women in cinematic adaptations of Nick Hornby’s fever pitch

Nick Hornby’s memoir, Fever Pitch (1992) is pivotal in deepening our understanding of the experience of the western male football (soccer) fan and has received proportionate academic scrutiny. In contrast, its two film adaptations have received very little. Significantly, these adaptations, one football (1997 UK), one baseball (2005 US), foreground a heterosexual romantic relationship and weight the success of this relationship with a woman whose character is transformed from uninitiated to deeply connected, ‘authentic’ fan. Yet, this transformative experience can be seen to undermine, or delegitimize, the fandom of women in sports domains. Where studies of women as fans in film and literature are limited and studies of the women in the central roles in Hornby’s sports’ texts even more so, this paper seeks to situate women as ‘real fans’ in fictional narratives alongside those in other emergent forms of contemporary sporting fandom.

Martyr or saint? Body, image and acting style in Dreyer’s La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc and Bresson’s Procès de Jeanne d’Arc

ABSTRACT Joan of Arc has inspired many works of art. The iconographical discourse of this artistic tradition is twofold: she is portrayed either as the homeland’s saviour or as a religious virgin. The cinematic adaptations by Carl Th. Dreyer and Robert Bresson – respectively La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (Dreyer, 1928) and Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (Bresson, 1962) – demonstrate, however, that the latter iconographical image is again twofold. Preferring an inexpressive acting style to emotional expression and fragmented bodily representation to bodily wholeness, Bresson portrays Joan as a saint who excels in faith and quietude. As in the literary tradition of the saint’s vita, Joan transcends the now, the physical and the emotional. In La Passion, Dreyer’s continuous emphasis on suffering and death contributes to the portrait of Joan as a martyr. Along with overt symbolic images, the emotional and facial expressiveness of lead actress Falconetti reflects the intense agony of Christ, who, throughout much of human history, has served as the ultimate example for martyrs themselves and artists, including authors working within the genre of the martyr’s passio. To both Dreyer and Bresson, the figure of Joan serves as a bridge, connecting disappointment with the present to passion for the historical.

Seminal Semiotics and Pornographic Displeasures in David Lowery’s The Green Knight (2021)

In The Green Knight, a cinematic adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, director David Lowery includes a lingering shot of Gawain’s ejaculate. Lowery reframes this pornographic image as an alienating, rather than pleasureful, experience; in so doing, he probes similar themes concerning displeasure’s effects as the Gawain-Poet.

조 펜홀의 Some Voices와 각색 영화에 재현된 조현병 서사

This paper examines Joe Penhall’s stage play Some Voices (1994) and its 2000 screen adaptation, focusing on the treatment of schizophrenia, violence, adjustment to the metropolis, and recovery from mental illness. Set in London, the play addresses institutional shortcomings in the ‘Care in the Community’ policy, as they impact a young schizophrenic (Ray), his elder caregiving brother (Pete), Ray’s object of affection (Laura), her abusive boyfriend (Dave), and a long-time psychiatric inmate (Ives). Penhall’s ‘In-yer-face’ drama foregrounds a relatively excluded subject, identifying the confusion, fear, anxiety, and interpersonal challenges experienced by the schizophrenic protagonist, along with the emotional pressures imposed on those in his immediate circle of acquaintance. Suggesting the chance of recovery through understanding and consideration, the play invites reflection and empathy, while rejecting the stereotypical stigma of mental health issues. In contrast, the cinematic adaptation, directed by Simon Cellan Jones, takes the form of a sanitized romance, shifting the focus from mental health to surviving in the metropolis, and omitting provocative and violent scenes in the play. Further mitigation of personal, social, and national issues related to schizophrenia patients consequently dilutes the socio-political urgency and weakens the play’s controversial edge. In conclusion, this study argues that if Penhall’s play aims to voice the often ignored concerns of mental health patients, the film version has in fact silenced and alienated these very voices through its shift of focus, thus highlighting various issues resonant in the philosophy of film adaptation.

Locating the Shifting Sphere of Gendered Identity Construction through the Cinematic Adaptations of Tagore's Ghare Baire

Locating the Shifting Sphere of Gendered Identity Construction through the Cinematic Adaptations of Tagore's Ghare Baire

The Rhetoric of Imagism in the Cinepoetry of Jean Cocteau and Abbās Kīyārustamī: A Comparative Study

This article examines the shared Imagistic principles of two poet-filmmakers in the experimental genre of cinepoetry. On the one hand, Jean Cocteau, the French poet-turned-filmmaker, epitomizes the Imagistic experimentations of a French filmmaker with the narrative framework of poetry to create a “page-based” movie. On the other hand, Abbās Kīyārustamī, the Iranian filmmaker-turned-poet, typifies the cinematic aesthetic of modern Persian poetry to offer visual images that rely entirely on the creative engagement of the reader. The rhetoric of Imagism, that short-lived modernist movement of the early twentieth century, is what these poet-filmmakers similarly employ in their cinepoetic study cases, namely Tempest of Stars (1997) by Cocteau and A Wolf Lying in Wait (2005) by Kīyārustamī. Following a comparative approach to their common Imagistic foundations such as economical wording and phrasing, cinematic adaptation of visual imagery, rigor and clarity of vision, the poetic prerogative of subject matter, the avoidance of vague and ambiguous descriptions, and the writerly approach to the rhetoric of the poem, this article proves that Cocteau and Kīyārustamī are respectively the epitomes of Imagistic cinepoetry in French and Persian literature.

Did We Need Another Emma? The Anxiety of Influence in the Bollywood Adaptation of Emma

The multiple screen adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels, and in particular, those of Emma (1815–1816), willy-nilly direct audience attention to the problematic continuities between the original novel and Rajshri Ojha’s twenty-first century Bollywood adaptation, Aisha (2010). This essay addresses the issue of the competing influence of Austen and the global cinematic adaptations that precede this Hindi adaptation, even as it assesses the film for its engagement with the adaptation of Austenian social concerns to the particularities of the contemporary upper-middle-class urban existence in India.

Pernicious Properties: From Haunted to Horror Houses: An Interview with Evert Jan van Leeuwen

&#x0D; Evert Jan van Leeuwen is a lecturer in English-language literature at Leiden University, in the Netherlands. He researches fantastic fictions and counter cultures from the eighteenth century to the present. He is also interested in the international, intertextual dimensions of genres like Gothic, Horror and Science Fiction, and explores how they manifest in the British Isles, the Low Countries, and North America. He has recently co-edited the volume Haunted Europe: Continental Connections in English Language Gothic Writing, Film and New Media (2019) with Michael Newton and has written articles and chapters about American gothic authors Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe, amongst others. In relation to this, Evert has also published House of Usher (2019) a book analyzing Poe’s famous story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839), Richard Matheson’s related film script and the cinematic adaptation by Roger Corman in the context of the 1960s counter-culture.&#x0D;

Teaching Edith Wharton’s Major Novels and Short Fiction

Teaching Edith Wharton’s Major Novels and Short Fiction

Narrating the Transnational Trajectories and Transgender Performances of the Sworn Virgin

ABSTRACT This article explores how two recent configurations of the Albanian sworn virgin prompt a reflection on the intersection of transgender discourses with questions of transnational mobility. Elvira Dones’s novel Vergine giurata and its eponymous cinematic adaptation (directed by Laura Bispuri) imagine in diverging ways the material and symbolic disruptions that occur when this tribally sanctioned figure leaves Albania for another nation. Novel and film suggest to different degrees how this distinctive transgender figure challenges binary regimes of heteronormativity and the power-knowledge systems underpinning them, revealing contrasting investments in the possibilities of the sworn virgin's integration into the respective migratory settings.

A Ballad and a Movie: Scandinavian TSB B21 and Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring

A Ballad and a Movie: Scandinavian TSB B21 and Ingmar Bergman's <i>The Virgin Spring</i>

Renaissance Buried Alive in “The Collar and the Bracelet”

Through a close reading and interdisciplinary analysis of the 1975 novella al-Tawq wa al-Iswira (The Collar and the Bracelet) by Yahya al-Tahir 'Abdallah and the 1986 cinematic adaptation directed by Khairi Bishara, this article demonstrates how the textual and visual narrations converge and diverge in their representations of the Upper Egyptian village at a point of potential Nahda, or renaissance. It further demonstrates how the novella and the film utilize the image of the circle, alluded to by the titular collar and the bracelet, to uncover and disrupt the circular patterns of oppression that dominate rural life. These patterns of oppression are made manifest through the juxtaposition of binary oppositions: life and death, modernity and tradition, myth and science, and patriarchal structures and the push for increased gender equality. This study examines not only the question of Nahda/renaissance in the novel but also the representation of women and their position within the popular imagery. As this study uses parallel narratives to read Abdullah's works, it traces the link between the representation of women in the novel and other women's representations with a distinct presence in the mythology, literature and the folklore; such as Isis in the ancient Egyptian mythology, and Na'sa in the folkloric story of Ayyoub Al-Masri (the Egyptian Job). Even though it is apparent that men have absolute power and occupy the pinnacle of gender hierarchy power in the rural village of the novel, this article questions the veracity of such a claim. While the novel begins with what seems to be assent to that gender hierarchy, the hierarchy is revealed as false through different contexts: Egyptian mythology, anthropology, folklore, and intertextual reading with other works by Yahya al-Taher and writings of others.

Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man and its Film Version: An Insight

Deepa Mehta's adaptation of Bapsi Sidhwa’s novel Ice Candy Man (a literary text) into a film Earth (a visual text) is an exceptional example of a hybrid representation. Deepa Mehta adapted Ice Candy Man into a film 1947: Earth. Making a novel into a film is a difficult task. A director's ability to transform words into moving visuals is exceptional. There is a transition in narratology as the novel is transformed into the film. Deepa Mehta sets herself a difficult task in producing Earth, translating Sidhwa's amazing story into a film using cinematic skills and artistry. The purpose of this article is to compare and contrast Bapsi Sidhwa's novel Ice Candy Man and its cinematic adaptation Deepa Mehta's “1947: Earth” in order to investigate the problem of depicting the Partition of India in 1947.

Editor's Introduction

Editor's Introduction