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Classic books into good movies?

I don't know if Madame Sousatzka is exactly a classic, but for me that was one of the rare times when the movie was better than the book.
 
I was happy with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Yes, as usual, liberties were taken and the ending of Return of the King wasn't complete.

Still considering the job of putting those books on the big screen, I think it was a job well done.

And while the movies were a hit ... sales for the books went up as well.
 
Salman Rushdie weighs in.

He almost lost me when he claimed that Rod Stewart's version of "Downtown Train" is "almost the equal of Tom Waits", but still... interesting.

Something is always lost in translation; and yet something can also be gained. I am defining adaptation very broadly, to include translation, migration and metamorphosis, all the means by which one thing becomes another. In my novel Midnight's Children the narrator Saleem discusses the making of pickles as this sort of adaptive process: "I reconcile myself," he says, "to the inevitable distortions of the pickling process. To pickle is to give immortality, after all: fish, vegetables, fruit hang embalmed in spice-and-vinegar; a certain alteration, a slight intensification of taste, is a small matter, surely? The art is to change the flavour in degree, but not in kind; and above all (in my thirty jars and a jar) to give it shape and form - that is to say, meaning."
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Short version: He likes The Tin Drum, No Country For Old Men, and Lord of the Rings. He really doesn't like Slumdog Millionaire.
 
Even though the movie really didn't follow completely I still liked One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It was quite possilbly the only time Jack Nicholson did NOT play a creeper character. I also liked A clockwork Orange but I could possibly stand to see a remake ... maybe.
 
Didi_Gogo said:
Even though the movie really didn't follow completely I still liked One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It was quite possilbly the only time Jack Nicholson did NOT play a creeper character. I also liked A clockwork Orange but I could possibly stand to see a remake ... maybe.
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You didn't see Jack in As Good As It Gets or in The Bucket List?
 
Robert said:
You didn't see Jack in As Good As It Gets or in The Bucket List?
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I did see him in The Bucket List (but not As Good As it Gets ^_^) and although it was a very subdued role he was still kinda giving off that strange old man wackado vibe. I don't know... maybe it's me. Don't get me wrong, he's one of my favorite actors, but in One Flew Over I almost didn't recognize him he was so different.
 
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a phenomenal film adaptation - one of the few films that changes things within the storyline but still manages to do it within the feel and heart of the book. Brilliant.
 
Forest Elf said:
I was happy with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Yes, as usual, liberties were taken and the ending of Return of the King wasn't complete.

Still considering the job of putting those books on the big screen, I think it was a job well done.

And while the movies were a hit ... sales for the books went up as well.
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I thought that the first movie was excellent, but the second was badly screwed up. Why oh why oh why did Peter Jackson have to add all that rubbish to the 'The Two Towers'? All he had to do was follow the book. He could have ended it with the fall of Saruman which would have been more satisfying.
 
Didi_Gogo said:
I did see him in The Bucket List (but not As Good As it Gets ^_^) and although it was a very subdued role he was still kinda giving off that strange old man wackado vibe. I don't know... maybe it's me. Don't get me wrong, he's one of my favorite actors, but in One Flew Over I almost didn't recognize him he was so different.
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Time takes her toll.
 
Fed Da Man

ABSOLUTELY!!!!! and you picked a winner if you refer to teh original film with James Mason and Shelley Winters superb performances

Many many other 20th century books as well as a few 21st century books are already classsics and/or contemporary classics

Like THE COLOR PURPLE just as an example

ENJOY
 
Thanks to my listening of the audiobook, I can't read Lolita now without hearing Jeremy Irons's voice narrating it in my head. ;)
 
Fed_Da_Man said:
ya of course i meant the original film~!
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The version with Jeremy Irons is good too, although Melanie Griffiths was sorely miscast as Charlotte. I would like to see Kubrick's adaptation eventually, mostly because I need to watch more of his films.
 
Anamnesis said:
The version with Jeremy Irons is good too, although Melanie Griffiths was sorely miscast as Charlotte. I would like to see Kubrick's adaptation eventually, mostly because I need to watch more of his films.
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turner classic movies is playing it on july 14 at 3:30 pm and again on august 29 at 8:00 pm. you can get them to e-mail you a reminded on this site:
TCM Movie Database
 
Kubrick's film was my introduction to the story of Lolita, but I remember not liking it much. Maybe it bears to be seen again now that I know Nabokov's novel.
 
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