Film Adaptation, Alternative Cinema And

FILM ADAPTATION, ALTERNATIVE CINEMA AND LYNCHIAN MOMENTS OF TRANSPOSITION By NICK VAN VUGT, B.A. Supervisor: Professor Robert Hamilton A Major Research Paper Submitted to the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Communication and New Media McMaster University ©Copyright by Nick van Vugt, August 2011 van Vugt 1 Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to film. It is recognized as a type of derivative work. Whether adhering strictly to the source material or interpreting concepts derived from the original work, adaptation are necessarily extensions or interpretations of the original story. These interpretations can augment or detract from the original work. This paper will explore common variations of adaptations found in contemporary cinema. When referring to adaptations, this paper will use the broad definition – “a work in one medium that derives its impulse as well as varying number of its elements from a work in a different medium” (Konigsberg 6). This definition can extend to a multitude of interpreted work, but for the purposes of this paper we will be looking at adaptation in film: working with source material and producing and/or directing a film based on a work of literature. This paper will analyze adaptations within Hollywood films using examples by the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men (2007) and David Lynch’s works The Elephant Man (1980), Wild at Heart (1990) and Lost Highway (1997). This paper will discuss the films Memento (2000) and Adaptation (2002) for their interpretation of source material through alternative cinema. Finally, this paper will assess the artistic liberties taken within these films including their use of specific film techniques. This paper is divided into three complementary analyses: the first is an assessment of adaptation – how one writes an adaptation, interprets source material, and the way directors have adapted written works to create original films. The second analysis exists to determine how directors use adaptation to create new works that stand apart from the original written material but operate as an extension of the original works’ meaning. The third analysis includes a deconstruction of the classic Hollywood narrative system of filmmaking by utilizing stylistic devices that are found in alternative cinema. This third analysis assesses adapted works and how van Vugt 2 these alternative film styles work in conjunction with the extension of meaning. Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Whelehan outline many ways of assessing and critiquing adapted works in their book “Screen Adaptation.” They give an outline of three specific ways of categorizing adaptation from Geoffrey Wagner: 1. Transposition – in which the screen version sticks closely to the literary sources, with a minimum of interference. 2. Commentary – where the original is purposely or unwittingly altered due to the intentions of the film-maker. 3. Analogy – a completely different work of art which is a substantial departure from the original (Cartmell and Whelehan 5). Breaking down specific films by these details helps clean up preconceived notions of adaptation. According to the criteria listed above, a film that is classified as merely an “analogy” can hardly be compared to its original work as it shares so few key common features. Many filmmakers who use original works in adaptation do so through transposition. Looking at the example of the Harry Potter franchise, we can assess the difference between transpositions and commentaries. Regardless of the films being made for commercial gain, Harry Potter fans would be upset if the original text is not followed to closely (as many fans of any franchise would be). Manipulating phrases of dialogue or leaving out specific details could greatly impact the way fans of the franchise view or consume the films - forcing directors to pay close attention and follow the original text down to the sentence. Having made the films closely after the release of the novels, the filmmakers wanted to stay true to the original story and create something that can be seen as having minimal interference to the original intent of the story. There are some exceptions however, as the film release of Harry Potter and the Order of van Vugt 3 the Phoenix (2007) omitted a minor detail from the novel published in 2003. This omitted detail featured a two-way mirror that Sirius gives Harry before he dies. Since the mirror was never explained in the following novel - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, released in 2005 – David Yates left it out of his film. It was not until the release of the final novel in the series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows only a few days before the theatrical release of Order of the Phoenix in July 2007 that director David Yates realized the mistake by not including the mirror. In the final novel of the series the two-way mirror plays a major role in rescuing Harry and his friends by providing a means for communication and escape. Unfortunately without explaining the mirror previously, Yates was forced to include a scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) explaining its use (Tunney 2010). For this reason alone, the theatrical release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (2010) can only be seen as an unintentional “commentary” due to the intentions of the filmmaker. The terms transposition, commentary and analogy will be used throughout this paper to describe the various levels of film adaptation. The economic benefits of adapting novels or other stories for films are clear. Crafting an original screenplay or script from an established set of characters or pre-existing story can save time and money and is an obvious choice for many filmmakers and screenwriters. Film series such as The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter come with a pre-established audience. The 44 million people who purchased the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows novel in the first year after its release (Forbes.com 2008) guaranteed ticket sales for its eventual theatrical release. When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I hit theatres in November 2010, it made $24 million in just midnight opening sales alone (Gaines 2010), and $43.5 million for the second half which opened July 15th (Rich 2011). Filming an adaptation is also a bit of a gamble for studios. van Vugt 4 As Linda Seger remarks: “Doing an adaptation means paying for the project twice – first to purchase the rights, second to pay for the screenplay. And the material needs to be evaluated twice: first the potential workability of the source material must be assessed; then it must be decided whether the screenplay is the best translation of the story” (xiii). The idea of paying twice for a single film means adaptations can be seen as a gamble for studios. Stray too far from the original, established work and a studio could see this as risking the loss of potential fans, but more importantly money. Studios purchasing the rights for adaptations can see the risk involved, but the artistic integrity of the director has the benefit of flexibility in creating these works. Adaptations could see the inclusion or exclusion of particular characters, the re- working of specific scenes or plotlines within the story, or completely retooling the story itself. In what ways are novels or written works adapted to the visual medium? Are there examples of works that do away with typical notions of adaptation? Directors can take a published work and do as they wish – adding their viewpoint to the narrative. The creative control of the director needs to be assessed in conjunction with the idea of what typical “narrative cinema” is. Narrative cinema refers to “any film that emphasizes story” (Konigsberg 261) and in the Hollywood system refers to a specific kind of film that focuses on the story or plot of the film over stylistic choices or advances in character development. For many directors, adapting a work allows for an expression of the director’s aesthetic, which when used consistently can be considered a specific “style” that a director often uses when creating a work. The director may be partial to using specific camera lenses or dragging out longer scenes to accomplish a specific sense of pacing. These techniques can be seen in any Coen brothers’ film, which tend to feature long shots with sparse dialogue, or through stylistic devices in a David van Vugt 5 Lynch film which give scenes an altered angle or sets that seem out of place. These directorial “touches” can impact the way the film is interpreted by an audience. Films that fall into alternative categories of filmmaking – such as art film, surrealism, experimental, and French New Wave focus heavily on visuals and editing techniques to drive the narrative. This can break from notions of continuity and temporal (referring to time) relations within the plot of the film, sometimes breaking up the narrative or making the film more jarring to watch. A film analysis approach is necessary when assessing and analyzing films that are based on original written works. Jeffrey Geiger states in his book Film Analysis that “many moviegoers see the cinema as no more than an entertaining visual experience, requiring little explanation or thought” (2005), and for this reason many would find the analysis and deconstruction of the ideas presented within films tedious. If an audience wishes to see a film that does not require looking deeper into the meaning of the film, then assessing the film’s subtle context and issues presented within the narrative would not be interesting. Many others worry about the way these adaptations interpret the original written work (Bluestone, Leitch, Harrington, Cartmell and Whelehan).

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