THE CELLULOID ROSE: A STUDY OF THE TRANSITION FROM NOVEL TO SCREEN OF UMBERTO ECO'S THE NAME OF THE ROSE A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Faculty of California State university, Hayward In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in English By Adrienne Judith Arden July, 1993 Copyright © 1993 by Adrienne J. Arden 11 THE CELLULOID ROSE: A STUDY OF THE TRANSITION FROM NOVEL TO SCREEN OF UMBERTO ECO'S THE NAME OF THE ROSE By Adrienne J. Arden iii PREFACE Some years ago, while attending Chabot College in Hayward, California, I participated in the making of an amateur science fiction film. The project was for extra credit in a course in Science Fiction Literature which was being taught by a creative and imaginative instructor: Dr. Robert Doerr. Though extra credit in Dr. Doerr'S class was usually earned by writing either a short story, a poem, or an "issue paper," our instructor encouraged creativity, and fully supported the film project that I and four of my classmates wanted to do. Our short film was to be an adaptation of Larry Niven's story "One Face": a tale of a group of space travelers questing after a binary planet to colonize. The story seemed an easy one to adapt to film, and the group decided that, for the adaptation, much of the original story would be retained, including the names of the characters all of whom possessed names which reflected their occupations, such as "Vern Spacecaptain" and "Lourdi Coursefinder." In our small group of amateur filmakers, we discovered a wealth of talent: One member had previously iv sold a short story to a magazine, and so was drafted into writing the screenplay; another member put her sewing skills to work as costume maker; we had one experienced actor in our ranks who had performed in several college plays; a dYnamic eighteen year-old, Charles Pickens, possessed not only the artistic vision of a young Orson Welles, but also the only hands-on knowledge of filmaking in the group--he had previously taken a course in filmaking and editing; I was to create futuristic make-up and hair. Charles selected the Niven story for adaptation, and signed-on as both director and main camera operator on the project. Given our collective talent, we thought this project would proceed without any real problems. Not so. First, personal and career-related responsibilities prevented our writer from producing a screenplay by the established deadline. Next, our director made an heroic effort at writing the adaptation, but his script was so lengthy that, had we actually shot it, our planned short film would have been a four hour epic. Efforts to shorten it ensued, but it was obvious at the scene rehearsals that the project looked doomed. Then, in response to my off­ handed remark that, if the audience is going to laugh, let's be sure laughter was our intent, the director tossed Mr. Niven's story at me and said, "Make a comedy out of it." v I have never discovered whether he was joking, being sarcastic, or dead serious, he being one of those inscrutable young geniuses, but, having been visited by that elusive guest, Inspiration, I spent the next three sleepless days and nights writing the screenplay adaptation. My dabblings with writing short stories and poems, and my long­ time devotion to films gave me some of the mechanics needed, but having never acted, nor even thought about how to proceed with an adaptation made the project seem overwhelming. What to cut? What to alter? What to borrow intact? How much running time does a scene use? I answered these questions by, first, visiting a library. There, I found several books on screenwriting which provided me with valuable information on adaptation, characterization, dialogue, etc., as well as on the physical format of a screenplay. Next, I acted through the scenes, playing all the characters while keeping an eye on my watch. I tried to "feel" what worked and what did not, to hear which lines were funny and which lines bombed, and to recognize when what I had written was forcing a character out of character. As the hours and days passed, my respect for screenwriters and filmakers grew monumentally. Having agonized over how much of Mr. Niven's intent must be changed Vl in order to translate his work to the screen, I developed a special respect for those writers who create screenplay adaptations. Though I was working on a project that would result in nothing more than a twenty minute, low-budget film that only a few people would ever see, still, I felt a sense of responsibility to the original work not to degrade it. So, as I changed Mr. Niven's "Vern Spacecaptain" into the demented Queeg Spacedcaptain, whose character, as performed by our director, evolved into Bogart in space, and "Lourdi Coursefinder" into Birdseye Coursefinder (the character I portrayed), who always dressed in green and was "into" cryogenics, and onward through the whole cast of characters, I hoped that when Mr. Niven received his copy of the film he would not feel compelled to promptly burn it. Throughout that quarter as our project progressed and was finally completed, I learned much about the art of filmaking. I learned, for example, that, even on a production as small as ours, shooting a single shot can take an entire evening, and that ten hours can be wasted trying to shoot a scene that fails to work due to mechanical or prop failures. I learned that scripts for scenes which worked well in theory, do not always work in practice, and sometimes must be rewritten on the spot. I learned that making a film is a team effort, with all the inherent Vll positives and negatives that can result from having several people work on a single piece of art. Most of all, I learned that film is art. It is an unique kind of art that can bring together all other art forms into a single project, and yet remain distinctly different from the rest. My involvement in this class project, as well as in subsequent courses in Film Studies and Film Criticism, have prompted me to write, as my Master's thesis, the following study of the transition of a major novel to the screen. In this work, I have attempted to examine the many aspects involved in the process of creating a film that is adapted from a literary source. I have chosen to use as the literary focus of this work Umberto Eco's novel, The Name of the Rose. 1 I have chosen this work, because it is a decidedly uncinematic novel2 that would be a challenge for any filmaker who may attempt to adapt it. Uncinematic as this novel is, filmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud rose to the challenge bringing his film adaptation of The Name of the Rose to the screen in 1986. Vlll For Roger lX ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the following people who have contributed to the completion of this work: Roger Schulze, for his computer expertise, his help with formatting and preparation, his encouragement, suggestions and prodding, for his sunny disposition even at 2 a.m., his ready wit, and mostly, for believing in me. Prof. Marc Ratner, for his enthusiastic approach to teaching film criticism, his willingness to work with me on this unusual project, his many insightful comments and suggestions, his interest and concern, his delightful sense of humor, and for sticking with the project even after his retirement. Profs. Eileen Barrett, James Murphy, and Zelda Boyd for their time and interest. Scott Hegarty, for our many, long, philosophical, political, ethical, social, etc., discussions which have not x yet resulted in our saving the world, so surely, some ideas for this project must have been gleaned from them. Charles "Little Brother" Pickens, for his long-time friendship and encouragement, and for inspiring my interest in film adaptation in the first place. Kristi Grove, who has been more a sister than a friend, for our long talks about movies and everything else. The Student Assistants in the library's Reserve Book Room at California State University, Hayward, for the understanding and moral support they have given their supervisor for the duration of this project. Juanita and Janeen Loomis, who have been there for me for the past thirteen years. I am also greatful to all those who have given me their words of encouragement and support; they meant more to me than you can ever know. Xl TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface . iv Acknowledgements x Some Background on the Relationship Between Novels and Filmaking 1 A Synopsis of Umberto Eco's Novel: The Name of the Rose 10 An Examination of Umberto Eco's Novel The Name of the Rose As a Film Source 22 "The Name of the Rose": The Film Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986 32 An Examination of the Film "The Name of the Rose" As an Adaptation 99 Notes 110 Films Cited 112 Works Cited . 113 Xll The Celluloid Rose: A study of the Transition from Novel to the Screen of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose Some Background on the Relationship Between Novels and Filmaking Almost since the earliest days of filmaking, novels, short stories, and even, in the case of D. W. Griffith's "Pippa Passes" (1909), poetry,3 have been used with varying degrees of success as source material for films, with novels being adapted with the most frequency. In his book The Novel and the Cinema (1975), Geoffrey Wagner states that recent estimates of total studio production taken from novels alone have gone over fifty percent (27).