Canadian Films and the International Market by Patrick Mullen BA
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"Eh" is for Adaptation: Canadian Films and the International Market By Patrick Mullen B.A. (Hons.) Film & Media and English, Queen's University A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Film Studies Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario March 28, 2012 ©2012 Patrick Mullen Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-91564-6 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-91564-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada ii iii Abstract By expanding upon Margaret Atwood's 1972 literature guide Survival, Robert McGill suggests that as Canada moves into the 21st Century, the defining trait of Canadiana becomes not survival, but adaptation. Consequently, if one examines the process by which Canadian filmmakers transform works of literature, adaptation offers a textual and meta-textual framework with which one can examine Canada's position in the international film market. If one expands upon McGill's analysis of the narrative infidelities made by Sarah Polley in Away from Her, the adaptations of Barney's Version, Incendies, The Sweet Hereafter, and A History of Violence demonstrate the various ways in which Canadian films balance the demands of commerce, art, politics, authorship, and industry. By adaptations within the context of their source texts, the study of adaptation on a practical and a meta-textual level demonstrates the adaptive strategies used by Canadian filmmakers as they negotiate both national and international film markets. iv Acknowledgements Thanks must first be given to my supervisor, Andre Loiselle. Without Andre's patience, advice, and insightful demands for clarity and perfection, this thesis would not have been completed. I would also like to thank Dr. Catherine Khordoc in the French Department for providing an invaluable tip on Incendies. Thanks also to my peers in the Film Department, whose opinions on Canadian film shaped much of my own positions during the course of my research. I must also thank the Faculty of Graduate Studies for the financial support that made this research possible, as well the staff at Carleton University Library, Library and Archives Canada, and the Film Reference Library at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. Thanks as well to my family for their support, especially my brother Brian for his constant ideas and enthusiasm. Lastly, I'd like to thank all those who see, support, and spread the word on #cdnfilm. Table of Contents Acceptance ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: "Montreal 2, Boston 1. In Overtime." - Barney's Version 21 Chapter 2: The Boy with the Tri-Spotted Tattoo —Incendies 49 Chapter 3: "Strange and New" - The Sweet Hereafter and A History of Violence 75 Conclusion 105 Filmography 108 Bibliography 110 Introduction 1 Introduction "We don't go to the movies much anymore ... all those multiplexes showing the same American garbage," quips Fiona (Julie Christie) in Away from Her,1 Sarah Polley's adaptation of the short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro.2 In his article "No Nation but Adaptation," Robert McGill suggests that this organic piece of dialogue is one example in which Polley obliquely recognizes Canada's film community by altering Munro's text.3 McGill offers a meta-textual analysis of Away from Her by examining Polley's infidelity to Munro, for her handling of the relationship of Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Marian (Olympia Dukakis) deviates greatly from Munro's prose. McGill's reading of the infidelities of Away from Her-in both a narrative and a meta-textual sense - is essential, for infidelity has long mired adaptation studies due to an overemphasis on literal fidelity at the expense of creativity. Fidelity is also stifling in the national sense, for Canadian films have long been unmarketable internationally due to the element of self-representation that arises when an industry supports itself with state funds. By probing the passage from source text to film, this thesis argues that contemporary Canadian film adaptations reveal the tri-fold dilemma of art, commerce, and nationhood for filmmakers who must balance the competing demands of national identity and the commercial necessity of international circulation. The journey from page to screen evokes questions of the relationship between art and commerce, and the inevitable political aspect that arises when an industry such as Canada relies heavily upon state funds; moreover, these films reveal adaptive strategies that inspire success both nationally and globally, while also propagating a self-image that progresses beyond an idealized national cinema. As McGill notes of Sarah Polley's infidelity to the story by Alice Munro, the interval between text and film reveals how filmmakers adapt to the difficult circumstances of filmmaking. Just as Grant and Marian's infidelity evokes the need Introduction 2 for adapters to cheat on an original, a close examination of contemporary Canadian film adaptations reveals how Canadian filmmakers adapt to resolve the perceived irreconcilable differences among art, commerce, politics and national identity. McGill makes a brave effort in his analysis of Polley's infidelity, for the subject has long been the downfall of adaptation studies. The emphasis on fidelity, meaning how much the film resembles the source text in terms of narrative, character, style, or ideology, has been burdened upon adaptation ever since the 1957 study Novels into Film by George Bluestone. Bluestone, unfortunately, deems film adaptations to be a mere "paraphrase" of their source texts and he argues, "In film criticism, it has always been easy to recognize how a poor film 'destroys' a superior novel. What has not been sufficiently recognized is that such destruction is inevitable."4 By calling films a summary or a simplified version of literature, Bluestone suggests that films are lacking in areas in which the novels are not. By introducing the idea of destruction, he suggests that one should evaluate an adaptation based on how closely it mirrors its source text; however, as the dissimilarities between Away from Her and Munro's story indicate, acknowledging changes are essential for uncovering the artistic and/or political potential of film. Despite the flaws in Bluestone's approach, Novels into Film remains invaluable. Scholars continue to appreciate Bluestone's study because he conveys how film and literature are vastly dissimilar modes of storytelling and artistic expression. Perhaps the most important claim from Bluestone's study is that which states, "it is insufficiently recognized that the end products of novel and film represent different aesthetic genera, as different from each other as ballet is from architecture."5 Bluestone notes the technical and categorical gaps between the two media, and his study acknowledges that "[t]he governing conventions of each medium are further conditioned by different origins, different audiences, different modes of production, and different censorship Introduction 3 requirements."6 By acknowledging the structural, institutional, and discursive variances between the two modes, the textual and contextual differences between film and literatiare therefore comprise the foundation for studies of film adaptation to serve an academic purpose. Bluestone, however, undermines such observations through his belief that films are inherently inferior to novels. Robert Stam observes this paradox in Bluestone's analysis, and he suggests that scholars may remedy it by removing fidelity from the evaluative precepts of their queries; moreover, Stam expresses the complexity of the relationship between conformity to the source and commitment to the medium. Stam writes, The