UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE MADRID FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA Y LETRAS DEPARTAMENTO DE HISTORIA Y TEORÍA DEL ARTE TESIS DOCTORAL GREAT EXPECTATIONS ON SCREEN A Critical Study of Film Adaptation Violeta Martínez-Alcañiz Directoras de la Tesis Doctoral: Prof. Dra. Valeria Camporesi y Prof. Dra. Julia Salmerón Madrid, 2018 UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE MADRID FACULTAD DE FILOSOFÍA Y LETRAS DEPARTAMENTO DE HISTORIA Y TEORÍA DEL ARTE TESIS DOCTORAL GREAT EXPECTATIONS ON SCREEN A Critical Study of Film Adaptation Tesis presentada por Violeta Martínez-Alcañiz Licenciada en Periodismo y en Comunicación Audiovisual para la obtención del grado de Doctor Directoras de la Tesis Doctoral: Prof. Dra. Valeria Camporesi y Prof. Dra. Julia Salmerón Madrid, 2018 “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities) “Now why should the cinema follow the forms of theater and painting rather than the methodology of language, which allows wholly new concepts of ideas to arise from the combination of two concrete denotations of two concrete objects?” (Sergei Eisenstein, “A dialectic approach to film form”) “An honest adaptation is a betrayal” (Carlo Rim) Table of contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 13 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 15 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 21 Early expressions: between hostility and passion 22 Towards a theory on film adaptation 24 Story and discourse: semiotics and structuralism 25 New perspectives 30 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY 33 Methodological approach and material 33 Research design 35 Factual narrative vs. Telling narrative 35 Narrative functions 36 Mood, Voice, Order, Duration and Frequency 37 Historical context 41 CHAPTER 4. CHARLES DICKENS AND GREAT EXPECTATIONS 43 Charles Dickens: the man and the writer 43 A biographical note 43 Some remarks on Dickens’ literary works and their reception 45 Great Expectations: a very fine, new, and grotesque idea 50 Narrative discourse 52 Narrative functions 58 The narrating instance 60 Narrator 65 Temporality and order 68 Analepses 70 Prolepses 71 Narrative rhythm 72 Ellipsis 74 Pause 75 Summary 75 Scene 76 CHAPTER 5. THE BOY AND THE CONVICT (1909): WHAT THE DICKENS! 77 Early cinema, the chase film and The Boy and the Convict 77 Narrative discourse in The Boy and the Convict (D. Aylott, 1909) 79 Narrative functions 79 The narrating instance 84 Narrator 86 Temporality and order 86 Narrative rhythm 87 Ellipsis 91 Pause 91 Summary 92 Scene 92 Political, economic and sociocultural background 92 Production, distribution and exhibition systems 92 Cinema audience 94 Film forms and genres 96 CHAPTER 6. GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1917), SOME COMMENTS ON A LOST FILM. STORE FORVENTNINGER (1922), AN ATTEMPT TO RESTORE THE DANISH GOLDEN YEARS 101 Great Expectations through the silent era: The star system and the rise of Hollywood 101 Narrative discourse in Store Forventninger (A. W. Sandberg, 1922) 102 Narrative functions 103 The narrating instance 109 Narrator 109 Temporality and order 112 Narrative rhythm 113 Ellipsis 117 Pause 117 Summary 118 Scene 118 Political, economic and sociocultural background 118 Production, distribution and exhibition systems 119 Cinema audience 124 Film forms and genres 130 CHAPTER 7. GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1934): CENSORSHIP IN THE HEYDAY OF HOLLYWOOD 133 Great Expectations in the early sound era 133 Narrative discourse in Great Expectations (S. Walker, 1934) 134 Narrative functions 135 The narrating instance 142 Narrator 144 Temporality and order 145 Narrative rhythm 146 Ellipsis 149 Pause 150 Summary 150 Scene 150 Political, economic and sociocultural background 151 Production, distribution and exhibition systems 151 Cinema audience 154 Film forms and genres 161 CHAPTER 8. GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1946): AN ADAPTATION WITH CLASSIC STATUS 165 Great Expectations exceeds expectations 165 Narrative discourse in Great Expectations (D. Lean, 1946) 167 Narrative functions 167 The narrating instance 175 Narrator 177 Temporality and order 178 Narrative rhythm 179 Ellipsis 182 Pause 183 Summary 184 Scene 184 Political, economic and sociocultural background 185 Production, distribution and exhibition systems 186 Cinema audience 188 Film forms and genres 193 CHAPTER 9. GU XING XUE LEI (AN ORPHAN’S TRAGEDY, 1955): THE IMPORTANCE OF HARD WORK 197 Between the West and the Mainland: Great Expectations goes to Hong-Kong 197 Narrative discourse in Gu Xing Xue Lei (An Orphan’s Tragedy; Chu Kei, 1955) 197 Narrative functions 198 The narrating instance 206 Narrator 208 Temporality and order 211 Narrative rhythm 212 Ellipsis 217 Pause 218 Summary 219 Scene 220 Political, economic and sociocultural background 221 CHAPTER 10. GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1974): A MUTED MUSICAL 229 Great Expectations becomes a no man’s land 229 Narrative discourse in Great Expectations (J. Hardy, 1974) 230 Narrative functions 231 The narrating instance 239 Narrator 241 Temporality and order 242 Narrative rhythm 244 Ellipsis 247 Pause 248 Summary 249 Scene 250 Political, economic and sociocultural background 250 Production, distribution and exhibition systems 250 Cinema audience 254 Film forms and genres 260 CHAPTER 11. GREAT EXPECTATIONS (1998): FLUIDITY AND EROTICISM 263 Postmodern Great Expectations: success or flop? 263 Narrative discourse in Great Expectations (A. Cuarón, 1998) 264 Narrative functions 265 The narrating instance 277 Narrator 279 Temporality and order 281 Narrative rhythm 282 Ellipsis 288 Pause 288 Summary 289 Scene 290 Political, economic and sociocultural background 291 Production, distribution and exhibition systems 292 Cinema audience 296 Film forms and genres 299 CHAPTER 12. GREAT EXPECTATIONS (2012): DICKENS BECOMES A BLOCKBUSTER 303 Great Expectations: A national celebration? 303 Narrative discourse in Great Expectations (M. Newell, 2012) 303 Narrative functions 304 The narrating instance 311 Narrator 312 Temporality and order 314 Narrative rhythm 315 Ellipsis 318 Pause 319 Summary 320 Scene 320 Political, economic and sociocultural background 320 Production, distribution and exhibition systems 321 Cinema audience 323 Film forms and genres 329 CHAPTER 13. FITOOR (2016): A BOLLYWOOD CELEBRATION 331 Fitoor: great… obsession? 331 Narrative discourse in Fitoor (A. Kapoor, 2016) 331 Narrative functions 333 The narrating instance 339 Narrator 342 Temporality and order 343 Narrative rhythm 345 Ellipsis 348 Pause 350 Summary 351 Scene 351 Political, economic and sociocultural background 352 Production, distribution and exhibition systems 352 Film spectatorship 356 Film forms and genres 364 CHAPTER 14. CONCLUSION 371 TRADUCCIÓN AL ESPAÑOL DE INTRODUCCIÓN Y CONCLUSIONES 379 INTRODUCCIÓN 381 CONCLUSIONES 387 ANNEX I. INTERTITLES FROM STORE FORVENTNINGER 395 LIST OF FILMS 413 LIST OF REFERENCES 415 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I am deeply indebted to my PhD. supervisors, Dr Valeria Camporesi and Dr Julia Salmerón, for their support, dedication and counsel over these four years. Their commitment to this project and their guidance have been crucial to keep the focus and point in the right direction. It has been a privilege and I feel honoured to have been given the opportunity to work with them. I owe a big word of thanks to Frederick Aldama, Arts and Humanities Distinguished Professor of English and University Distinguished Scholar at The Ohio State University. He kindly accepted to supervise my work during my research stay in that university. But, above all, I will never be able to thank him enough for his hospitality. Special aknowledgments to the following people and institutions for providing their help on various fundamental aspects of my thesis: Staff members of the American Film Institute, the Film Archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Library of Congress and the UCLA, who aided me in the search of any clue regarding 1917’s Great Expectations. Staff members of Det Danske Filminstitut, who kindly provided me with a copy of the film Store Forventninger and its original script. Thanks to Leonhard Gmür, who solved the mistery of the supposed adaptation of Great Expectations from 1973. It has been a long, arduous and mostly solitary road before going this far. However, this would not have been possible without the warmth and encouragement of these friends of mine. I want to recognize in particular Belén Gutiérrez and Ina Bottger, who offered their insight and useful writing critiques along the way. My deepest gratitude to my family, for believing in my work and teaching me to never give up. To my lovely mother, the strongest person I have ever met. To my beloved father, always present, somewhere, somehow. This thesis is especially dedicated to Pipo, whose kind and pure heart has taught me the most important lessons in life. People believes I am your master. They just don’t know how wrong they are. 13 Abstract Great Expectations on Screen. A Critical Study of Film Adaptation explores the influence of political, economic and sociocultural factors when adapting a novel to a film. The main objective is to put forth a means to analyse novel-to-film adaptations far beyond traditional questions and criterions applied to this area of research, such as originality or faithfulness either to the letter or to the spirit of the source text. Truly enough, for many decades, debates concerning adaptation studies have revolved around questions of fidelity