Great Adaptations: Guardian Lists Top Fifty Books-to-Film April 19, 2006
As the linked article in the Guardian Unlimted notes, anyone who has watched any of the film versions of Anna Karenina knows full well that a great book does not automatically guarantee a great movie. My own hunch is that psychological novels of the 19th century, particularly stories that depend for their impact on certain kinds of narrative sensibility , are resistant to film.
What are the criteria, exactly? Is some notion of fidelity to artistic vision involved? In that case, all those dreadful voiceovers/masterpiece theater productions of Jane Austen and Dickens might be considered. Or if historical fidelity doesn’t count, perhaps a successful book to film adaptation requires another a kind of great adaptation of the film maker’s sensibility (including all aspects of that art) to a translation (or transformation) of artistic vision.
Read Mark Brown’s article ( essentially a list of the top fifty) and then join in the conversation on the Guardian’s arts blog, the Culture Vulture.
