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McFarlane Adaptation Points

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33 views8 pages

McFarlane Adaptation Points

Uploaded by

sridharcmoftn1841
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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It Wasn’t Like That in the Book

Brian McFarlane
Differences between novels and
films
McFarlane re ects on the complexity and subtlety of novels
compared to lms. He uses the example of The Age of Innocence
to argue that lms can be masterpieces even when they are not
as detailed as their literary counterparts.

Direct quote: 'Of course it’s not nearly as complex or subtle as the book.'
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fi
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Inadequate training in literature
to assess films
McFarlane discusses how traditional training in literature may not
prepare individuals to fully appreciate lm as an independent art form.

Direct quote: 'The exchange led me to reflect, not just on the matter of
adaptation from literature to film, but also on the adequacy of a training in
literature for dealing with film.' fi
Literary criticism of films
McFarlane notes the middle-class literary criticism that lms cannot match
the subtleties of literary works, such as Helen Garner's assertion that some
literature is not adaptable to the screen.

Direct quote: 'Her claim that a great novel’s ‘central energy source’ is its ‘narrative
voice’ may be unexceptionable, but she goes on to insist that 'nothing available to
mainstream cinema ... can translate the authority of that voice.'

fi
The myth of second-rate fiction
being easier to adapt
McFarlane challenges the belief that 'second-rate' ction is
easier to adapt into lms than more complex literary works.

Direct quote: 'There is at work here little sense that film may have at
its command narrational strategies as potentially subtle and complex as
those of any other narrative or dramatic mode.'
fi
fi
Fidelity vs. adaptation
McFarlane critiques the common demand for delity in lm
adaptations and questions whether delity should be the main
criterion for evaluating adaptations.

Direct quote: 'There is a yearning for fidelity...without any real concern


for how much fidelity is either possible or desirable—or what it might mean.'
fi
fi
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Intertextuality and adaptation
McFarlane argues that lm adaptations should be seen as new works
that interact with their literary predecessors through intertextuality,
rather than being judged solely on how well they match the original.

Direct quote: 'The film has the right to be judged as a film; then, one of the
many things it also is an adaptation.'
fi
The complexity of film narration
McFarlane emphasises that lm narration can be as sophisticated and rich as
literary narration, using examples from The Age of Innocence to demonstrate
how mise-en-scène, editing, and soundtrack contribute to storytelling.

Direct quote: 'The three categories of narrational strategies—mise-en-scène, editing, and


soundtrack—work together to imbue these two transitional sequences of shots with a
complexity and subtlety.'
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