Paring a novel into a two-hour film is an arduous task for even the best screenwriters and directors. Often the resulting movies are far removed from the novel, sometimes to the point of being unrecognizable. Stanley Kubrick's adaptations have consistently been among the best Hollywood has to offer. Kubrick's film adaptations of three novels--Lolita, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket--are analyzed in this work. The primary focus is on the alterations in the characters and narrative structure, with additional attention to style, scope, pace, mood and meaning. Kubrick's adaptations simplify, impose a new visuality, reduce violence, and render the moral slant more conventional.
Paring a novel into a two-hour film is an arduous task for even the best screenwriters and directors. Often the resulting movies are far removed from the novel, sometimes to the point of being unrecognizable. Stanley Kubrick's adaptations have consistently been among the best Hollywood has to offer. Kubrick's film adaptations of three novels--Lolita, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket--are analyzed in this work. The primary focus is on the alterations in the characters and narrative structure, with additional attention to style, scope, pace, mood and meaning. Kubrick's adaptations simplify, impose a new visuality, reduce violence, and render the moral slant more conventional. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.
One of Esquire's 50 Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time “A brilliant novel.… [A] savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds.”—New York Times In Anthony Burgess’s influential nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, a teen who talks in a fantastically inventive slang that evocatively renders his and his friends’ intense reaction against their society. Dazzling and transgressive, A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom. This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition, and Burgess’s introduction, “A Clockwork Orange Resucked.”
An Eclectic Collection of Fiction That Inspired Film Memento, All About Eve, Rear Window, Rashomon, and 2001: A Space Odyssey are all well-known and much-loved movies, but what is perhaps a lesser-known fact is that all of them began their lives as short stories. Adaptations gathers together 35 pieces that have been the basis for films, many from giants of American literature (Hemingway, Fitzgerald) and many that have not been in print for decades (the stories that inspired Bringing Up Baby, Meet John Doe, and All About Eve). Categorized by genre, and featuring movies by master directors such as Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman, Frank Capra, and John Ford, as well as relative newcomers such as Chris Eyre and Christopher Nolan, Adaptations offers insight into the process of turning a short story into a screenplay, one that, when successful, doesn’t take drastic liberties with the text upon which it is based, but doesn’t mirror its source material too closely either. The stories and movies featured in Adaptations include: •Philip K. Dick’s “The Minority Report,” which became the 2002 blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise •“The Harvey Pekar Name Story” by reclusive graphic artist Harvey Pekar, whose life was the inspiration for American Splendor, winner of the 2003 Sundance Grand Jury Prize •Hagar Wilde’s “Bringing Up Baby,” the basis of the classic film Bringing Up Baby, anthologized here for the first time ever •“The Swimmer” by John Cheever, an example of a highly regarded story that many feared might prove unadaptable •The predecessor to the beloved holiday classic A Christmas Story, “Red Ryder Nails the Hammond Kid” by Jean Shepherd Whether you’re a fiction reader or a film buff, Adaptations is your behind-the-scenes look at the sometimes difficult, sometimes brilliantly successful process from the printed page to the big screen. From the Trade Paperback edition.
Stanley Kubrick (USA, 1928–99) was a master who took the art of filmmaking further than any other contemporary director, a creative perfectionist whose work now fascinates new generations. He started out as a photographer before moving into film noir aged barely 25, after which the power and originality of his work soon brought him box-office success. In the 1960s he lived and worked in London, away from the scandal caused by his adaptation of Lolita (1962) and from the major studios, from which, uniquely, he was able to wrest total control of his films. He made only a dozen features in 50 years, each of which displays an extraordinary degree of technical and aesthetic invention. From the sci-fi 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) onwards, each of his masterpieces explores new genres and controversial topics, such as Vietnam (Full Metal Jacket, 1987), violence (A Clockwork Orange, 1971), horror (The Shining, 1980) and sexuality (Eyes Wide Shut, 1999).
This vintage book contains two pioneering volumes on the subject of film making by V.I. Pudovkin. Considered two of the most valuable manuals of the practice and theory of film making ever written, these texts will prove invaluable for the student or film enthusiast, and are not to be missed by discerning collectors of such literature. The chapters of this volume include: 'The Film Scenario and Its Theory', 'Film Director and Film Material', 'Types Instead of Actors', 'Close-Ups in Time', 'Asynchronism as a Principle of Sound Film', 'Rhythmic Problems in my First Sound Film', 'Notes and Appendices', 'Film Acting', et cetera. Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin (1893 – 1953) was a Russian film director, screenwriter, and actor, famous for developing influential theories of montage. This volume is being republished now complete with a new prefatory biography of the author.
Stanley Kubrick is one of the most revered directors in cinema history. His 13 films, including classics such as Paths of Glory, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining, attracted controversy, acclaim, a devoted cult following, and enormous critical interest. With this comprehensive guide to the key contexts - industrial and cultural, as well as aesthetic and critical - the themes of Kubrick's films sum up the current vibrant state of Kubrick studies. Bringing together an international team of leading scholars and emergent voices, this Companion provides comprehensive coverage of Stanley Kubrick's contribution to cinema. After a substantial introduction outlining Kubrick's life and career and the film's production and reception contexts, the volume consists of 39 contributions on key themes that both summarise previous work and offer new, often archive-based, state-of-the-art research. In addition, it is specifically tailored to the needs of students wanting an authoritative, accessible overview of academic work on Kubrick.
This book presents a detailed academic study of suspense building in Stephen King’s horror novels The Shining and Carrie and their respective film adaptations. Two film versions of each book are taken into consideration – one released immediately after the novel publication and one that appeared decades later. After providing a general idea of what suspense as a phenomenon related to fiction is, the study establishes some repeated plot-bound suspense motifs and episodes in the literary works, and traces their development in the films in order to demonstrate the similarities and differences in the techniques of achieving suspense in literature and in cinema. The model detailed here can also be used for individual or comparative suspense analysis of other literary or cinematic works.
With case study examples across a range of media, this book brings together leading international scholars to explore new directions in adaptation studies.
