Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
I may not have been in class today, but there seems to be a lot of talk circulating around these blogs concerning film adaptations. I personally have never felt any specific affinity towards either medium when it comes to telling a good tale, although I suppose there are the exceptions (I still refuse to watch the film American Psycho, only because there’s no way it can be even half as extreme as the novel is; it isn’t a matter of preference, it’s just logic. The film would have to be Rated NC-30 or something, honestly). More often than not, I am much more curious to read a book after having watched the movie it is based on, rather than the other way around. Fight Club the movie was a Top 10 Favorite of mine for years in middle & high school, & I had to read the book three times through before I overcame the initial “It-can’t-be-better” hurdle & realized how much better it was. High Fidelity was a movie I had seen, cared nothing about until I read the book & thought it had its moments, leading me to re-watch the film & come to the conclusion that it really sucks in comparison. Let’s see, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a better film (but only slightly, & only cos of Jack Nicholson), Everything is Illuminated is a much better book (saw the movie first, however!), & Roald Dahl’s books all get turned into great movies, for what they’re worth (The Witches being the best, then Matilda & Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in that order, altho I think we’re all holding out for Peter Jackson to make a 5-hour version of The BFG, preferably in three installments).
The biggest novel-to-film adaptation I can recommend, tho, is Requiem for a Dream by a million miles. I might be a bit biased cos it’s my favorite film, but Hubert Selby Jr.’s book took me months to get through, & I think that’s a good thing. I had seen the movie tons of times before I dug into the novel, & for the record it was a pleasant surprise; Selby uses no punctuation or spellcheck & because of it the story of 3 heroin addicts in the mid-70’s (which Aronofsky made late-90’s for the film) is frantic, scizophrenic, & really hard to follow at times. For that, I award Requiem the award for Watch the Movie & the Book, Please! Feels good to write about that movie, such a phenomenal film, expect me to come back to it later. & repeatedly.