This week’s installment of BIML will be somewhat abbreviated since I spent much of this week lying in a darkened room with a cool cloth on my face trying keep myself from being overcome with grief and despair due to this week’s election results. So today is more of an open discussion –
What books do you think have been turned into movies successfully and which do you think failed?
My very first disappointment with a movie version of a book came at a young age when I saw the Shirley Temple version of Heidi on TV. Heidi was one of my favorite books as a child. I loved the mountains and Grandfather and the goats and Peter and all the toasted cheese - lots of toasted cheese in that book! Then there was Heidi’s interlude in the city with the wheelchair confined Clara under the rule of the awful martinet Fraulein Rottenmeier. But all ended happily with Fraulein getting her comeuppance and Heidi returning to her beloved mountains and Clara finally walking after drinking lots of goats milk and getting some fresh air(!).
So what happens in the Shirley Temple version of Heidi? Heidi is kidnapped and sold to the gypsies by the evil Fraulein Rottenmeier. My six year old self was outraged by this tampering with a book I knew and loved. Heidi being sold to gypsies? How dare that little curly headed twit defile my favorite book!
But, it was enlightening to find out early that movie versions of books were often not constrained by the plots or narrative of the actual book. I sometimes feel that knowing and loving a book before seeing a movie version of it almost dooms one to disappointment, because who can really translate that perfect visualization that you created within your own brain?
Wuthering Heights didn’t work for me. Little Women hasn't worked for me. Dracula has not worked for me. Pride and Prejudice was elusive until the Colin Firth version which was PERFECT to me. Cold Comfort Farm , a wry little book was translated perfectly into film I thought. I Capture the Castle also was done to a tee and was exactly like reading the book on a screen. Bonfire of the Vanities, a book that I enjoyed was the most miscast movie I had ever seen. Smilla’s Sense of Snow I thought was pretty good. Great Expectations with WC Fields is one of my all-time favorites. The Accidental Tourist was well-done for me. To Kill a Mockingbird is close to perfect.
One movie I plan to watch but haven't yet is Life of PI. I really really loved the book and I almost can't imagine how it would translate to film, but I guess I need to find out.
For your reading pleasure,this is the Guardian's list of Top 10 Movie Adaptations
What are your best and worst nominations of Book Into Movie?