Film and Lit

In college, I took a Lit & Film class and absolutely loved it. I still love to read or re-read a book and then watch the movie or vice-versa and compare the two. Not in written essays like before, more like out loud to anyone who will listen. I am not a purist, where only a strict telling of the book will do, because I understand the constraints of the screen. But I do like it when the main characters do what I expect and look like I thought they should.

Here are some of the highlights from my past year or so.

Silas Marner

It’s about a weaver who loses his gold but finds a foundling girl and it changes his life.

This movie stars Ben Kingsley, and it stays pretty close to the book in terms of characters and plot development. I remember watching it when I was young, and when I found it on Amazon Prime Video recently, the music took me right back. My copy of the book has pages falling out, but it smells so good (old book smell!) Such a good story of love and forgiveness and redemption.

Lorna Doone

It’s about a farmer who falls in love with a girl raised in the law-breaking clan that killed his father.

I read this book in my teens because it was one of my dad’s recommendations. Olde style, so it takes some going to get used to the style, but the payoff is worth it. The BBC did a 3 part adaption a few years ago that I recently found, and really enjoyed. It’s on Amazon Prime Video. Three parts allows more time for story-telling. Though John seems more moody in the movie. And his sister (Anna before Downton Abbey) has a different accent from the rest of the family.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

It’s about a writer befriending a book club formed during the WW2 German occupation of the Island of Guernsey

The book is told in letter form – letters and telegrams from the characters to each other. The movie was in theaters in the UK, and just released on Netflix in the US. It acts out those happenings from the letters, so revelations happen at different times. It also combines some characters and changes a couple points a bit, but is otherwise pretty faithful. And it’s very well done (and includes four Downton Abbey actors). I have watched just the ending a few times when I needed cheering up after sad news stories at work.

The Martian

It’s about an astronaut trying to survive when left behind on Mars.

I am late to the game on this one, others saw it in the theater a few years ago. But I got the book from the library, then I watched the movie On Demand on our Xfinity package. And they are pretty close. The movie has to have him talk out loud more, because in the book he is just making journal logs. And the movie adds more stuff to the end, which I liked for the sake of closure. But one character’s role is changed a little for Hollywood purposes I suspect. My big boys watched it with me (I had to mute a couple bad words in the beginning) and they liked it.

A Man Called Ove

New neighbors refuse to let grumpy man remain depressed after wife's death

This one I read in my book group last year, and then we went to see the movie in the theater. It's Swedish with subtitles. Seeing the movie made me like the book more, if that makes sense. The book is told in a lot of back and forth through time, and to be honest, I had real trouble with the main character. Then I loved the way he changed.

Anne with an E

Imaginative orphan adopted by an older brother and sister, finds her bosom friend, falls in love with Prince Edward Island

This is on Netflix and it is horrible. It takes way too many liberties with the source material, even outright lying. It does show the darker themes from Anne of Green Gables, which made me go back and realize that some of those things were there (but not all. Sheesh).  It also made me realize the sea and the Scots are a bigger part of the book's background than what I first realized. But this should not be under the kids section of Netflix, and I will not try season 2. 

LM Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables

This adaptation is from Canada in 2016. More light-hearted, bright and cheery, and not bad, but Matthew is not at all like the shy man in the book. We can't get everything we want. There's a sequel I will watch next. 

The series from the 80s also took liberties and combined/eliminated characters and moved plot points around, but I still enjoy it for nostalgia sake because I watched it with my mom. Gilbert and Anne look different in my head than in any of these adaptations though.

I could also write posts comparing books v films for Jane Austen and Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and Harry Potter, but who has time for that (note: my sister and I disagree about Pride & Prejudice adaptions, while my mom likes a different Emma than I do, etc).