Responding to @Rosbif’s take on Cloud Atlas in the Blogger Takeover made me think of this old saw. FWIW I reckon Cloud Atlas was a good try, but what other books are out there that would be difficult to film decently? Or what ones have been filmed that really really shouldn’t have been?
I think Nabokov’s Pale Fire might be actually impossible to film, and it probably would have been a good idea if David Lynch had walked away from Dune (instead of the new Twin Peaks – boo!). I’m sure the Massive can think of many more…
duco01 says
1. I think The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson – one of my favourite novels of all time – would be tricky to film. If any brave director did have a try, I’d love to see the result.
2. Oh, and Alasdair Gray’s Scottish classic “Lanark” would be a bit of a challenge to film, too.
3. John Dos Passos’s “Manhattan Transfer”. That’d be tricky to make a film of , as well.
RubyBlue says
Eimear McBride , ‘A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing’, a stream-of- consciousness novel and very difficult to read- I can’t imagine it being filmed, although there is a stage play, which supposedly worked well.
Someone will now come on and tell me there’s a film in production. 😉
Kaisfatdad says
When there’s a novel with an unreliable narrator, several different narrators or an unusual narrator, you’ve got problems.
When you also have a time sequence that goes backwards, then you are really in stormy water.
As in Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow.
And I’d to see a film of Finnegans Wake!
Actually I probably wouldn’t!
Kaisfatdad says
It would also be interesting to hear more comments about unfilmable novels that have been filmed. Joyce’s Ullyses come to mind.
Virginia Woolf’s novels do not make things easy for the film- maker. The waves, for example.
Moose the Mooche says
Ulysses – Milo o’Shea. It’s pretty good, but you have to meet it half way. (ie don’t show it to someone who doesn’t know or like Joyce)
Campo says
Unfilmable novels that have been filmed: Perfume by Patrick Suskind and Atomized by Michel Houellebecq. The Houellebecq one is a disaster, Perfume is not so terrible but does not do the book justice. Inherent Vice did not convince me that it is possible to film a Pynchon book.
Black Type says
The, er, climax of the Perfume film is jaw-dropping.
Moose the Mooche says
I mentioned that when we were over on FleeceBook. I said that when we came back here it would be like when the townspeople woke up the morning after…. to never speak of it again.
Some people have been too embarrassed to come back. And quite bloody right.
Douglas says
It depends on what you mean by “unfilmable”. No fan of a book will ever admit that any filmed version matches up, so it’s not about authenticity or faithfulness to the original text.
When I think of a couple of brave efforts on challenging books – Naked Lunch and American Psycho – I see the film-maker took huge liberties with the original. In both cases, preferring instead to make a film of the same name which has many parallels, but is fundamentally different.
Naked Lunch – weaving in Burroughs’ real life with the book’s story.
American Psycho – steering away from the appalling savagery, and focussing on what a dick Bateman is.
I suppose, the more “unfilmable” a book is, the more liberties you’d have to take to make a decent film of it?
Kaisfatdad says
You’re right Douglas.
Then again even with a more conventional novel, being too slavishly true to the original is unlikely to lead to a good film.
A lot of 19th century novels are tough to film as they are so long and have so many characters and sub-plots. Yes Charlie D, I’m thinking of you.
Kid Dynamite says
“too slavishly true” – see the Watchmen movie. Many shots were recreated panels from the graphic novel, and left me with a gigantic feeling of pointlessness.
SteveT says
Lots of people have tried to film Elmore Leonard books but have failed which is a surprise because really are they anything more than thrillers with intricate plots? Yes they are. Very difficult to capture his prose and the dialogue that populated his books and successfully capture the feel. Jackie Brown got close but other attempts failed badly.
Sitheref2409 says
A fan writes: Justified, on TV, absolutely nails the books and the spirit of them.
Moose the Mooche says
Portnoy’s Complaint.
Raw liver – that’s all I’m saying.
Zanti Misfit says
The Wasp Factory?
ganglesprocket says
Brendan Gleeson keeps threatening a film of At Swim Two Birds. I suspect that this would not work, even though the book is my favorite of all time.
I saw a stage adaptation of The Wasp Factory years ago at the the Citizens in Glasgow. It worked brilliantly on stage…
Rosbif says
Re Elmore Leonard, wouldn’t Out Of Sight count as a successful film adaptation? I loved it. From a time when Jennifer Lopez was a real rising star, holding her own against George Clooney.
Black Type says
I’ve just read an interview with GRR Martin in which he says he thought that the ‘Game Of Thrones’ books were unfilmable because of its sheer scope, number of characters, diverse landscapes etc. Now he has the rare artistic dilemma of retaining his original integrity and expanding his vision and ideas without being too influenced by how they have already been realised on screen.
Bargepole says
Incidentally, for fans there’s a chapter from the next book on his website.
Moose the Mooche says
…. and then someone drove a huge truckful of cash up to his door and he said, “You know what? I was wrong!”
Seriously I think GRRM left TV writing precisely because he was frustrated with its perceived limitations. I understand Salman Rushdie is heading in the opposite direction because he feels that prose fiction has been supplanted by TV drama as the primary narrative idiom of the age.
I could have told him that back when I was watching The Flumps.
Kaisfatdad says
Mr Martin is an odd position. His novel series is being filmed before it has even been completed.
A FB friend today mentioned a wonderful car bumper stick from the US:
“Guns don’t kill people. George RR Martin kills people.”
Duncan Disorderly says
House Of Leaves could be a bit tricky.
hubert rawlinson says
There was the film of Tristram Shandy a Gentleman filed as a Cock and Bull Story. Considered unfilmable the film took its own course.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423409/