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No, you don't...
Dec. 3rd, 2012 06:59 pmEvery time someone makes "best of" lists, one is bound to be content only with some of them and grumble about other choices. In this case, it's the Guardian, who picked the Ten Best Screen Adaptions. Now I'm all for Il Gattopardo and Great Expectations (David Lean version), and I was delighted to find Stand By Me there, but Oliver!?!? No way. If you pick a Carol Reed directed film, you don't go for the Dickens by way of Lionel Bart (and btw, the fact that Bart's musical makes significant changes means that the film counts only as an adaption of the musical, not the novel, anyway), you go for The Third Man. Especially since one of the categories is "possibly even surpassing the book". Sorry, Graham Greene, but this particular film is better. Your book doesn't have the awesome camera angles, Orson's improvised cuckoo clock speech or the merciless ending.
Speaking of Orson Welles, I note none of the films directed by him made the cut. Now there isn't a Shakespeare adaption there anyway, and maybe they figured filmed plays are another category (in which case, what is Oliver! doinng in this list?), so leaving aside Othello and Chimes at Midnight, that still means the indefensible slight of Touch of Evil. Which is based on a very forgettable novella and is just awesome.
Also: let's move to none English speaking countries, for more than Visconti, shall we? I would like to submit for your consideration: Der Untertan (directed by Wolfgang Staude, based on a novel by Heinrich Mann, biting and funny and savage; also, it says something about 50s West Germany that the film wasn't allowed to be shown there until Staude moved from East to West), Wir Wunderkinder (more about it here, and it is based on a novel, which as opposed to the Heinrich Mann one nobody reads anymore today, whereas the film is a much beloved classic; if someone tells you German films that explore national identity can only do that in a gloomy boring fashion instead of doing it with wit, humanity and yes, sexiness, too, that's the one to go to); oh, and then there's one even non Germans might have heard of, The Blue Angel, based on Heinrich Mann's novella Professor Unrat, directed by Josef von Sternberg and making the career of one Marlene Dietrich.
As snubbed as Orson Welles by the Guardian: anything sci fi. Which is the only explanation as to why Blade Runner is not on that list. Which, yes, is based on a book (by Philip K. Dick), and is one my best ten films of all times list, so it's definitely good enough for ten best literary adaptions.
The Guardian's list has the recent version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in it which I think is a bit, err, premature. Let's look back on it when it wasn't last year's hit, and in the meantime, as far as John Le Carré adaptions for the big screen are concerned, there's always The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. But okay, more recent films. I don't think you can consider Jackson's three LotR films separately, so I'm staying away from them; otoh, how about The English Patient?
In conclusion: I'm entirely predictable when it comes to anyone's best ten of anything lists. :)
Speaking of Orson Welles, I note none of the films directed by him made the cut. Now there isn't a Shakespeare adaption there anyway, and maybe they figured filmed plays are another category (in which case, what is Oliver! doinng in this list?), so leaving aside Othello and Chimes at Midnight, that still means the indefensible slight of Touch of Evil. Which is based on a very forgettable novella and is just awesome.
Also: let's move to none English speaking countries, for more than Visconti, shall we? I would like to submit for your consideration: Der Untertan (directed by Wolfgang Staude, based on a novel by Heinrich Mann, biting and funny and savage; also, it says something about 50s West Germany that the film wasn't allowed to be shown there until Staude moved from East to West), Wir Wunderkinder (more about it here, and it is based on a novel, which as opposed to the Heinrich Mann one nobody reads anymore today, whereas the film is a much beloved classic; if someone tells you German films that explore national identity can only do that in a gloomy boring fashion instead of doing it with wit, humanity and yes, sexiness, too, that's the one to go to); oh, and then there's one even non Germans might have heard of, The Blue Angel, based on Heinrich Mann's novella Professor Unrat, directed by Josef von Sternberg and making the career of one Marlene Dietrich.
As snubbed as Orson Welles by the Guardian: anything sci fi. Which is the only explanation as to why Blade Runner is not on that list. Which, yes, is based on a book (by Philip K. Dick), and is one my best ten films of all times list, so it's definitely good enough for ten best literary adaptions.
The Guardian's list has the recent version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in it which I think is a bit, err, premature. Let's look back on it when it wasn't last year's hit, and in the meantime, as far as John Le Carré adaptions for the big screen are concerned, there's always The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. But okay, more recent films. I don't think you can consider Jackson's three LotR films separately, so I'm staying away from them; otoh, how about The English Patient?
In conclusion: I'm entirely predictable when it comes to anyone's best ten of anything lists. :)
