Novels into Film

by Bluestone, George

• ISBN13: 9780801873867
• ISBN10: 080187386X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-20
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

First published in 1957, this seminal work of film theory analyzes the process -- "the mysterious alchemy" -- by which novels are transformed into films. Beginning with a discussion of the aesthetic limits of both the novel and the film, George Bluestone goes on to offer close readings of six films based on novels of serious literary merit -- "The Informer," "Wuthering Heights," "The Grapes of Wrath," "Pride and Prejudice," "The Ox-Bow Incident," and "Madame Bovary" -- focusing on the additions, deletions, and other changes made by the filmmakers in adapting the source material for the screen. Based on both in-depth research into film archives and libraries and on interviews with the screenwriters, directors, and producers who worked on these films, "Novels into Film" concludes that because the novel lends itself to states of consciousness and the film to observed reality, the adaptation of one from the other produces a new and wholly autonomous art form.

Author Biography

George Bluestone is professor emeritus of film at Boston University.

Table of Contents

Preface	v
Acknowledgments	xi
The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film	1	(64)
The Two Ways of Seeing	1	(5)
A Note on Origins	6	(8)
Contrasts in the Media	14	(17)
The film: raw materials
The trope in language
Editing: the cinematic trope
Sound in editing
The Audiences and the Myths	31	(14)
The novel. The film
Of Time and Space	45	(16)
The modes of consciousness
Chronological time
Psychological time: variability in rate
Psychological time: the time-flux
Conclusion	61	(4)
The Informer	65	(26)
Wuthering Heights	91	(24)
Pride and Prejudice	115	(32)
The Grapes of Wrath	147	(23)
The Ox-Bow Incident	170	(27)
Madame Bovary	197	(18)
Epilogue	215	(6)
Selected Bibliography	221	(10)
Index	231