When is an adaptation a good one or a bad one?

When I heard that the film version of Sarah Waters’ Affinity was headed for release, I began to wonder if the film could possibly capture the creepiness that I loved so much in the novel. It started me thinking about the nature of film adaptation in general.

 

Some of my favourite film adaptations have deviated from their source material in interesting and unexpected ways. When this happens I feel almost giddy, like not only do I have my favourite book, but now I also have this awesome film.

 

The lesbian film canon has some famous film adaptations. For Desert Hearts, the film was more raw and intense than the novel. However, I loved the novel and its  emphasis more on romance and less on sexuality.

 

Fannie Fagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes is a novel that is quite explicitly lesbian, and the fact that the lesbians were excised in the film is a sore point for many. Does that make Fried Green Tomatoes a bad film? No, but to me that film feels sadly incomplete, because you can practically feel the studio’s intent behind leaving out any explicit romance.

 

I guess that’s where the strength of adaptation really lies, capturing the spirit of the piece rather than its specifics. In an interview with the BBC, Sarah Waters admitted that she thought some of the changes made by legendary screenwriter Andrew Davies for Tipping the Velvet actually improved the story.

 

However, I thought that despite some charismatic actresses, the TV version of Fingersmith, also by Sarah Waters, was disappointing even though it was almost slavishly faithful to the book’s plot. The darkness, the underlying menace, the truly gothic nature of the book is utterly lost on-screen.

 

I’m happier if the film deviates from the story if it is adventurous in its direction, such as for AS Byatt’s Possession. I loved both novel and film for entirely different reasons. The cuts made from the novel can only be described as brutal. However, the love affair between Christabel and Blanche had more passion in the film. The screenwriter was smart enough to realise that on-screen it needed a boost.

 

The bottom line is, films do have the opportunity to value-add to concepts, not detract from them. We just need to go in with an open mind. Books contain a level of detail that films do not have the luxury of. However, films can convey in a moment what it takes writers whole chapters to define.