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Popcorn Novels

Kate Frost

There is an undeniable ripple of excitement that scuttles down your spine as the houselights dim, sweet wrappers cease to rustle and that music starts. From the eerie, yet evocative music that gets under your skin with the opening, dark narrative of 'Lord of the Rings', to the adrenaline fuelled images from 'Trainspotting', or the beautiful period detail of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' or 'Restoration' and the quiet, understated acting of 'Remains of the Day'. There's a magical quality about all those films, whether it's the acting, direction or breathtaking cinematography but one single element unites them all, the power of storytelling at its best. The inspiration behind these award winning, thought provoking movies? The novels themselves.

Film creates emotion through images, sound and clever editing, brought to life by a director, cast and hundreds of crew. Books create emotions too, from one mind, through a talented use of words and the power of our imaginations.

In recent years the big screen has been inundated with adaptations of famous, prize-winning and often debut novels. Christmas 2003, for example, saw the last instalment of director, Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings', lovingly adapted and lavishly created over many years to produce a truly sensational film. Technology had caught up with J R R Tolkien's vivid imagination to create Middle Earth on screen. More than fifteen years earlier, as a child, I had created Frodo and Gandalf, Rivendell and Mount Doom in my own mind, head buried in the book, reading for hour upon hour. 'Lord of the Rings' lived up to my expectations but so many film adaptations of great books have not quite hit the mark.

A modern day literary classic, 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' transition from page to screen was a somewhat watered down version. A Commonwealth Writers Prize winning novel for author, Louis de Bernèires in 1995, was merely a tepid love affair on screen and a wonderful advertisement for the delightful island of Cephelonia.

This seems a recurring theme with many film adaptations of famous novels, where the screenwriters sift through the novel as a whole to distil it into a single thread of story. As Joanne Harris comments on director, Lasse Hallström's version of 'Chocolat': "I liked the film very much. It wasn't exactly the same as my story - it was simplified and sweetened to make it more acceptable for a cinema audience - and I didn't always agree with all the changes which were made, but I liked it anyway."

There are restrictions with film to consider, particularly when it comes to length, and many movies have suffered the consequences. 'Lord of the Rings' combated the problem by turning an epic book into three films of bum-numbing length. Yet even going to those extremes to stay as true to the original book as possible, sub plots and background story seem to always suffer. "I enjoyed the comedy in Chocolat," Joanne Harris goes on to say. "The book was never meant to be a hundred percent serious in the first place - although I'm aware that many of the subtleties and the darker moments in my story have been lost. This, I'm afraid, is the nature of film. I think you have to take films as they are and judge them accordingly, rather than expect them to present a completely accurate and in-depth interpretation of the book from which they are taken." This is a fair point that she makes. However, it can be very hard seeing a well loved book, rewritten and moulded for film when it is so firmly set in your imagination. I remember, as a child, being horrified at the casting of Lucy in the TV version of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' as she was completely opposite to the Lucy in my head, and despite the adaptation being good it was tainted by the casting.

That seems to me what truly makes or breaks a film's success. The characters are such an important part, particularly when the book is written in the first person and characters such as the lovable and colourful Robert Merivel in Rose Tremain's 'Restoration' come vividly to life as you read. Robert Downey Jnr is as much a lovable and roguish character in real life as the flawed yet adorable Merivel in the book and so it was therefore quite apt he played him in the film version. Porcelain-faced beauty, Scarlett Johansson was Oscar nominated for her stunning performance in 'Girl with a Pearl Earring', where the true beauty of film was apparent in her restrained acting, relying on the subtly of images and looks to evoke emotion rather than just words. However, casting Hollywood film star Nicolas Cage in the role of Captain Corelli might not have been the smartest move, likewise casting beautiful, Spanish Penelope Cruz as Greek Pelagia and the authenticity was lost. The coffin was nailed shut when Cruz was nominated for Worst Actress at the Razzies. Add to that the loss of the depth, detail, even characters and storylines the book had and the film was a mere shadow of the novel.

The joy of reading is in that private discovery as you turn each page and are drawn further into the story, allowing your imagination to inhabit fantasy worlds, dangerous places or even the furthest reaches of history. It is comforting to know, particularly when thinking about J K Rowling's phenomenally successful 'Harry Potter' books that reading still plays a major part in children's lives, not just television and computer games. And it was the books themselves that inspired children and fed their imaginations; the films are merely an added bonus and are keeping children worldwide entertained whilst they wait for the next instalment of Potter's adventures. For this is where inspiration and escapism lies; in the vivid imaginations of these award winning novelists, brought to life through an effortless use of language and a wonderful use of words.

Liberties are taken with movie making. To make the story work on screen, to capture the audience's attention and transport them to a different world; be it a world of corsets and dashing gentlemen, of staid emotions and duty, of junkie hell and dangerous living or of love and war, novels often have to be adapted, text moulded and ideas built upon. Baz Luhrman's 'Romeo and Juliet' is a perfect example of this, a director taking a tragic love story as well known world wide as one of Shakespeare's most famous plays and breathing new life into it, making it accessible for a technology loving generation. His clever use of guns in place of swords brought 'Romeo and Juliet' screaming into the twentieth century. Casting Hollywood heart throb Leonardo DiCaprio as Romeo and critically acclaimed Claire Danes as Juliet ensured the film appealed to all ages. Beautifully reworked, Shakespeare's language, story and themes remained intact, having as much relevance in the pop corn eating, cinema going age as they did in Shakespeare's time. Guns, love, passion, money, beauty, death, all tied up with clever editing and a cracking soundtrack ensured a hit with both audience and critics alike.

Literature and film - these are two wonderful and very different mediums, one relying on the depth of our imaginations the other on the power of images. Both tease our emotions, make us think, evoke passion and offer escapism. Deep down it's our love of a great story well told that makes the novels mentioned a success, and if those stories inspire creative and visual minds to make films that appeal to a much wider audience than the novel itself might have reached, then surely that can only be a good thing. Thankfully, despite blockbusting films born from literary classics, our thirst for great fiction in the twenty-first century is seemingly unquenchable.