What are your favourite film adaptations?

[cloudyshambles]

Please share, what are your favourite film adaptations from any literary work? (novel, short story, ...)

I thought this would be a fun thread as we're sometimes not aware that a film is an adaptation or a book we like has been made into a film.

 

[clo]

There are several books that I've read that have been adapted to the big screen quite well imho. My favourite has got to be Dangerous Liaisons, adapted from the French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses. I saw the film before reading the book and when I read the book (which I had to study at college) I realized what a perfect adaptation Stephen Frears had done. And this is a difficult book to adapt because it consists of letters written by the main characters. There's another one I really like, it's Apocalypse Now, adapted from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Though a totally different kind of adaptation, it is superb.

 

[coco vaughn]

Lolita (the version of Adrian Lyne from 1997.)
The Lover (L'amant), though i haven't read the book, but i love the film.
Rosemary's Baby by Roman Polanski. the film is actually better than the book.

 

[sobriquet87]

I know some will disagree, but I really love all the adaptations of the Harry Potter books. I think the filmmakers did a wonderful job, considering the source material is so detailed (especially in later books).

I also love David Fincher's recent adaptation of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I thought it was perfect.

Some other favorites include:
Shawshank Redemption based on Stephen King's novella
The Green Mile also based on a work by Stephen King
Lord of the Rings trilogy (I haven't read the books, but I've heard from those who have the films are better).
Precious (obviously based on the book Push by Sapphire)
Jurassic Park adapted from the Michael Crichton novel
Helen Fielding from Helen Fielding's novel (I love this book and the movie is perfect!)

 

[YoninahAliza]

This is a lovely idea for a thread! Books and movies are two of my favorite things. It's weird, I've noticed that a lot of my favorite films were originally books, so I don't know if this say's something about me.

I agree with Sobriquet87, I think the Harry Potter movies are a pretty great adaptation of the books.

Other books to movies that I like....
Persepolis- It's a great adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel of the same name. It's beautiful and it made me cry (both the book and the movie).

Atonement- I saw the film before I read the book so I don't know if it changed how I viewed the two but I really liked both forms of the story. It's such a visually interesting film and such a descriptive book.

Pride and Prejudice- I love both the BBC version and the 2005 adaptation.

The Help- I know this story isn't without controversy but overall I think the movie was really well done. And the book is very well written. Even if it is a touchy subject.

The Virgin Suicides- I have to admit I haven't read the book yet (but it's on my to-read list) however I think the film is lovely.

I'll probably add ton's more to this thread once I think of them...

 

[missbluejean]

The English Patient (1996)
Jane Eyre (2011)
The Reader (2008)
Jules and Jim (1962)
The Beach (2000) - i still loved it even with the bit tweaking of the story. Tilda Swinton was just really the perfect Sal.

 

[coco vaughn]

ohh yes, i agree w you guys about Precious, The Virgin Suicides and Persepolis.

 

[Aqua Tofana]

I absolutely hated book 'Everything is illuminated' but the film is one of the best and most touching I've ever seen.

 

[YoninahAliza]

^I haven't read the book (yet) but I agree that Everything is Illuminated is one of the most touching films I have ever seen. It's kinda weird/quirky but the storyline is so incredibly poignant.

 

[chickadee]

Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre has to be my favorite adaptation of all time. I love the book so much that I reread it every year, and I felt like he deftly balanced the gothic and the romance. And I just like how he told it out of chronological order. I felt like he just brought something new and fresh to this beautiful, timeless story. The score by Dario Marianelli is perfection. As are the performances by Fassbender (favorite Rochester ever now) and Mia, who initially I was kind of unsure about, but she really delivered here. Heartfelt performance.

 

[Andrea.RL]

It's weird I can't think of many right this second...

I liked the godfather by Mario Puzo (adapted by FF Coppola)
Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (adapted by Sofia Coppola)
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (adapted by Sean Penn)
Where the Wild things are by Maurice Sendak (adapted by Spike Jonze)
99F by Frederic Beighbeder (adapted by Frederic Beighbeder)

And that's all I can think of... :-/ '

 

[Belowen]

I thought Atonement was translated beautifully into film, and it's one of the few circumstances where I prefer the film to the book. I also love the Secret Garden film from 1993

 

[milourh]

Gone with the Wind 1939
Out of Africa 1985
Cyrano de Bergerac 1990
All the Mornings of the World 1991
The Remains of the Day1993
The Horseman on the Roof 1995
Jude 1996
Portrait of a Lady 1996
The Wings of the Dove 1997
The Virgin Suicides 1999
The Hours 2002

 

[YoninahAliza]

I really loved both the book and film, Never Let Me Go. Both were so well done. I loved the acting, the stories, the cinematography, everything about it! Plus, it always makes me cry!

 

[eostre]

Hands down Let the Right One in, from the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindquist. The US version, Let Me In, is terrible though...

 

[MulletProof]

Can't think of many but I love it when an adaptation is visually stunning and either a total twist from the book or as accurate as possible. I loved Love in the Times of Cholera as it was exactly how I pictured every scene and character.. I didn't love the book and was immune to the actual story in the film but it's amazing the visual adaptation. Also Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet.. I was 10 when it came out and had recently been exposed to Shakespeare's work.. I love how he made it so modern but still kind of hallucinating in all the emotions that are mixed in. Also thought Cuarón's Great Expectations was beautiful.. especially the southern scenes .. same for Martin Ritts' The Sound and the Fury. Oh and Adrian Lyne's Lolita (much better than Kubrick's Lolita for me, don't shoot!).

Arráncame la vida.. another favorite.. Sneider's take on the first decades of the 20th century in Latin America are exactly how I imagine it to be.
Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice too.. I found the BBC version so cringe-worthy, sorry.. to me Wright's made the book exciting, he adds so much suspense without sacrificing the 'romance'.

eta* forgot one of my all-time favorites: Giacomo Campiotti's Dr. Zhivago for the BBC..

I'm so excited about the upcoming adaptation of Anna Karenina.. it's one of my favorite books.

 

[Scott]

^i can't wait for that one either.

although there have been so many adaptations,i actually prefer the 1944 version with joan fontaine and the 1996 version of jane eyre with charlotte gainsbourg. also really looking forward to finally getting to see the andrea arnold adaptation of wuthering heights.

one of my favorite films is the sally potter directed & written and tilda swinton starred adaptation of virginia woolf's orlando.

 

[MulletProof]

^ Ah, you just reminded me I still need to see that movie (Orlando), I love Sally Potter, and I remember I actually had to see that for school some years ago but could never find it.

I'll add Jane Eyre w/ Charlotte Gainsbourg to my list as well .. I heard the 2011 version was also pretty decent.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

Yes, Orlando is a great adaptation of a complex and lengthy book by Woolf, but Potter does a fabulous job (I actually even own her screenplay as it's worth reading/looking at on its own), and I too am a fan of Zeffirelli's version of Jane Eyre - mainly because of Charlotte.

I thought The Hours was a very well done adaptation of a recent book, and the Swedish versions of The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo films were good as well. Others have mentioned Persepolis and i agree - the film was a fab adaptation of the graphic novels.

So many Stephen King novels have been adapted; I truly enjoyed the interpretation of Misery as black humour.

For Shakespearean adaptations, I love the updated, anachronistic ones: Baz's Romeo and Juliet and the Almereyda Hamlet with Ethan Hawke.

Speaking of anachronisms, I thought Sofia Coppola did a great job with Antonia Fraser's very detailed (and incredibly written -- what prose!) biography of Marie Antoinette; she captured Antonia's sympathetic eye towards the young dauphine and she did so through the update itself I think: making it as a period piece wouldn't have worked as well. Her Virgin Suicides is incredible too - do read Eugenides book if you haven't; it's great.

I love the old black and white Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier. "Heathcliff, I am you!" - ah what a transcendent moment.

 

[Not Plain Jane]

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