Books made into Films

[BadHairDay]

One of my favourite books "The Time Traveller's Wife" is being made into a film and I'm not sure how i feel about it. I love the book so much and can read it over and over again and i'm worried that watching the film will ruin the book for me.

So, this thread will be for anyone else who has the same kind of issues about films made from favourite books, or if anyone wants to discuss the differences or pros and cons of books/film adaptions this is where to discuss!

And so, the ultimate question: Are the original books better than the film adaptions??
Personally, i have yet to see a film adaption of a book which has been better than the book itself and therefore i conclude that BOOKS RULE.



(i did a search and couldnt find a similar thread)

 

[larien]

generally books are better than the films but there's a exception that is 'Where the Heart is' which Natalie Portman's played!it was as good as the book

 

[keroppi]

I agree that generally books are much better than movies because it's so hard to condense our own imaginations/visions satisfactorily into a movie.

I've seen some horrible adaptations e.g. Prozac Nation but I Capture the Castle is a beautiful movie, just as enchanting as the book

 

[strawberry daiquiri]

It hurts when Hollywood has its way with things. The most recent book I've seen diluted for cash is Perfume... while it wasn't as disappointing as I expected, it certainly didn't capture the sinister atmosphere that 'made' the book.

On Lolita, I enjoyed the Kubrick version, but a lot of the tone felt unfamiliar - again the darkness was faded out for the masses, and unless you'd read the book (who hasn't though I guess ) then you could easily come away from it with a different message. I think the Jeremy Irons version felt more true to the book, but then it had a whole other set of problems...

 

[MulletProof]

^yeah, I think seeing the atmosphere that writers struggle to achieve (and readers to be immersed in) being completely ditched by filmmakers just to simplify, shorten or concede to the general market is definitely what puts me off whenever I've stumbled upon adaptations. that's why I try to stay away from them.. especially if it's a book dear to me. it feels like massacre .. and I think that a lot of times big productions tend to undervalue movie goers.. with Marie Antoinette for instance, the director skips all the paramount moments of both the character's life and the moment of history they're covering and focuses on making the movie edible for current times by throwing some shock here and there (court rituals, etc) but mostly eye-candy that relies heavily on photography.. I think it's a good incentive.. as a form of ad? but I find it sad that they think they have to recur to such things just to appeal to people who are capable of processing information just like anybody else who bothers to open a book.

..there are books or lives though when you can tell the outcome won't be so bad, simply because the book is light enough to make a 120-minute motion picture out of it. it doesn't happen very often but.. The Da Vinci Code for example.. even though there were some bits that could've given more 'depth' to the film, I think it had 'movie stamp' on it since the moment it was printed and there isn't much trouble adapting from letters to images and it's all too physical in the book already..

 

[PrinceOfCats]

It's pointless comparing a film to the book it's 'based on', especially in the conventional way but as an artwork, Renoir's Partie de Campagne is considerably better than de Maupassant's Une Partie de Campagne.

 

[SomethingElse]

I always read the book before seeing the film so my imagination is free to wander, especially fantasy, fairy tale, myth and imaginary stories. Movies are so rapid fire now that it makes a story such a whirlwind and poof! It's over. I prefer to savor the written page. Baron Munchausen, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, even Sin City (originally a comic book)... so many wonderful books. The films are interesting and fun, but nowhere near as wild and incredible as the text!