In 1985, he made a film called "Sha Qiu." © prnt
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In fact, it's fair to say that most movie adaptations are messed up. But from another point of view, the fact that an original book can be targeted by the filmmaker is also a quality guarantee in itself. Therefore, there are also some well-adapted films that can reinterpret the original book in different ways, or even surpass the original book.
Based on this fact, we hit it off with "Reading Month" and took stock of some recommended books and their movie adaptations. Of course, there are many adaptations not to be missed, see you in the comments section.
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We recommended this project in October last year, and the response was overwhelming. This is a large-scale knowledge inclusion activity launched by Pinduoduo 3 years ago, directly supplementing high-quality books from the source, supplemented by activity subsidies, to bring you a large number of affordable and genuine books.
Currently, the seventh season of "Reading Month" is underway. The recommended titles in this article can also be obtained directly by clicking on the applet at the end of the article.
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《Future Studies Conference》
——斯坦尼斯拉夫·莱姆(Stanislaw Lem)
"Space navigation is nothing more than a means of escaping the problems of the planet. In other words, when you fly to the stars, you secretly hope that the worst things on Earth have happened and ended in the time you are away. ”
In 1999, the young Neo in "The Matrix" faced the dilemma of the red and blue pills for the first time, whether to face the cruel truth or the beautiful illusion of self-deception, it is up to him to choose.
Before that, the Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Herman Lem had a similar premise in his 1971 novel Kongres Futurologiczny.
Lem is not only a science fiction master, but also a master of the art of satire. The novel's meticulous portrayal of the utopian illusion of the future can be described as "prosperous", while the portrayal of weak humanity is very detailed. Half a century later, the imagination and out-of-the-box language art still make people talk.
Compared with the original book, the film adaptation of the same name released in 2013 deviates from the narrative, but still shares the setting background of the original work and the existential anxiety that runs throughout. It's a little less absurd, but it also adds a touch of fantasy. Robin Wright's acting skills in the film almost overflow the screen, and the second half of the animation chapter is even more rare.
《未来学大会》剧照。 © STUDIOCANAL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Another adaptation based on Lem's work is actually more famous, Tarkovsky's Солярис (also translated as "Flying into Space"), which will not be expanded on here.
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Dune
——弗兰克·赫伯特（（Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr.）
Also adapted from science fiction novels, Villeneuve's two "Dune" films in recent years have undoubtedly surpassed "Futurology Conference" in popularity, but here we want to talk about David Lynch's version filmed in 1984.
In 1965, after being rejected by more than 20 publishers, Dune was finally published by Chilton Books, a printing house known for its car repair manuals, and the following year it won both Nebula and Hugo awards, and is considered one of the most influential science fiction works.
However, the film and television of "Dune" has twists and turns. Jacobs, the director of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes", Jodorowski, the director of "Holy Mountain", and Ridley Scott, the director of "Alien", have all tried to adapt "Dune", but all of them have failed. Until David Lynch took over the mantle.
When Lynch filmed "Dune", he set up 16 sound stages, 80 sets, mobilized 1,700 staff members and more than 20,000 group actors, starring Kyle MacLachlan, who would later become famous in "Twin Peaks", and the soundtrack was joined by Brian Eno.
《沙丘》剧照。 © filmthreat
However, the film received mostly bad reviews. "An incomprehensible, ugly, unorganized, pointless trip", "the worst movie of the year", ...... The production cost $40 million, but the box office revenue was just over 30 million.
The double failure of reviews and box office made the director himself reluctant to discuss the film, saying that he "erased the memory of that time".
As for why it failed, on the one hand, the huge structure and large amount of information of the original work itself put forward extremely demanding requirements for adaptation. On the other hand, Lynch originally expected the film to be nearly three hours long, but the management decided to use the standard two-hour edit. In order to shorten the duration, the later stage had no choice but to reshoot the simplified new scenes to replace the original longer length, a large number of voice-overs and narrations replaced the original shots, and the film was cut to pieces.
Although the later TV version also has a three-hour duration, it still uses concept art photos to explain the scene. Lynch simply signed the TV version of the director's column under the pseudonym "Alan Smithee."
This was the director's Guild of America at the time, and when the director left his job or was dissatisfied with the film, he would use this pseudonym instead of his real name. This pseudonym was officially discontinued in 2000.
But in fact, positive reviews of Lynch's version of "Dune" are not uncommon. "Failed as a commercial enterprise, but still managed to capture and distill the most obscure and important content of the original book", "David Lynch's surreal talent brought some fun to it"...... Herbert, the author of the original book, said before his death that he was very satisfied with Lynch's "Dune".
Whether it's good or bad, you can only see for yourself.
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《1984》
——乔治·奥维尔（George Orwell）
"Whoever controls the past will master the present, and whoever controls the present will master the future."
The film "1984", released in 1984 with "Dune", is based on the famous dystopian novel "1984" by George Orville. The film was shot in and around London from April to June 1984, which is also the background time and space of the novel.
This is obviously intentional, and it is said that in order to be released that year, the crew also frequently rushed to the schedule. They wanted "1984" to remain in the present of 1984, just as Orwell never said that he was writing about the future in his book.
The male protagonist Winston Smith played by John Hurt, the veteran actor in the film, is skinny, with a slender neck and a wrinkled tired face, and a silent and sincere expression, which is simply the perfect Smith.
It was also the last film for Richard Burton, who played Anthony in Cleopatra (1963).
《1984》剧照。 © watershed
Although filmed 40 years ago, the film perfectly recreates the era depicted in the original book, with brainwashing images looping, lies and interrogations numbing, and Big Brother's gaze everywhere. In order to present a special cold visual effect, the director wanted to present the whole film in black and white, but was opposed by the management.
Finally, they used a special treatment technique called "Bleach bypass" to create a special effect that looks a little faded.
In fact, in a sense, they are also promoters of this technology. The special visual effects have been favored by many directors, including but not limited to "Saving Private Ryan", "Fight Club", and "Minority Report".
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Motorcycle Diary
——切·格瓦拉(Ernesto Guevara)
At the time, we didn't anticipate the enormity of the journey, and all we could see was the sand and dust on the road ahead.
A 23-year-old medical student who gave up medicine eventually became the most famous idealistic revolutionary of the second half of the last century, and a pop culture symbol widely printed on T-shirts, posters, and enamel mugs. Che Guevara's memoir, The Motorcycle Diary, tells the beginning of this history.
In 1952, Guevara and his friend Alberto Granado set out from Buenos Aires to explore South America for nine months. The injustices suffered by the destitute people along the way made this journey, which was driven by play and adventure, become more serious.
Human suffering, social injustice, and the meaning of life...... Like many journeys to travelers, this motorcycle trip made Guevara think about those broad and profound propositions.
Stills from "Motorcycle Diaries". © intofilm
Filmed in 2014, Machu Picchu is breathtaking, with no end in sight to the Atacama Desert. It's both a biopic and a road movie.
By the way, the actor who plays Granado in the film is Che Guevara's distant cousin in real life.
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"A Tale of Blindness"
——若泽·萨拉马戈(José Saramago)
"Even when disaster befalls everyone, there are always some who are worse off than others."
Blindness is a 1995 novel by Nobel laureate José Saramago that tells a dystopian fable about the prevalence of a blinding infectious disease in society and the many tests of humanity and civilization.
The film adaptation of "Blind Flu" is directed by Fernando Meirelles, who previously directed "City of God". American actor Mark Ruffalo, who played the Hulk in the Marvel movie, turned into a doctor in this film.
Salvago's text is magical and experimental, sometimes pages long without a single punctuation. All the characters in this book have no names, only stories. As Saramago's 1998 Nobel Prize citation put it: "Saramago's allegories, sustained by imagination, compassion and irony, continue to touch us." ”
《盲流感》剧照。 © midwestfilmjournal
"Blindness" is a metaphor for human nature: prejudice, selfishness, violence, and willful indifference. History has never ceased to dissolve civilization, and "blindness in the naked eye, replaced by a spiritual vision, is enough to compensate".
As a rare atheist living in Portugal, Salvago has always written with a sober brushstroke.
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"The Idiot"
——Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I don't know why, people still think I'm an idiot, I did get sick, I looked like an idiot in my illness. But now that I understand that people think of me as an idiot, what kind of idiot am I?
The story of "The Idiot" is based on the assumption that how will a positive, kind, and perfect person deal with the world? And how will the world respond to him? During the serialization of the novel, Dostoevsky confessed that he, like the characters, had no idea what was going to happen in the future. Creation is improvisational and time is open.
There are many film and television adaptations based on "The Idiot". Tarkovsky also tried to adapt it, but it didn't work out. But perhaps the most famous of these is the 1951 version directed by Akira Kurosawa.
The story takes place from St. Petersburg, which is cold in November, to Hokkaido, which is also cold, and the male protagonist is Toshiro Mifune, who has just finished acting in "Rashomon", and the female protagonist is Setsuko Hara, who will later play the role of Noriko in "Tokyo Story".
From "Chaos" to "Spider's Nest City", the visualization and localization of world masterpieces has always been Kurosawa's forte.
《白痴》剧照。 © SciELO
However, the version we see now is not the original version. The 265-minute version, which is most faithful to the original, was originally intended to be released in two parts, but was cut in half by the distributor after a poorly received test screening, leaving only 166 minutes left.
Regarding the publisher's operation, Kurosawa complained, "It's better to do it like this, just cut it vertically." He also tried to find the original version, but found nothing. As a result, the whereabouts of the original version are unknown.
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The Unbearable Lightness of Life
——米兰·昆德拉(Milan Kundera)
One can never know what one wants, because one can only live once, and one cannot compare it with a previous life or correct it in a future life.
Milan Kundera, who died last year at the age of 94, is a cultural miracle in mainland China. His "The Unbearable Lightness of Life" was originally translated into Chinese by Mr. Han Shaogong in the 80s of the last century, nourishing generations of Chinese readers.
In the 1988 film adaptation of Prague Love, Kundera was also involved as a consultant in the production of the film, such as the poem that the male protagonist Thomas whispers in his wife's voice as she falls asleep, which he wrote especially for the film.
《布拉格之恋》剧照。 © collider
On the other hand, Kundera's annotations to the Czech edition of the book, released in 2006, make it clear that the film has nothing to do with the spirit of the novel or its characters. And after this experience, no adaptations of his own works will be allowed.
Even so, the film was named one of the top 10 films in the United States, and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography and Best Adapted Screenplay the following year.
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In a way, there seems to be an inherent contradiction between fiction and film. The former stimulates imagination through black and white, and has almost unlimited degrees of freedom; The latter concretizes the imagination through sound and picture effects, providing the most direct audio-visual stimulation.
The adaptation of a film based on a novel is to use images as a narrative form to convey textual information, not only to be examined as a film, but also to dialogue with the original work and readers, which is not an easy task in itself.
But then again. We've never seen anyone blame a movie adaptation for being bad for the reason that the original book itself isn't good.
The saying that opening the book is beneficial is applicable at any time and place.
The seventh season of the "Reading Month", which started last month, has been fully upgraded again, with the number of books participating in the event expanding from more than 1,000 to 10,000, and thousands of book stores actively participating. From literary philosophy to health care, from social science economics and management to examination and teaching aids, and so on.
At the same time, Duoduo Reading Month also cooperated with major publishing houses to select 1,000 classic books, and directly subsidized more than 5 million genuine classic hot-selling books through the "10 billion subsidy" channel, a reading fund superposition platform of 100 million yuan.
These books are also equipped with the "Buy with peace of mind and return with your heart" service of the 10 billion subsidy channel as standard, and you can also enjoy free shipping, compensation for expensive purchases, and 48-hour delivery. Not only that, the "10 billion subsidy" can also be used in combination with full discount coupons to find more high-quality books at a more favorable price. In the past 3 years, the "Reading Month" activity has reached its seventh season. Knowledge inclusion has also been regarded as a long-term strategic practice by Pinduoduo, which continues to increase investment in quarterly activities to further promote "affordable and good books for all to read".
Text/Walker
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons (BY-NC) license and is published by Walker at Leviathan
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Leviathan
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