In 1977, when Carver had half his life in operation, the novel collection "Please Don't Say It, Can You?" Nominated for the National Book Award. In 1981, "What We're All Talking About When We Talk About Love" established Carver's literary status, and his 25-year marriage to Marianne came to an end.
Marianne, who had long supported Carver's writing spiritually and materially, did not receive reasonable compensation from Carver's success. Stephen King complained in The New York Times that Carver's ambivalence reduced the pleasure he enjoyed reading Carver's novels.
Carver's big fan Robert Ultraman, based on Carver's nine novels and one poem, made a hodgepodge of movies, Silver, Sex, Men and Women, in 1993:
posters
The film brings together Andy McDowell / Bruce Davidson / Julian Moore / Matthew Morion / Anne Archer / Fred Ward / Jennifer Jason Lee / Chris Pan / Jack Lemon / Madeleine Stowe / Lily Tomlin / Tom Wiitz / Francis McDormand / Peter Geller / Lily Taylor / Robert Downey Jr. / Barco Henry and a large number of other powerful actors -
Tim Robbins portrays narcissistic police officers who are afraid that others won't know that he's a good worker:
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Carver's novels are constantly subtracting, and the unspeakable pain and silence of ordinary people still linger when you close the book. And if the film does not want to lose all its money and reach the necessary length, it can only do addition, and use images to reproduce what the author wants to say and stop.
Ultraman uses the power of the flood, and the film is full of the bitterness, black humor and alcohol of the little people, but the inherent tension of Carver's novel is gone.
In 2006, Australian director Lawrence adapted "There's So Much Water on The Doorstep" into "Doubts by the Lake":
Four large men found a female corpse and did not report it in time, and continued to fish, play cards, and drink, triggering family conflicts.
Since "there is so much water at the doorstep" and you can fish as you please, why should you be willing to seek far and far and cause trouble? The original is a good subject but badly written, the handling of the contradictions between husband and wife is too deliberate and formal, and the chicken soup flavor is disgusting: "She is still just a child." ”
In order to enhance the drama, the director almost turned a lame moral and ethical drama into a thriller.
The media hit the nail on the head: "The actor abused himself for two hours in the film, and the audience also suffered alongside." ”
In 2010, Why Don't You Dance? "Was brought to the big screen by Dan Rush:
The director apparently drew inspiration from Carver's life experience: as an incurable alcoholic, Carver was hospitalized many times and relied on his wife to make ends meet; Nick, the protagonist of "The Great Sale", lost his job, family, home, and savings due to alcoholism, and was accompanied by only furniture and stars that needed to be dealt with.
The film drastically cuts the already short novel in half, leaving only the story line of the big sale and the bitterness that no amount of alcohol can drown.
A man with a lot of thoughts asked a couple who had come to buy his furniture: "Why don't you dance?" "It's also idle, idle is idle, why not dance?"
With a noisy and enthusiastic background of desolation and loneliness, this kind of despair and humor that does not show the dew of the mountains, is very thorough, very carver. The director's addition of characters such as children, police officers, big-bellied women, and high school classmates on the basis of the original work are all highlighting this Carver-style despair, but somehow cutting off the main plot of "Why don't you dance" is puzzling.
The actor who plays Nick, Will Farrell, looks very comedic, with an innocent expression, as if the whole world is deliberately opposing him; the caution of maintaining self-esteem, the swallowing of the rogue, and the rogue during the drunken attack, the acting skills are amazing.
The boy Kenny seems to be dumbfounded, and the little nine-nine in his heart is faster than anyone. Nick was going to hire him for $4 an hour to help, but sorry, arizona's legal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. And there's an added condition: teach me to play baseball.
Rummaging through old objects, I found a message on the high school memorial book: "Nick, you are a diamond in the sand." Delina. ”
Nick, who was at the low point of his life and felt that he was worthless, was like a shot of chicken blood, and immediately decided to visit this old classmate.
At a crazy party 20 years ago, the heroic Nick showed his hand in danger, which made Delina remember to this day: "Nick, you have a good heart, this has not changed. ”
Nick was about to cry, his former righteousness had long been forgotten, and his sorrow and the benefits of being remembered were closely related to alcohol.
In order to make our protagonist more unlucky, the director made Nick's wife fall in love with the police officer who cares for Nick. Carver went through a rough ride and finally got rid of his addiction to become a writer, and Nick decided to quit drinking and get back on his feet. The desperation of the original book has given way to inspirational light comedy -------
The Great Sale doesn't help deepen your understanding of Carver's work, just as you can't appreciate the beauty of the original Regtem Music from The Jazz Age (1981).