Our second issue focuses on the decisions that filmmakers consider when adapting films from written works. The adaptation process takes into consideration narrative structure, fidelity to source material, stylistic and generic considerations, and a wide range of changes necessary the medium of cinema.
In “Ernest Hemingway’s The Killers: Fidelity and Expansion in Film Adaptation,” Josh DeLaRosa examines the 1946 Robert Siodmak film The Killers and its expansive, yet faithful, adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway short story of the same name. In “Letter from an Unknown Woman: Memory as a Repository for Our Humanity” Brittney Bluhm focuses on the use of memory and its application in Max Ophüls’ 1948 adaptation of Stefan Zweig’s story. In his “Scorsese’s Cape Fear: A Max Cady for the 1990s” Jake Nielsen compares Robert DeNiro’s villain with both the 1957 John MacDonald novel The Executioners and the 1962 adaptation Cape Fear. Lastly, I work through the adaptation process and choices in “12 Years a Slave: Adapting Freedom”, comparing the 2013 Steve McQueen film to the memoir of Solomon Northup.
Stay tuned for our next issue, focusing on the evolution of films noir into a neo-noir aesthetic that would reflect a changing American society and culture.
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