The adaptation of novels to movies, especially the adaptation of non-modern novels to movies, is always controversial for many reasons. But in the final analysis, it is all related to the audience's expectations. It is a good thing for the audience to hope that beautiful written works can be reproduced in light, shadow and sound. However, the difference between the two arts of novel and film must also be seen:
images are more intuitive than words. As Carrol (N.) said in "The Power of Movies", the image performance is different from the text performance, and it only needs simple learning to fully appreciate the beauty. How many low-educated people have created obstacles for the complexity of writing? For example, although "Canterbury Tales" is good, "Beowulf" is good, but unless you have been severely trained in Middle English, you must still see Shakespeare. But if these three are all adapted into audio and video, how would you choose? I'm afraid the comical of "Henry IV" is not more enjoyable than the magnificence of "Beowulf."
Although the army and the thunder can be imagined through words, the imagination also depends on it. A person who has never been to the battlefield has no concept of killing at all, so how can one talk about imagination? The emergence of modern 3D movies has broken the limit of human imagination, creating a beautiful and extremely lifelike world, far exceeding the limit of our imagination. The appearance of "Avatar" is a perfect example-I can never think of the magnificent scenery.
However, no matter how dazzling the movie is, it cannot replace the charm of pure text. The text makes a fuss about the subsections, and this delicate Kung Fu movie is incomparable. Even if the film uses methods such as narration, freeze frame, close-up, slowing down, etc., to partially or completely restore the surface content of the text, it will not reach the realm that the text can touch. The beauty of words lies in the fact that there is fictitiousness, and that of fictitiousness sits on the real. If translation can still pursue "faithfulness and elegance", then the remake is definitely the second creation of the novel. The remake of the movie does not ask for the kiss of each line, the scenes are the same, the most important thing is to maintain the similarity. And if the director's talent is high enough, it is not impossible to completely overshadow the original work.
In the movie "The Great Gatsby", as soon as it opens, there are close-ups of Gatsby's mansion: scented cars, swimming pools, gold ornaments, and so on. It is extremely luxurious. In the soft jazz music, the photo of the heroine Daisy is laid out on Gatsby's desk, which explains the unusual relationship between Gatsby and Daisy, which is quite different from the method gradually revealed in the novel. Gatsby's home furnishings have more of the letters "JG", which is the abbreviation of Jay Gatsby, which adds to his identity. In addition, throughout the whole film of "Le", no actors are not exquisite and charming, and no scenes are not drunk. This is quite consistent with the description in Fitzgerald's original book and is a very in-place interpretation. In addition, the dusty city and the madness of the Gatsby's party in the original work are also concrete. Whether the viewer has read the original text or not, they will be feasted for their eyes. This can be described as the charm of the film's actualization.
After the opening, the director used the protagonist’s inner monologue to tell the opening of the novel "The Great Gatsby": "In my younger and vulnerable years..." In the novel, this first paragraph is very long, and there are a lot of jokes in it, which tells the personal experience and personality preferences of the narrator Nick. This paragraph was originally very important, because it was Nick’s temperament that made him speak from his heart, so that he could have in-depth communication with the characters in the story and promote the development of the story. The movie not only cuts down on this segment, but also erases Nick's personal history, and directly switches to the encounter between Nick and Daisy on Long Island. The reason is probably due to the limitation of movie capacity. This is the case. The movie is 2 hours and 17 minutes long. It can be seen that to change a novel into a movie, it must be deleted and edited. But this also shows the drawbacks: in order to tell a good story, the movie had to sacrifice a lot of side plots. Since Nick's personal history has not been specified, it appears that his character image is very thin, and he can only be a stupid matchmaker. Many viewers came with the hope of restoring the novel, but they didn't expect that the opening scene would be completely different.
In addition, there are several changes to the original text in this film, such as Gatsby's way of appearance. In the book, Gatsby and Nick have a good chat, and then Nick discovers that the original mysterious Gatsby is the person in front of him. ; Nick in the movie was invited to Gatsby's office by Gatsby's men, and there was no sense of surprise at all. Another example is that when Gatsby and Daisy met, there was a heavy rain in the original book, but the sun was shining in the movie. This is all different. But in terms of the storyline, there is no major change.
In short, it is impossible to achieve 100% restoration of novels with film techniques, nor does it need to be done. It is meaningless to compare the similarity between novels and movies, and it is also theoretically impossible. Nevertheless, the film still has to take care of the audience's psychology and show the spirit of the original work to a certain extent. This not only improves the film's influence objectively, but also demonstrates the director's aesthetic spirit and artistic skills. The film is more than vigorous, lacking in detail, and the actor's expression is stiff, especially the role of Nick, which is dry. That cosplayer character is too conspicuous, it's no different from a mentally retarded person... But fortunately, this version is loyal to the plot of the original, at least the party has put a lot of effort into it, which makes me feel better than nothing.
From paper to film, there are many surprises and regrets. Let's take a look, what kind of feelings in this world can be transferred from one place to another without fail? Don't say it's a little story, it's the love in your heart, doesn't it also keep changing with the passing of time. People always want to live up to old dreams over and over again, just like Gatsby, just like you and me watching this movie... But we all know that there are some things that you can't forget if you want to, and some things that you can't keep if you want to.
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PS: To Prof. Sui, just in case you see this essay, both this one and the one I've emailed you were written by myself.
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