The Movie Version VS Possession: Making Tea into Matcha Ice Cream

Thora 2022-03-18 08:01:01

Adapting a 636-page book into a 90-minute film inevitably results in a faster pace, cutting out branching characters, and ignoring lengthy text or dialogue. In some works, this kind of treatment is still acceptable, but in some works, it may lead to the plot "unintelligible", or the charm will be rapidly diminished, and the connotation will be greatly lost. For example, in "The Da Vinci Code", the tortuous process of the protagonist cracking several core passwords one by one is the essence of the novel, and it is also the part that readers enjoy and attract, but in the film, decryption is like an actor rushing to announce , After this run, I hurried to the next one, and I became a running man to participate in orienteering.

The adaptation of the novel Possession into the film Hopelessly In Love with You encountered a similar problem. The film distills "the main plot and clues", a clue that takes place in the mid-nineteenth century, a prominent Victorian poet Ash (the married man) falls in love with the poetess Christa Bell, and the two can only experience" Once owned", unable to enjoy "everlasting"; another clue occurred in the modern day in 1986. Roland, a research assistant who studied Ash, met and fell in love with Krista Bell's research assistant in order to investigate Ash's secret love affair. Dr. Maud Bailey.

For the reasonable development of the plot, the movie retains the necessary sub-dominant characters - (modern clues) Professor Blake Aid (the boss of the hero Roland), Fergus Wolf (the heroine's ex-boyfriend), Carla Professor Ball (the male protagonist and the BOSS's academic rival), Sir George and his wife (the owners of the key letters), and others have been deleted, including the male protagonist Roland's girlfriend Val, all of which have disappeared. And with the co-evaporation of these branch figures, there is also the unique taste, special perspective and cultural thickness of the work.

The movie "Irredeemably in Love with You", as the cheesy translation did, condensed the original into 2 romance stories that happened in different eras, added a little suspense as an auxiliary material, and wiped out a little literary and academic When seasoning.

However, unfortunately, the original "Occupy" is just the kind of novel that is not very suitable for adaptation and condensation, because the novel spreads over a large number of diaries, letters, academic works, poems, and legends. It can be said that the whole work is based on these texts. Supported, enriched, and each text has its own value and charm, and they use different genres, or statements, or lyricism, or arguments, or metaphors.

In the novel, the stories of Ash and Christabel basically live in the text. As different texts are discovered and reinterpreted, their stories are also linked together and gradually surfaced. The statements made by different characters (like Mrs. Ash Ellen, like Krista Bell's cousin Sabine in Brittany) are interesting in their own right. Moreover, in these texts, a large number of literary topics are also thrown out one by one, such as the influence of myths and legends on literature, such as the pros and cons of feminist thought in literary studies, and so on.

In fact, the film version also worked hard to select some poems and letters to restore the style and artistic conception of "Occupy". However, due to the length and form of the film, this kind of excerpts can only be a glimpse of the light, and it is too late. Comprehend and read, it passed with a swoosh. For example, did the two great poets Ash and Krista Bell fall in love at first sight just because they attended a certain high society party? Ash fell in love, just because Kristabel gave him a wink and a few volts of electricity? If you don't read their frequent and long letters carefully, how can you understand the sympathy and sympathy between these two masters? How can you compare the fundamental differences between Ellen and Krista Bell, and what they mean to Ash, without reading Mrs. Ash's trivial and banal diary?

Why did the novel Possession win the Booker Prize, the highest honor in English literature? Let's take a look at who the author is. The author, AS Byatt, is different from other writers in that she specializes in English literature. She graduated from Cambridge and Oxford, and has taught literature at University College London for more than 10 years. Therefore, in Possession, her interpretation of the text, the control of literary genres, and the dialysis of the academic field are all familiar, comfortable and in-depth. She seems to be walking in the fruit forest of literature calmly, knowing all kinds of fruits hanging on the branches, and picking them with ease. Before Possession, I had never read a novel that was built on such a solid foundation.

It is a pity that the adaptation of the film has weakened this iconic feature of the original book and almost disappeared. As the girdle of the Chinese translation "Occupy" explains about possession - "The lover wants to possess completely what he loves; the researcher wants to possess knowledge and information; the collector wants to possess the rare collection; the poet wants to possess them Depicted imagery and themes". That is to say, the keyword "occupation" has multiple meanings and directions in the original work. However, in the movie, occupying this grove has been cut down to the point where only the sapling of "occupation between lovers" remains. .

However, it must be admitted that the film still has a lot of merits, such as the smooth editing of the picture, the natural and comfortable switching between ancient and modern; the selection of actors is impeccable, whether it is Ash and Krista Bell Jeremy Northam and Jennifer Ellie (Allie is the heroine in the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice" in 1995), or Gwyneth Paltrow and Ellen Eckhart (think "Shakespeare in Love" and "Battle of Los Angeles"), both are very similar to the original characters, and by the way, even the supporting role, Krista Bell's girlfriend, is from "Game of Thrones" Queen Mother Cersei; while telling the clues of the 19th century, the strong British classical atmosphere of the Victorian period also blows.

So, even though it hardened green tea into matcha ice cream, it was still a pretty decent ice cream.

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Extended Reading
  • Vito 2022-03-25 09:01:23

    Time and space are intertwined, one regret, one perfect. The limelight in reality is not as good as in ancient times, except that the actors are more famous. Immediately at the end, I decided to add one star, it's beautiful~ ps. The filming of the movie is beautiful~

  • Joaquin 2022-03-24 09:03:51

    The story is a little awkward, and the two story lines are awkwardly connected. It's unreasonable to force a bitter drama for no reason...

Possession quotes

  • Roland Michell: So what are we gonna do now? We gonna try to beat'em to France, or - or are we just gonna stare at each other?

    Maude: That is the question, isn't it?

    Roland Michell: Mm-hmmm

    Maude: I have another one for you.

    Roland Michell: What's that?

    Maude: What are you really doing here?

    Roland Michell: Well, I uh - I needed to see your face. I just wanted to let you know that whatever happened at Whitby, which unfortunately was not much, is not because anything that you did. Not at all. I just didn't want to jump into something. I mean, I did and I do... want to. Badly. I just didn't want to mess this up. And I just want to see -

    [clears throat]

    Roland Michell: I want to see if there's an us in you and me. Would-Would you like that?

    [Maude leans over and kisses Roland]

    Roland Michell: I'll take that as a yes.

  • Roland Michell: Don't worry about me. I'm kind of a brush and flush kinda guy.

    [seeing Maude's repulsed expression]

    Roland Michell: Forget I said that.

    Maude: I'll try.