In 1969, John Fowles, known as "the most talented British novelist in the 20th century", launched his "French Lieutenant's Woman", which was translated into many languages in just a few years, with a circulation of more than 10 million. book. When the author started writing this book, he had already made up his mind to make it into a movie, so he worked hard on the plot of the novel. The novel has not yet been published, and he can't wait to send the proof to the famous British film director Karel Reitz, hoping that he will direct the film. But the novel's use of postmodern narration and the themes embodied in the novel and the existential freedom of thought made the adaptation process of the novel more difficult, until more than a decade later, in "the most talented British in the 20th century. With the joint efforts of dramatist "Harold Pinter" and director Karel Reitz, the novel was finally adapted into a film of the same name.
The first is the presentation of the metafiction by the play within the play. "Play within a play" is one of the expression techniques often used in modern films, which is also known as the layered structure. In the film, "in the play" shows the classic Victorian love story between Charles and Sarah in the novel, and "outside the play" shows the film crew of "The French Lieutenant's Woman" that did not exist in the original book. The film's male and female leads, Mike and Anna, developed an extramarital affair during filming. The subplot of this modern society is only a small part of the whole movie, accounting for about 20% of the film's length. The stories of the Victorian era and the stories of this modern society intertwine, and the modern perspective narrator in the original book is presented in the way of the modern love part in the film. Although this presentation method has changed the original plot of the novel, it allows modern consciousness and traditional consciousness to interact and dialogue through actors' performances and dialogues, making "contemporary" and "historical" two mirrors contrasting each other, and criticizing, Dispel historical consciousness. For example, a dialogue between the hero and heroine Mike and Anna in the hotel in the movie:
Anna: Ouch!
Mike: What's the matter!
Anna: Listen. "The Lancet in 1857 estimated that there were 80,000 prostitutes in London. One brothel in every sixty."
Mike: Hmm.
Anna: (a passage from the reading) "We came to an astonishing inference that based on a total of 1.25 million men of different ages in London at that time, prostitutes in London received 2 million clients every week."
Mike: minus the boys and the elderly who make up one-third of men, Victorian British gentlemen prostituted up to 2.4 times a week outside of marriage
This dialogue echoes what was written in chapter 35 of the original book:
The 19th century was a time when women were sacred. However, you could buy a 13-year-old girl for just a few pounds - even a few shillings if you only wanted her to play with you for an hour or two; more churches were built then than any other in history. More than one period. However, there is one brothel for every sixty houses in London (and now the ratio is six thousand to one)... The sanctity of marriage has been preached in London by priests, newspaper editorials and public opinion; There you have never seen so many celebrities, including kings who have not yet ascended the throne, living such a shameless private life... Women's bodies are always so tightly veiled, and the talent of any sculptor lies in Whether he can create seductive naked women.
The structure of "play within play" is the manifestation of the postmodernism characteristics of the novel. It not only realizes the misplacement of the two eras in the novel. Fiction writers occasionally use terms such as "telephone", "computer", "jet" that are clearly not part of the 19th century, and the real scenes in the film also appear in the modern technology of telephones and cars to draw the audience away from the fiction. come out. The use of the film crew to discuss the script and conduct rehearsals shows that the author often breaks into the narrative of the novel to make comments. At the same time, the structure of "play within play" shows the contrast between reality and imagination in the novel. In the novel, Fowles has been emphasizing that modern society is reality, and the Victorian story is imaginary, and the process of filming the film also tells the audience that the Victorian story seen by the audience is fictitious and corresponds to the concept of the original author.
What Fowles builds is a seemingly traditional novel world. It tells the story of a nobleman Charles and a wealthy daughter Ernestina who were married more than 100 years ago, and the two came to the town of Lyme for vacation. Meet the woman Sarah, who has a bad reputation in the town and the title of "French Lieutenant's Woman", so Sarah is also on the fringes of society. In many contacts with Sarah, Charles found that this woman seemed to possess a kind of magic. She was not a person with shallow knowledge, but was very charming and had a profound thought, so Charles was deeply attracted by Sarah. After being adapted into a movie, the movie and the novel have different narrative carriers, so the movie has made considerable changes compared to the original novel plot. Although this major change in the plot makes the movie look different from the novel, it also enhances the connotation of the movie, so that the movie will not become a vassal of the novel and complement each other. A Victorian love story is constructed in the novel, while the structure of "play within a play" is set up in the film, which develops together with the original classical love, and two narrative ideas naturally appear in the film. The two narrative ideas in the movie also have different endings, which are in line with the setting of the uncertain ending in the novel and the gist of the open ending, namely "together" and "not together".
The second is the construction of an open ending. The story of The French Lieutenant's Woman is a classic Victorian love story, where a single ending is conventional in traditional Victorian novels. But under the influence of the wave of postmodernism, the inherent ending of this tradition has been challenged from all sides. The French Lieutenant's Woman breaks with the traditional Victorian style of single ending, both in the novel and in the film, and instead constructs multiple endings. In the novel, Fowles constructs three endings. The novel has three endings: the first ending is that Charles and Sara lead an unremarkable life, a monotonous end to this life, and Sara also disappears completely from Charles' life. The second ending is that Charles has the right to choose freely, and chooses to be with Sarah, but Sarah has mysteriously disappeared. Charles found Sarah three years later. The third ending is that Sarah found by Charles has become an independent and rational free woman, and has no attachment to him. After he left in pain, he was overcome with pain and rediscovered the purpose of his life. In order to echo the original work of the novel, the film "The French Lieutenant's Woman" constructs two narrative ideas under the premise of setting the structure of the play within the play. Classical and modern love appear interspersed with each other. The ending in the movie is that the classical love "inside the play" ends with a happy ending. The picture is romantic and warm, and the audience is happy to see that a lover ends up getting married. But in Modern Love, Anna and Mike meet in the house as filming wraps up and the crew celebrates the end of the film. Anna came to the house first and sat in front of the mirror to do her makeup. Suddenly her eyes became empty, as if she had made a decision. Anna got up and left the room. When Mike came, Anna had already left. Hearing the sound of the car starting outside the window, Mike ran to the window and yelled, but it was "Sara". The boundaries between inside and outside the play have become very blurred, and the fate of people outside the play and the fate of people in the play have been invisibly linked. The ending of Mike and Anna did not give a clear answer, but the tone of the ending was basically sad and depressed, suggesting an incomplete ending. This double ending pattern basically echoes the ending in the original book. From this, we can also find that the ending of the movie follows the ending setting of the novel. Although there are essential differences in the whole narrative method, it still reflects the characteristics of postmodernism's pluralism and open ending.
The movie "The French Lieutenant's Woman" is a profound combination between the novel and the movie. In the movie, the connotation and plot of the novel are displayed through the unique narrative method of the movie, and finally the perfect artistic fusion is achieved, giving the audience a profound appreciation. A great British film adaptation.
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