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Unfilmable Novels
Author: Simon Sellars • Jan 18th, 2007 •Category: Ballardosphere, film
Just catching up on recent news…
Eoin over at the prolific group film blog Screenhead ruminates on the process of adaptation at length after reviewing Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. After stating that there are “plenty of dull adaptations of good books (… The Unbearable Bore of Being in a Cinema to Watch This)”, he continues with “what I consider to be the most difficult novels to adapt, and who, if any, is fit to do that job.”
Ballard makes the list, with Darren Aronofsky Eoin’s helmsman of choice for The Atrocity Exhibition. Aronofsky? That’s, ah, a rather controversial statement, considering Jonathan Weiss’s remarks about Aronofsky’s Pi in my interview with him (which Eoin obviously knows about, considering he linked to it). I agree with Weiss, though; I found Pi so ponderous as to be unwatchable.
(For his part, k-punk wonders who has the chops to adapt The Drowned World? Assuming you don’t count Costner and Waterworld, or Madonna’s ‘Drowned World’ tour).
Eoin reckons it’s “only a matter of time before JG Ballard becomes the new PK Dick, with his socially aware sci-fi novels being snapped up for development.” I say, let’s hope Ballard doesn’t suffer that fate, for the PKD film industry certainly hasn’t done justice to Phil’s genius. Aside from one bona fide classic (Blade Runner) and one so-near-but-yet-so-far miss (Total Recall), what else is there?
Two rank, utter failures (Paycheck, Screamers); one middling effort that started off promising and shot itself in the foot with saccharine direction (Minority Report); one that’s severely hamstrung by Keanu and gimmicky tech (A Scanner Darkly); and one that’s meant to be pretty good but is so obscure as to be unavailable anywhere (Confessions of a Crap Artist).
The Atrocity Exhibition. It’s only a matter of time before JG Ballard becomes the new PK Dick, with his socially aware sci-fi novels being snapped up for development, such as ‘High Rise‘. However, ‘The Atrocity Exhibition’ remains his most experimental. Essentially plotless, it endeavours to portray the impression modern society and mass media has in our private lives, our psyche, and our sexuality, and acted as a precursor to his popular and depraved ‘Crash‘. Ballard even suggests that readers should not start at the beginning and finish at the end, rather select random passages. Yet, an attempt has been made to film it. In 2001 Jonathan Weiss completed a version of the book, which was apparently approved by the writer himself, but unsurprisingly failed to make a name for itself. Click here to see a less than impressed review, and here for a wonderfully tense interview with the director about his film, the relevance of Ballard, and the role of the critic in independent cinema.
If anyone can do it: Darren Aronofsky has proven his ability to create ponderous cinema, and his intense vision would work with the power of Ballard’s writing. UK music-video director Chris Cunningham would also be appropriately passionate. Those not familiar with his work should check this out.”
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It may be that most novels are un-filmable. Instead of thrying to adapt (usually in a very inept way) so called
un- filmable books producers should concentrate in original screenplays or ‘filmable’ novels- there is plenty of excelent character/plot driven novels waiting to be adapted.
Face it: Do we really need to see books such as Gravity’s Rainbow or Ulysses get the Hollywood treatment? They even manage to ruin straightforward filmable books! (like Master and Commander).
Ballard is a much more talented writer than PK Dick. Dick’s ideas are brilliant but on a purely aesthetic level his writing is often subpar. I think his heroic intake of amphetimines may have had something to do with it. The one exception is VALIS, which is really beautifully written. Ballard, on the other hand, has a very powerful, original prose style, especially in his early ’70s, transgressive novels.
Incidentally, this is my biggest issue with Cronenberg’s Crash. I actually like hte film a lot, but there’s something cold and detached about it which is not at all in keeping with Ballard’s prose in the novel, which is almost hysterically ecstatic, like a lucid nightmare of technology and flesh. Obviously, Cronenberg has his own style, but I think he could have captured the feel of the novel’s language in a cinematic way that might have made a more interesting film.
Hehehe.. FJ Torres I think there are great ideas for a script based on James Ballard´s The drought.
Just Imagine a young Charlton Heston (The Omega man, Soilen green, The planet of appes)playing the role of Ransom.
You only need to return to the seventies,to hire a good action film director who could invent and devise a new story based on the book. And there it is your movie:
“Terminal World”.
Starring: Lee Remik, Charlton Heston, etc…
I supose that Heston has done to much great science-fiction movies and this would be to much for his curriculum.
If it was posible to make a film with the novel “The planet of appes” why not with “The drought”???????????
FJ puedes decirme si se comprende lo que escribo puesto que no hablo ingles nada bien. Gracias.
In my opinion David Cronnenberg´s Crash is an authentic Catacrash.
But if you want to make the worst film of all History you just need the director Oliver Stone and the great actor Vin Diessel.
And there it is a great piece of crap.
Se entiende lo suficiente, lo importante es practicar a diario….
Lee Remick? Era muy guapa….
Sorry the worst director of all History is Pedro Almodovar, the second worst is Oliver Stone.
Almodovar is the most ridiculous, absurd and regrettable director of the world. But the American and French people loves their movies.
In Spain we joke and scoff about that.
The worst actor is Kevin Costner but Vinny Diesel is a degenerate prototype.
Gracias FJ Torres y tienes razón era muy guapa.
what’s all this, mod? keep it on topic, please.
Maybe the suggestion is that Oliver Stone direct Vin Diesel in an adaption of a Ballard novel … which would be an abomination, even by Stone’s egregious standards.
Ironically, Cronenberg’s early films were convincingly Ballardian … elements of Shivers, for intance.
Cronenberg and Ballard do meet on the issue of humanity and technology, the invasion of the human body by technology and the psychotic possibilities of this synthesis. I think Ballard takes things a bit farther because he isn’t really a genre writer. Crash really can’t be codified as sci-fi, a thriller, etc. Cronenberg also seems more obsessed with issues of gender and sexuality than Ballard is. Crash is really something of an exception in Ballard’s work. Most of his other books are more concerned with technology’s psychological impact than its sexual connotations.
On the main issue here, I do think that quite often GOOD novels are unfilmable, but BAD novels often make excellent films. People forget that movies like Jaws, In the Heat of the Night, The Godfather and a lot of others are based on fairly mediocre novels or short stories which have since been forgotten. On the other head, when people try to adapt really great books you usually end up with something pretty bad, or at least disappointing. Of course, there’s always those exceptions like John Ford’s Grapes of Wrath.
And yes, “head” is a typo. “on the other hand…”
Actually, I quite like ‘on the other head’. Yes, it’s almost always the case that mediocre books adapt better to film … books consisting of ‘he said, she said’ and basic description, rather than the nuance and poetry of great prose.
Empire Of The Sun is, certainly by Hollywood standards, a fine film … but so much of the novel is missing … different media, different intentions.
Hmmm … ‘the poetry of great prose’ … not sure if that’s a solecism or not, but you know what I mean.
i saw Empire of the Sun too long ago to really remember. i think i found it slightly dull. though there were some great actors in it. spielberg wasn’t quite on top of his “serious”, “adult” game back then, was he? i have to say, i prefer the ’70s spielberg. his talent as a manipulator of cinema is undeniable, but he’s not exactly what i’d call a deep thinker.
incidentally, i think one of the best examples of the “great books vs. great movies” issue is stanley kubrick. he adapted almost everything he filmed from literary sources, but usually mediocre books that had some spark of interest in them that he could run with in his own way. The Shining, for instance, is not very much like the book except in the bare outlines of the plot, and its a much better film than it is a book, in my opinion. (i can’t stand stephen king’s prose style, it physically hurts me) the only exception is Lolita, which i think is one of Kubrick’s weakest films.
The amusing thing is Stephen King’s decision to make his own adaptation of The Shining, a real stinker. Yes, Empire is a dull dog … there are some very good performances, but overall it lacks Ballard’s intelligence.
I absolutely agree about bad books making good films, and vice versa. I was very disappointed when I finally read Walter Tevis’ ‘The Man who Fell to Earth’, the source for one of my favourite films. I’d have loved to have seen Nic Roeg in his prime adapt Ballard.
With the (arguable) exception of ‘Existenz’, all Cronenberg’s features since ‘Videodrome’ have been adaptations of one kind or another. ‘A History of Violence’ was an interesting case – the film was basically the first third of the book, with a new tacked-on ending. The last part of the book includes some fairly heavy body horror and could be considered much more traditionally Cronenbergian than John Olson’s script.
That´s correct benjamin.
Bad novels=good films in the 90% of the cases.
Your examples are excelent. I will add Psicosis, The clock-work orange and Lolita to your list.
Lolita is a weakest film but it´s a good film.
Sue Lyon is not an amazing actress and the film is weak but it´s a great film.
About Stephen King he is the king of craps but I have read Dolores Clairborn and I liked it.
There are great movies based on Stephen King´s craps; Misery, The death zone, etc…
Sorry I haven´t road Misery sorry,… but I haven´t seen Wall Street or Platoon and I don´t like Oliver Stone. And I haven´t read The drowned world and The empire of the sun and I don´t like Ballard. Opinions can change.
In the other hand we can find bad movies based on great stories. Example: The birds, solaris, Memories of a geisha,etc…
And Phillip K. Dick is another example of a bad writer (a crap writer) who has inspired great movies: Blade Runner and Total Recall.
I think the same about Frank Herbert´s Dune.
Good bye.
FJ Torres puedes aclararme pq en ingles se traduce he visto como have seen y he leido como have read. Seen es participio y Read es infinitivo. Why?
Hi,
thanks for the… analysis. I stand by my convictions with Aronofsky. I didn’t find Pi pondrous, rather a stylistic examination of the insanity in finding structure in existence. It may be simple, but it’s effective. Any thoughts on chris Cunningham as a director?
And just so you know, I too hope Ballard doesn’t get treated like PK Dick, as I respect Ballard’s novels much more. And Cronenberg’s Crash was an utter disaster.
hi eoin,
what’s with the ellipsis? i’m with you on a desire to see ‘atrocity’ successfully translated into film, but i just don’t think aronofsky’s the man.
chris cunningham…i’ve only seen the aphex twin and bjork music vids. yep, they look great, and music video directors have successfully crossed over into film (fincher, andrew dominik), but does cunningham have any narrative form? does he write? has he adapted anything other than music? i don’t know much about his career so i’d be interested to know.
the bjork/aphex things were fairly over the top…can he tone it down to the level of Ballard’s cool, neutral prose?
i know he was slated to adapt ‘neuromancer’, but that fell through…shame, sounded great.
by the way, vincenzo natali is supposed to be adapting ballard’s ‘high-rise’. what are your thoughts on that?
simon
It’s funny to read a thread where people write in complete paragraphs, second guess their nomenclatural [update your spellcheck engine, it shouldn't flag that] choices for fear of tautology, and demand clarification over what each-other’s punctuation might be implying. You are, all of you, far to literate for your own good. Go outside and ride a bicycle.