Adaptation

Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9780099512790

RRP: R126.95

What is it about Ian McEwan’s novels that lure and invite film makers to translate them into films? I could write an essay’s worth of reasons but won’t bore you with my personal groupie like tendencies towards his oeuvre. Whatever the case may be it has been reported that McEwan’s On Chesil Beach is going to be his third book that will be adapted for the big screen. The Daily Mail writes that non other than the amazing Carey Mulligan (who appears to have great taste in authors, next up on her list Never let me go) has been cast for the female lead and that Sam Mendes will be sitting in the director's seat for this highly anticipated version of the brilliant novella. I could hardly contain my excitement when I first read this. Sam Mendes did an astounding job at bringing to life Richard Yates hauntingly troubled tale about a young couple’s desperate actions against conformity in 1950’s America in Revolutionary Road. His direction brought out some of Kate Winslet’s and Leonardo Dicaprio’s finest performances in a story that was driven by tension filled dialogue and the on screen effectiveness of a lack thereof.


On Chesil Beach in its turn tells of a couple in England who’s relationship and wedding night, in 1962, carries the weight of their inability to communicate their sexual fears, insecurities and expectations. It is a story rife with underlying tension of which Sam Mendes and Ian McEwan are undoubtedly the masters of portraying. McEwan has adapted On Chesil Beach himself. And seeing that the novella is a mere 166 pages long, hopefully they will be able to add every possible detail of the unfolding events into the film version, a critical point which die hard fans are always keen to judge on.

Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9780099481249
RRP: R145

Both Enduring Love (2004) and Atonement (2007) have been turned into successful movies although the former did not receive as much wide spread and critical attention as the latter. Even though the film version of Enduring Love made some criticised changes to original novel it remained a vivid, scary and beautiful portrayal that managed to capture the spirit of the original and was undoubtedly filled with all the trademarks of a McEwan creation and was incredibly well acted. The powerful use of colour in Enduring Love was very effective and as within his books left vital moments, important to the story development, forever imprinted in my mind.

Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 9780099429791
RRP: R145

For me personally, in both film and novel one of the most beautifully written scenes in English literature has to be the ‘fountain’ scene in Atonement. Watching it play out on film left me without a doubt that McEwan was indeed deeply involved in its adaptation. It was the scene which McEwan has revealed was written before he had written one word of the rest of the novel and from this scene sprung the inspiration for rest of Atonement as we know it. Filming Atonement was always going to be an epic attempt and the complex thought process and musings of Briony Tallis, one of McEwan's most interesting and thought provoking characters, was itself going to be the film's hardest obstacle to translate due to the genre’s inherent limitations where the story is primarily narrated by the camera. Nonetheless the film in its own right turned out an acclaimed and worthy success.

Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 978009946968

RRP: R126

It leaves me wondering if Saturday will be soon to follow, I can almost imagine within my minds eye how powerful the ‘forced poetry reading’ scene could be on screen...

(image: Carey Mulligan via zimbio.com)