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Is there
an original screenplay out there? Presumably, but with the number of books
being turned into films, one has to wonder. Even more compelling, however,
is the related question (a modern variation of the age-old chicken/egg
conundrum) of which is better: the movie or the book?
Which probably
explains why you've come to the "Books on Film" section of our
site, where you'll always find a running list of current films successfully
-- or unsuccessfully -- adapted from their original source. Find out for
yourself which is better -- the book or the movie. (Psst, we always
think the book is better.)
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Ghost
World
by Daniel
Clowes
If you're a fan of graphic novels, you're undoubtedly familiar with Clowes'
critically acclaimed Ghost World, and slightly annoyed with its
sudden discovery by people who've come to it via its current film version.
Be that as it may, Ghost World, in this, its original inception
(with a new cover by Clowes), tells the story of two supremely ironic,
sarcastic, above-it-all teenagers facing the uncertainty of life after
high school. As they attempt to carry their life-long friendship into
a new era, the careful dynamics of their inseparable bond are tested,
and what seemed like a future of endless possibilities looks more like
an encroaching reality of strip malls, low-paying service jobs, and fading
memories. Like the movie, Clowes' story appeals to those presently in
the midst of their personal angst-world, as well as all of us who remember
being there. Enjoy!
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The
Defense
by Vladimir
Vladimirovich Nabakov
A classic
Nabakov tale of obsession and madness, translated to film under the title
"The Luzhin Defense," starring Emily Watson and John Torturro.
As a young boy, Luzhin was unattractive, distracted, withdrawn, and sullen,
forced to take up chess as a refuge from the anxiety of his everyday life.
His talent is prodigious and he rises to the rank of grandmaster -- but
at a cost: in Luzhin' s obsessive mind, the game of chess gradually supplants
the world of reality, and his limits are tested during a crucial championship
match.
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Planet
of the Apes
by Pierre
Boulle
First published
more than 35 years ago, Boulle’s chilling novel launched one of the greatest
science fiction sagas in motion picture history, from the classic 1968
movie starring Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell, through four sequels
and two television series ... and now the newest film adaptation directed
by Tim Burton. In the not-too-distant future, three astronauts land on
what appears to be a planet just like Earth, with lush forests, a temperate
climate, and breathable air. But while it appears to be a paradise, nothing
is what it seems. They soon discover the terrifying truth: On this world
humans are savage beasts, and apes rule as their civilized masters. A
nonstop action-filled thriller of satire and suspense.
Read
an excerpt!
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The
Golden Bowl
by Henry
James
Originally published
in 1904, and finally turned into a film in 2001, one of James's more enigmatic,
haunting novels, The Golden Bowl concerns the lives of wealthy American
widower Adam Verver and his daughter Maggie. The two live in Europe, where
they collect art and bask in each other's company. Everything seems very
hunky-dory until Fanny Assingham manipulates Maggie into becoming engaged
to Amerigo, an Italian prince in reduced circumstances. Meanwhile Maggie's
longtime friend Maggie weds Adam, but Maggie is actually carrying on improper
relations with Amerigo. James, in his usual brilliant fashion, reduces the
myriad implications into that of a golden bowl set on a mantel. Intense,
acute, powerful -- the book, that is. |
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Along
Came a Spider
by James
Patterson
When nine-year-old
Maggie Rose and her best friend, Michael Goldberg, are kidnapped from their
exclusive school in Washington, D.C., Patterson sets another one of his
twisty, edge-of-your-seat plots in motion. Maggie's mother is a star actress,
and Michael's father is Secretary of the Treasury. Bring in Alex Cross,
deputy chief of detectives, and Jezzie Flanagan, a supervisor in the Secret
Service, to track down the serial killer behind the kidnappings, and what
the reader has is a top-rate thriller they can also watch (after closing
the last page, of course!) at their local gigaplex. |
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Corelli's
Mandolin
by Louis
De Bernieres
A much-beloved
and much-translated novel, Corelli's Mandolin hits theaters as "Captain
Corelli's Mandolin," starring Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz [see Blow
review, below], and John Hurt (who seems to possess the same blood-type
as Keith Richards). Set on the idyllic Greek island of Cephallonia, de Bernieres'
novel follows the lives of the island's inhabitants from the peaceful days
before World War II, through the Italian occupation of the island, on into
the present, and captures the comic, heartbreaking, and horrifying changes
the war exacts on their lives. The story centers around a family that includes
a widowed doctor working on a history of the island; his clever, independent
daughter; and Captain Antonio Corelli, an irrepressible officer of the Italian
garrison who is also a musician and leader of the latrine opera club La
Scala. Ultimately, the novel is a marvelous, sweeping depiction of the triumph
of life over evil. That the movie has a different ending makes it almost
imperative that you read the novel first. |
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Bridget
Jones's Diary
by Helen
Fielding
This madcap
romantic comedy's celluloid translation has just hit screens round the world.
An international bestseller, Bridget Jones's Diary is the devastatingly
self-aware, screamingly funny account of a year in the life of a 30-something
Singleton (played by the non-Brit, I'm-so-cute-I-could-cry actress from
Houston, TX, Renee Zwelleger) on a permanent doomed quest for self-improvement.
Caught between the joys of Singleton fun; the fear of dying alone and being
found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian; and tortured by Smug
Married friends asking, "How's your love life?" with lascivious, yet patronizing
leers, Bridget makes some resolutions: she will reduce the circumference
of each thigh by 1.5 inches; visit the gym three times a week -- not just
to buy a sandwich; form a functional relationship with a responsible adult;
and learn to program the VCR. With a blend of flighty charm, existential
gloom, and endearing self-deprecation, the Diary has touched a raw
nerve in readers everywhere. The film version also stars a wonderfully sleazy
Hugh Grant. |
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Blow:
How a Smalltown Boy Made $100 Million With the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and
Lost It All
by Bruce
Porter
Originally published
in 1993, this entertaining, page-turning, true-life account of one man's
highs and lows in the world of drugs and money (lots and lots of both) promises
to be one of 2001's biggest film releases (with the well-coifed Johnny Depp
and mucho caliente Penelope Cruz starring, how could it not?). Relying on
extensive interviews with George Jung (played by Depp) and other key figures
of the coke-mad 80s, Porter delivers the spectacular rise and fall of George
Jung: from handsome California hedonist to key marijuana importer to several
prestigious East Coast colleges; a brief stint in jail, leading to better
drug connections, specifically to the Medellin coke cartel; transitioning
to fast cars, Learjets, wild women, and suitcases full of money; the inevitable
onset of paranoia brought on by exhorbitant coke consumption; car-bomb attacks;
executions; all kinds of deliciously unhinged depravity; and then, finally,
sadly, inexorably ... the Big Bust. Some people just know how to have a
good time. |
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The
Tailor of Panama
by John
Le Carré
John Le Carré,
who himself was recruited by the British Foreign Service in the 1950s, has
been writing masterful and knowing spy novels since the early 1960s. The
Tailor of Panama, his literary effort from 1996, has hit the silver
screen this year as a film directed by John Boormon, starring Geoffrey Rush,
Pierce Brosnan, and Jamie Leigh Curtis. The story is that of a once-successful
British agent exiled to the isolated but intelligence-rich backwater of
Panama, where his chief contact is the connected but untrustworthy local
tailor. |
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Hannibal
by Thomas
Harris
Are
you hungry for a great read? Catch up with Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling
(who suddenly looks a lot like Julianne Moore) seven years after The
Silence of the Lambs, and sink your teeth into another gripping
adventure with one of the most diabolical literary creations ever set to
paper. |
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Left
Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days
by Tim
LeHay, Jerry
B. Jenkins
How big is
the Bible Belt? Ask Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, whose bestselling Left
Behind series highlights the thrilling narrative qualities that have made
the Bible's "Book of Revelations" such compelling material for
the past 2,001 years. So much so that they've turned the first book of the
series into an action-packed movie. |
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The
Invisible Circus
by Jennifer
Egan
The high ideals
and inevitable compromises of the 1960s form the background to this acclaimed
novel by Jennifer Egan. Phoebe O'Connor, eighteen years old in the summer
of 1978, is too young to know the 1960s, but old enough to feel the anxiety
of their influence. She's obsessed with the memory of her charismatic older
sister, Faith, a flower child who died in Italy in 1970. Searching for the
truth about Faith's death and life, Phoebe retraces her steps across Europe
to the very place where she died. Her search yields more complex and disturbing
revelations than she had wished for -- about her sister and the generation
she emblematized. |
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The
House of Mirth
by Edith
Wharton
The House
of Mirth is the novel that first established the literary reputation
of Pulitzer Prize-winner Edith Wharton. In it, she honed her devastating
acerbic style, created one of her most memorable heroines in Lily Bart,
and discovered her defining theme: the vulgarity, greed, human frailty,
and false social values that form the true foundation of New York society.
Sounds sort of like a conspiracy theory, which may be why the film version
stars Gillian Anderson. |
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Before
Night Falls
by Reinaldo
Arenas
A shockingly
personal/political memoir from one of the most visionary writers to emerge
from Castro's Cuba, recounting Arenas' stunning odyssey -- from his poverty-stricken
childhood through his suppression as a writer and imprisonment as a homosexual,
to his flight to America and subsequent life and death in New York. Javier
Bardem has been garnering rave reviews for his portrayal of Arenas in Julian
Schnabel's visually lavish film version. |
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Thirteen
Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
by Robert
Kennedy
During the thirteen
days in October 1962 when the United States confronted the Soviet Union
over its installation of missiles in Cuba, few people shared the behind-the-scenes
story as it's told here by the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. In a clear
and simple record, he describes the personalities involved in the crisis,
with particular attention to the actions and attitudes of his brother, President
John F. Kennedy. He describes the daily, even hourly, exchanges between
Russian and American representatives. In firsthand immediacy we see the
frightening responsibility of two great nations holding the fate of the
world in their hands, though Marilyn's nowhere in sight. |
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Chocolat
by Joanne
Harris
Joanne Harris
wrote the novel upon which the charming film, “Chocolat” (nominated for
five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Juliette Binoche),
and Best Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), was based. Both the novel and
the film are exquisite. Chocolat tells the story of a Mayan priestess
who arrives with her daughter at a tranquil, rural French village in the
1950s and begins liberating the cozy, repressed inhabitants with her specially
created chocolate concoctions. Arch-conservative values bump up against
sheer Epicurean pleasure. Guess which wins. |
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Wonder
Boys
by Michael
Chabon
Grady Tripp
is a middle-aged philanderer -- with a penchant for pot and failed marriages
-- who's unable to complete the long-awaited follow-up to his award-winning
novel. His brilliant student James Leer is a troubled young writer obsessed
with Hollywood suicides and prone to fabrication and petty thievery. In
their odyssey through the streets of Pittsburgh, Grady and James are joined
by Grady's pregnant mistress, his hilariously bizarre editor, and an achingly
beautiful student lodger. The result is a wildly comic, poignantly moving,
and ultimately profound search for past promisess, future fame, and a purpose
to Grady's life. |
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Requiem
for a Dream
by Hubert
Selby
In this searing
novel first published in 1978, two young hoods, Harry and Tyrone, and
a girlfriend, fantasize about scoring a pound of heroin and getting rich.
But their heroin habit gets the better of them, and Harry's mother's addiction
to diet pills lands her in a state mental hospital. A harrowing, vivid,
unflinching fever of a novel, from the writer who brought us Last
Exit to Brooklyn.
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All
the Pretty Horses
by Cormac
McCarthy
A simple story
of tragic love and innocence lost catapulted into a literary masterpiece
by the profound prose stylings of McCarthy, and shown to be untranslatable
to film by the willing and game Billy Bob Thornton.
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