I watch "Gone with the Wind" whenever it is shown on TV. I think it did the book proud while not exactly following it. I don't believe anything of the plot was missed by not including Scarlett's two other children, for example.
The casting was superb. I cannot imagine anyone else in those roles!
"The African Queen" was excellent too.
My biggest disappointment was the film of Georgette Heyer's "The Reluctant Widow". It deviated from the book a lot and was rather silly.

Most recently, I thought the first Hunger Games movie was perfectly in sync with the book, the movie was just as powerful as the original story and I thought the casting was incredible. I'm looking forward to seeing the second movie, but I suspect the movie makers will have to make some serious changes to the third book (which wasn't as good as the first two, anyway, IMO) in order to bring it to the screen.

Of course the very first thing that sprung to mind regarding a perfect book/film combo was the BBC Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version of Pride & Prejudice. That was perfection IMO. Emma Thompson's version of Sense & Sensibility was also outstanding.

One movie I thought was much better than the book was A Room with a View. I found the book (read after seeing the film) quite dry in comparison.

I think there's another sub-topic here, too: Is it better to read the book first, or see the film? I'm firmly in the book-first camp, but I wonder what the general consensus would be?

I almost never go to the 'pictures' as we quaintly call the 'movies' over here and find the good films shown on TV usually start at about bedtime. However I did enjoy the film of The Remains of the Day rather more than Kazuo Ishiguro's book (unusual for me). I thought Anthony Hopkins understated playing of the butler outstanding and Emma Thompson's housekeeper less 'starchy' than her character appears in the book. Also more 'information' was made available. or maybe just made clearer in the section where the employer's German sympathies are detailed.
As Sheri mentions about Room with a View this was another Merchant - Ivory production and they certainly know how to add depth to a novel without altering/detracting from the writer's intentions.
I just checked Youtube to see what clips were available and was surprised to see the prominence given to the part played by Christopher Reeve (as a US Senator). Perhaps my memory is at fault but I thought he had little more than a 'walk on' part . . . as we know in the UK there has to be an well-known/famous American star in every film for the necessary US box-office appeal.

I concur about GWTW, "Hunger Games, and "Room With a View."
Two films struck me as being just about pitch-perfect also: "To Kill A Mockingbird" (especially Gregory Peck's characterization) and recently, "The Help."

A huge disappointment for me was the movie made of Edith Wharton's classic "Ethan Frome."

I have to agree with Vee-The Remains of the Day was just about a perfect movie and one of my all time favorites.

I also agree with The Hunger Games, sometimes (for me) descriptions in books are hard to visualize, but the translation to the screen was very good.

As for The Hobbit-the copy that I have is a small volume as books go, but to take that and turn it into 3 movies seems odd. Of course LOTR's was a big book and deserved making into 3 movies-but I don't get The Hobbit in 3-unless of course it is the almighty dollar?

Pat

Sheri, I think I've actually had better luck with seeing films first and then reading the books. I tend to be very critical of a film when I am very familiar with the book, e.g., To Kill a Mockingbird and Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle. With films I am dismayed and annoyed, for example, when things are left out and characters are conflated or the filmmakers choose unduly to emphasize one part of a book. But when I read the book after seeing the film, I'm not usually as upset by the deviations.

Annpan, I read Gone with the Wind many times before I actually got a chance to see the movie. I was about thirteen when I first read GWTW but I was in my late teens when the film came to my hometown's movie theater for one of its periodic revivals (I don't recall it ever being shown on US television until after I was in my twenties). Well, my expectations were just too damn inflated and I was sick with disappointment. Leigh was fine as Scarlett and I loved Melanie and Mammy, but I didn't like Gable as Rhett and poor Leslie Howard as Ashley was such a mismatch to what I had in mind that it took me years to forgive that casting. I have mellowed since and I can watch the film for what it is, but in my opinion it can never compare with the book.

Another thing about the GWTW film that irks me: In many ways it has eclipsed the book. You can always tell which people got their impressions of Scarlett from Leigh's performance versus those who formed theirs from reading the book first. The former tend to outnumber the latter by a very wide margin.

Vee, I didn't remember that Christopher Reeve was in "The Remains of the Day." I liked the film quite a lot -- for the understated performances, as you say -- but I'm not sure that I ever finished reading Ishiguro's book.

I have a real problem with all the E. M. Forster books I've read or tried to read. I didn't get through Howards End although I was impressed with the Merchant-Ivory film. 'Dry' is the descriptor I would use too, Sheri.

Has there been any film you've seen that you've managed to overcome the impressions it left before you read the book? I can divorce my mental images of Scarlett and Rhett as I saw them in the movie from those I've formed from reading the book, probably because I read the book first. But I cannot read Doctor Zhivago without Julie Christie as Lara and Omar Sharif as Yuri from coming to my mind. In fact, it took me years to get all the way through the book Doctor Zhivago, because I just couldn't get it to mesh with Robert Bolt's screenplay, Lean's direction, and the actors' performances. I think it is simply amazing that they get such a luscious film from what I consider a very tedious, episodic book. Maybe the English translation I read is at fault, but since I can't read Russian I am at the translator's mercy, which I think is lousy. There was a later filming of DZ that was supposed to be more faithful to the book, but if it is, I don't think it did the book any favors.

Vee, because of a back problem, I don't go to a cinema so I wait for the DVD so I can watch at home. Not as good as seeing blockbusters on a big screen but more comfortable! Sometimes I record a late night one that is shown late on TV or runs for too long.
I was so disappointed with "I Capture the Castle" on screen that I stopped watching halfway through. The DVD I rented didn't have sub-titles either, another reason I like to watch them. I'm not really deaf but I can't always pick up the dialogue if the actors mumble!

Mary, I actually liked "The Help" movie much, much better than the book, although I read the book first.

Annpan, I could rant from now until Saturday about everything in the film version of "I Capture the Castle" that was done wrong, but I'll spare you. :-) Suffice it to say that I should've known better than watch it.

I have a theory that short stories can be made into better films than most books, particularly long books. Some of my all-time favorite films have been adapted from short stories that I also love, e.g., John Huston's film of James Joyce's "The Dead," the wonderful "Babette's Feast" from Isak Dinesen's story, and "A Summer Story" with Imogen Stubbs as Megan David from Galsworthy's "The Apple Tree." Sometimes there is 'padding' to the stories to make full-length films, but I don't mind that as long as the additions remain in the same spirit of the original, or as Vee so aptly put it: without altering/detracting from the writer's intentions.

Do you know of other short story adaptations that you think are well done? Or maybe you know some that infuriate you. Either way, I'd like to hear about 'em.

What about Shakespeare? I know, I know that he wrote plays, not books or short stories, but I'm expanding. Do you have a favorite filmed version? What about other films that originated as plays? I don't read many plays since I would rather see them performed, but I do recall having to read plays in school and some of them became great favorites of mine.

Two really stand out for me. The first is The Dead, both the story by James Joyce and the film directed by John Huston. I think the film really captures the mood and feelings.

A Passage to India - another Merchant Ivory production that 'nails it.' Seeing the film enhanced the book for me.

I imagine several people here have seen these; what do you think?

For me the best, by far, adaptation for the screen of a Shakespeare play has to be Henry V made in 1944 with Olivier as director, producer and actor in the 'title role'. Parts for all the leading players of the day (not movie-stars). Shot in what must have been very expensive Technicolor and with a wonderful musical score by William Walton which is still performed by orchestras today. The battle scenes were filmed in Ireland, where no bombs were falling and extras were paid more money if they provided their own horse!
Of course it was devised as a morale booster for those dark days but each viewing still stirs the blood.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trailer Henry V

Vee, I saw that Henry V just before I migrated to Australia and I honestly felt like cancelling my passage! I was so choked up with patriotic emotion!
They did a wonderful job as well as making a rattling good yarn. I loved the opening in the reproduction of a real Elizabethan stage setting before going into film mode.
I saw this in 1959 but still remember the effect it had on me...

Frieda, perhaps it was just as well that I dumped "Capture"! What were the main things you disliked?
I liked the film "How about You" which was the screenplay of a short story "The Hard Core" by Maeve Binchy. It kept the bones of the story with credible expansion.

Siobhan, it's always a delight to me when I run across another fan of "The Dead" because I love it so much -- and almost have it memorized. I am quite bewildered when readers and movie-watchers say they have never heard of either the story or the film. I realize that it will not suit every taste though -- it's too interior for some and so poignant.

I didn't try to read A Passage to India since I had already had less-than-successful attempts at A Room with a View and Howards End. But I figure the fault is with the reader (me) and not the writer, Forster. His books make such gorgeous films that it must be the only explanation.

Vee, I'm off to watch the trailer to Henry V. I have seen the Olivier version and I do remember getting all stirred up by it, even though I'm not English. So I can imagine what it can do to English blood! I like Kenneth Branagh's version too. It's obviously the same play, but the interpretations are very different. You've probably read my often-mentioned fondness of "Richard III" -- Olivier again! I'm a sucker for Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet." Of course it's from my era, and it came out at just the right time for me. Give me Leonard Whiting over Leonardo DiCaprio any day.

Annpan, the castle is just not right. I understand that a castle in Wales was used as a film site because it had a moat that could be flooded. Castles and moats are probably hard to come by, that I can understand...but keep the camera shots tight because Wales and Suffolk look quite different from each other.

I didn't care for hardly any of the cast, most of whom I can hardly remember. I ordinarily like Tara Fitzgerald, but she was miscast as Topaz. Topaz is one of my most-loved secondary characters. In the book Topaz's most outstanding feature is her paleness (pale skin and white hair although she's only 29 years old). Ms. Fitzgerald is a brunette and not especially pale in the film.

But I think the most egregious part of the film is the ending, which I won't give away. The silly screenwriter thought the book ending didn't gibe so she changed it to something more 'commercial' apparently. The sad thing: she was probably right in estimating the film's typical audience.

Annpan, I'll look for "How about You" based on Binchy's story. I liked her Circle of Friends very much and the film adaptation of it pleased me too.

I tend to like 'small pictures' that are probably a bit on the obscure side. I'm not much of a bestseller reader or a blockbuster watcher. My DH still gives me grief about the time we went to an opening-day showing of a now-famous film. We were in queue for an hour or more, then we stood in a crowd packed breast to breast, back touching back in the cinema lobby. Every seat was taken and we had to do some negotiating in order to sit together. I was exhausted before the film began. The music was too loud and the film was special effects diarrhea. I had to escape, so I went to the ladies' lounge and stretched out on a bench and slept through more than half of it. DH was worried when I didn't show up after a while and he thought I had missed too much of the story. He wanted to know if I wanted to see it again. I didn't. And I haven't to this day. The film was the original Star Wars or maybe it was Raiders of the Lost Ark or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I forget...

Vee, you mentioned something I find very interesting: Americans seem to want at least one American in any film they watch. What do the British think when an errant American is stuck into an otherwise British film? Or when a character who was English in the original story is changed to an American in the film. I'm thinking of Holly Martins in Graham Greene's novel The Third Man who was English, but was played by Joseph Cotten in the film as an American, perhaps because Cotten couldn't do or sustain an English accent (very few American actors can with any credibility). Also there's Sally Bowles in Christopher Isherwood's "Goodbye to Berlin" (The Berlin Stories) on which the stage musical and later the Bob Fosse-directed film "Cabaret" were based. Sally was originally English but she became American in honor of Liza Minnelli. I think both substitutions worked out very well, but I wonder if it rankles the English somewhat? In the case of Sally Bowles, her flamboyant personality fits an American better than I think it does an Englishwoman. Englishwomen are not generally known for being 'ditzy'.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film adaptation of The Enchanted April. It perfectly captured the mood of the book. Also Howard's End and A Room With a View.

If we can count plays as well, I also like the Kenneth Branagh adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, although I wish he had chosen a better actor to play the villain. The Merchant of Venice starring Jeremy Irons is very good, and Twelfth Night starring Helena Bonham Carter and a host of other great English actors is one of my favourite movies.

The most perfect book-to-film adaptation I know is Babette's Gæstebud (Babette's Feast), which was no small feat because it is based on a perfect novella/short story.

I also remember a lovely adaptation of Colette's novella "The Cat", but I can't find it on IMDb and have no idea where I found it (possibly the library DVD section, must check again). It think it was a TV adaptation and fairly short, not a movie.

As for Shakespeare, I liked the film version of Henry V with Kenneth Branagh.

There have been at least 2 versions of Romeo and Juliet which I liked immensely: the first one with Susan Shentall and Laurence Harvey, the second was Zeffirelli's lush version with its marvelous romantic score.

As for French films, the novels of Francois Sagan have been made into successful movies, in my opinion: A Certain Smile and others.

Here's a list of book/short story-to-film adaptations for you to consider and tell me what you think:
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Film: Same Title (1993), directed by Martin Scorcese; starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder
An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge
Film: Same Title (1995), directed by Mike Newell; starring Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Georgina Cates
The Bounty by Richard Hough (nonfiction)
Film: Same Title (1984), directed by Roger Donaldson; starring Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, Laurence Olivier
Cal by Bernard MacLaverty
Film: "Cal" (1984), directed by Pat O'Connor; starring John Lynch and Helen Mirren
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
Film: Same Title (1979), directed by Gillian Armstrong; starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
Film: Same Title (1985), directed by Sydney Pollack; starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Film: Same Title (1975), directed by Peter Weir; starring Rachel Roberts and Helen Morse
The Wife of Martin Guerre by Janet Lewis*
Film: "The Return of Martin Guerre" (1982); directed by Daniel Vigne; starring Gerard Depardieu and Nathalie Baye

* I always thought the film was based on Natalie Zemon Davis's nonfiction account with the same title Le retour de Martin Guerre. But according to IMDb the film was adapted from a novel by Lewis. I only vaguely remember reading the book by Lewis, but I found the film so fascinating that I grabbed NZD's book as soon as I located it and I've read it many times since.

Correction on the above list:

The title of Richard Hough's biography/history is Captain Bligh and Mister Christian.

"The Bounty" is the title of the film.

A short story into movie that I like is Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited produced as The Last Time I Saw Paris (loosely based on, the blurb says). I like the movie best because I like happy endings, and I like the actors--Van Johnson, Elizabeth Taylor, Donna Reed--and I like a good sob story once in a while.

Netla, I concur that "Babette's Feast" story and film are just about as near to perfection as one can get.

I first read The Enchanted April about twenty years before the 1992 film was made. I must've liked it well enough at the time because I remember finishing it, but it was one of those books that eventually evaporated from my mind. I saw the movie on a fluke and liked it so much that I reread the book. It stuck so much better the second time. I needed the visuals of the movie. I love, love, love everything about it and now the book too.

Thanks for the recommendations of Shakespeare adaptations and for the mention of Colette's novella. I adore Colette. I'll look for the The Cat.

I remembered one more: A Month in the Country, based on the short novel by J. L. Carr, starring Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh and Natasha Richardson, all of them very young. It's not a perfect adaptation, but captures the mood of the book beautifully. The film seems to be mostly forgotten, which is a pity, and the price of copies is at collector levels (i.e. expensive). I watched a crappy VCR recording from TV, and I still enjoyed it.

I seem to recall that certain of the films made years ago from the work of D.H. Lawrence were well suited to his style and characterizations (The Rainbow and Sons and Lovers).

How could I have forgotten one of my favorite films of all time: "Out of Africa" ; in my view, very true to Karen Blixen's original intent.

Mary, I sometimes muse over what Denys Finch Hatton would've thought about the casting of Robert Redford with his luxurious head of hair and American accent! I particularly like the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer as Bror Blixen.

I don't recall if you've ever mentioned seeing "White Mischief" (1987) with Gretta Scacchi, Charles Dance, Joss Ackland, and Sarah Miles. It is adapted from James Fox's book of the same title. IMDb says the book is a novel but it's not, it's a nonfiction exploration of the murder in Kenya. The book is very straightforward, in my opinion, but the film adaptation is one of the most bizarre I think I've ever seen. Even if you've never read the book, I'd like to know what you think of "White Mischief" if you have seen it.

Netla, somewhere I have an old VHS tape of "A Month in the Country." I hope it is still playable because you've made me want to watch it.

About the list I made above, please don't think you have to have read the books and have seen the films for you to comment on them.

I didn't realise that A Month in the Country had been made into a film. I wonder if it is still available? Checking at Amazon they seem to offer a truncated Spanish copy?!
Certainly an enjoyable, quiet read. I also enjoyed Carr's The Harpole Report. About a school teacher 'elevated' to Head of a country school where he is besieged by petty bureaucracy and dreadful parents. Some things never change. :-)

Frieda, I've been trying to find White Mischief (both book and film) for ages. If you have a copy, could I borrow it?

Mary, I have a ratty old paperback copy of White Mischief, and I think I have a VHS tape (if you still have a VHS player) in storage, but not a DVD.

I checked Amazon for the availability of both new and used copies of the book. Amazon has both. The cheapest paperback I saw was $10.95 for 'acceptable' condition. The cheapest new copy was $104-plus. The cheapest DVD they offer is for $79. and that's some sort of bidding price. Whoa!! I had no idea that White Mischief would command such prices.

My book and video are at my house. Right now I'm at my son's house in Arizona for about a week. Then I'll be going to my brother's in Texas. I expect to be back home at the end of July or the first week of August, so if you haven't acquired either the book or film by then, I'll be happy to let you borrow mine if I can find them and the tape is still in good enough shape to be played. I'll put a reminder on my phone; but if you haven't heard from me, you may have to remind me yourself.

I hope you can get one or the other, or both, soon. I would really like to know your opinion, since you share an affinity for Kenya and that era with me.

Hmm, I wonder sometimes why certain good to excellent books get adapted into movies and others don't. The reason is obvious when the book is a bestseller, no mystery about that. Neither is it unusual that a particular author with a good track record of books already made into films will get dipped into again and again in the filmmakers' hopes of doing repeat business with audiences who want the same style and caliber. That often works, doesn't it?

But what about the take-a-chance film adaptations of books and stories that aren't bestsellers or by 'proven' writers? Are these labors of love, so to speak? How many of these eventually catch on with audiences? I'm trying to think of examples that have. Can anyone help me out?

I was at the IMDb site and noticed that "The Godfather" is often considered the Best Film of All Time. When I was in college (circa 1969/70) Mario Puzo's book The Godfather was one of the 'hottest' reads around, but it seems that after the first film was released there was a falling off of readers of the book. Today probably only 'true' readers will bother to take up the book. I sure don't see it mentioned very often (ever?) among Top 100 and such type lists. For what it's worth (not much, I know), I never liked The Godfather book and barely managed to sit through the first Godfather movie one time. It's obviously not my 'thing' which makes me out of synch with most of the world, apparently.

Do you have examples of books that you wish had been, or could be, filmed?

Many of you know that my all time favorite book is "The Wanderer" aka "Le Grand Meaulnes" To my knowledge, it has never been filmed, although possibly the French made a movie of it.

Frieda, thanks. I have both sorts of players. I don't like to buy things on the Internet. Makes me a Luddite, I guess....

Ooh, Mary, I'd love to see a filmed version of Le Grand Meaulnes. But I wonder if it could be done justice? It's a risk, and maybe that's why there hasn't been an (English) adaptation.

I'm not crazy about remakes, generally, although I think I'm quite tolerant of different interpretations of classic novels (Jane Austen, the Brontes, etc.). However, in my opinion, there have been some badly botched adaptations that I wish somebody would take on again. (Fat chance?) One I can think of is Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn. Hitchcock's version is abysmal, IMO.

Questions for you mystery mavens: Probably most of you read the books first. Does that spoil the film for you? Can you watch filmed mysteries over and over knowing the denouement? I think I have a wonderful facility for forgetting whodunit in mystery novels. (At least there's one benefit for having a poor memory.) I can read the books again many times after intervals. I have a harder time with the movies unless I'm watching more for the actors' performances, or the scenery, or the ambience. The mystery is not especially important to me in, for example, Hitchcock's adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's short story "Rear Window."

Maybe reading the mystery first then later seeing the film does spoil it for me. An example would be Susan Hill's "The Woman in Black" which I found chilling as a novel. The film was extremely disappointing, in my view.

I hadn't read Woman in Black nor seen the movie when I saw it performed on stage in London with my adult daughter who squeaked aloud at one point. I wouldn't have wanted any further chilling.

I agree with Out of Africa; it is one of my favorite films. I have to say I liked the film version of The Princess Bride more than the book. I tried to read it but found it more cynical and depressing than the film. And after reading what some of you have said about I Capture the Castle, I don't think I want to watch it; I liked the book and don't want it ruined for me.

Another book turned to film is The Little White Horse by Elizaeth Goudge. The movie title is Moon Over Moonacre. Don't bother...it was pretty dreadful.

Re The Woman in Black: I don't remember now whether I read the book or saw the film first. I found both creepy -- probably the book more so, but some of the film's images have stuck with me, particularly the causeway that flooded with the tide and stranded anyone in the house on the island for several hours every day.

I thought the fogs and mists were effectively captured in the film, too, with the distorted sound effects and disorientation they engender.

One bit in the film that fascinated me was the dynamo (generator) that provided electricity. The young man (or whoever occupied the house) had to prime and start this piece of machinery. I like that detail because it appeared authentic to the time period. If this was mentioned in the book, I must not have noticed or it didn't register with me.

Oh yes, I found the apparition in the film with her dark clothes and ghastly pallor very eerie, and there was something about some trees that I can't quite recall. I'll have to watch the film again to see if it will still affect me as much. I've read the book several times now and I've felt a frisson each time.

Carolyn, you're lucky to have seen the stage version. I wish I could.

Has anyone read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and seen the movie, too? I read the book but hadn't had any intentions to watch the film until a couple of friends recently mentioned it to me. They claim that it's really good, but I'll probably remain skeptical unless some of you RPers recommend it.

I'm a great fan of Brideshead Revisited--fabulous novel--and the mini series from the 1970s is, in my mind, perfect. (By contrast the newer film from a few year's ago is absolutely terrible, distorting pretty much everything). I also think Babette's Feast, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and the James Dean East of Eden are fabulously close to the respective novels. Even though the East of Eden film captures only a tiny bit of the novel it conveys the atmosphere of the Salinas Valley and the angst of the teenaged protagonist Cal very well.

I both read and saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and thought they did a pretty good job with the movie. I saw it with a friend who had not read the book and didn't know what to expect. She was pretty grossed out at the rape scene and told me I couldn't pick another movie for us to see together.

I forgot to mention The Princess Bride. It's one of the rare cases where the film was actually better than the book. Possibly it's because I saw the movie first, but I have heard the same from so many others.

The movie version of Jar City by Arnaldur Indriðason is a very good adaptation, not 100% true to the story but follows it in all essentials. It's also very atmospheric and gritty. In Iceland a rumour surfaces every now and then that there is going to be another film, either based on Silence of the Grave or Voices, but nothing has come of it yet. I suppose the director is too busy making movies in Hollywood.

Freida, I enjoyed both the book and film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but I have only seen the Swedish version with subtitles, not the US version.
I thought the actress playing Lisbeth was spot on, the actor playing Mikael not so good. But I did like the adaptation.

Maggie Smith in"Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" was pitch-perfect, in my opinion. I completely agree with the comment about the 2nd "Brideshead Revisted" being inferior to the first. Ditto for the 2nd "Ivanhoe" being quite a disappointment, after seeing the original 1950's film.

Oh, absolutely! Maggie Smith was/is and forever will be Jean Brodie in my mind. I also think young Pamela Franklin as Sandy Stranger was outstanding. I saw the film first back in 1969 and was so blown away that I wanted to read the novel immediately. But, for some reason that I can't recall now, I was unable to locate the book so there was a several-year gap between my seeing the film (two or three times) and my actually reading the book.

I found Muriel Spark's style of telling the story rather annoying: She would jump into the narrative and start relating what Sandy Stranger was doing a quarter of a century into the future, in other words foreshadowing without any of the subtlety in which that technique is usually used. I later learned that this was something that Muriel Spark did in some of her other novels -- it was almost a 'signature' of hers. Well, I didn't like it...at first, perhaps because the film adaptation left that 'device' or 'technique' (or whatever is the proper literary term) completely out and instead told a straightforward, though somewhat telescoped, story.

I also noticed that some of Miss Brodie's set, the crème de la crème, were missing from the film. There were six girls in the book, but they were conflated to four for the film's purposes and three of the girls (besides Sandy) were composites. For example, it wasn't Jenny in the book whom Miss Brodie said would be "known for sex."

But I don't think the conflation of the girls in the film really matters. Neither does the restoring to wholeness of the one-armed Teddy Lloyd (the art teacher) in the book. A two-armed actor playing a one-armed part is sometimes not very believable -- and can be distracting -- so I think that was a good call of the filmmakers.

I have a bit of a harder time with what happened to Mary McGregor in the film that was completely different in Spark's novel. I've puzzled over that change for years. The only way I can reconcile it is to say: Well, it happened one way in the book. It happened another way in the film. They both work. I guess I'll have to compartmentalize one from the other. And that's what I've done, basically, for forty years.

Has something similar happened to any of you, either with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie or some other book/film combo?

Yes Frieda I read The Age of Innocence and later saw the film on TV. I remember thinking how many of the cast were from the UK.
A point made in the book was that the Archer family were New York 'aristocrats' and I noticed how they differed from an English or European aristocrat. Newland goes to work in a lawyer's firm, although not very often and with plenty of time off to pursue his other interests. On this side of the Pond an 'aristocrat' would not have a 'job' in the sense of turning up at the office, but would be expected to run the family estates, understand about the countryside and rural matters or, if a 'younger son' make a career in the army, the Church or politics (think Winston Churchill). I realise this has nothing to do with either book or film but I just thought I'd mention it!
I felt both the film and the book conveyed the atmosphere of suffocation that everyone, especially women, must have felt/endured, where to be seen to do the correct thing in observing the niceties of Polite US Society was all-important.
A little scene I very much enjoyed in the film was looking down on a snowy NY City (I think Newland was going to visit his very elderly and wealthy Aunt). All the grids of the streets were laid out but very few of the plots were built on. Aunty lived in a huge house surrounded by nothing.

Re The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie I read the book, saw the play in London with Vanessa Redgrave and saw the film. I agree that it isn't easy to produce a running narrative film script using the book who's main 'voice' is that of Sandy and her memories of the 'Brodie Set'.
Marita's mention of the TV adaptation Brideshead Revisited which stuck so well to the book, reminded me of another TV series The Jewel in the Crown taken from Paul Scott's book/s The Raj Quartet. Did that reach you? I haven't read it so don't know how accurate it was . . . but wonderful drama.

Thanks Carolyn and Kath for your comments re "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" film. I may watch it now, although I suspect I might be squeamish about the rape. That means I should probably watch it alone so I can have complete control of the remote's fast-forward button. I liked Mikael in the book, so I'm sorry the actor in that role wasn't impressive to you, Kath.

Hmm, Vanessa Redgrave as Jean Brodie. Vee, do you think she pulled it off as well as, or maybe better than, Maggie? It was probably an interesting performance, at any rate, since Vanessa could just about convince me in any role she played.

Speaking of Vanessa Redgrave, I just thought of an RP conversation we once had about the film "Julia" that was adapted from Lillian Hellman's story from Pentimento. I think the discussion was about the controversy of Hellman claiming it was a true story. I find the dispute mildly interesting, but I don't really care whether it was 100% true. It's a damn fine story even if it is fiction, and the adaptation is exquisite in my opinion. Of course I'm aware that some readers and play- and movie-watchers can't stand anything by Hellman. Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda are just about as irritating as Hellman to some people -- uh-oh! triple whammy for the film.

Vee, I have a beautifully-boxed set of "The Jewel in the Crown" series in VHS. I think there are eight or nine tapes, but I'm ashamed to say that I've never managed to get through but about three of them. Not that I didn't find them good, but something always got in my way of watching them. Then time would pass and I would have to start all over, only to be interrupted again. I haven't read the Quartet either, except for the first one...maybe.

Vee, I can't think of an American actor who possibly could've replaced Daniel Day-Lewis as Newland. That guy is uncanny in my opinion. He was Hawkeye in "The Last of the Mohicans" (1992), and in the same year that he was in "The Age of Innocence" he played Gerry Conlon in "In the Name of the Father." I read all three of those books, too. More recently Day-Lewis has been Abraham Lincoln, but I haven't yet seen that film.

The Age of Innocence was a lovely, lovely movie, beautifully staged and excellently acted. I don't have any comparison to make as I haven't read the book, but I would like to see it again.

Likewise, I would I like to see The Jewel in the Crown mini-series again. I watched it religiously when it was shown on TV and I think it is partially to blame for my fascination with India. The books are on my reading list.

I keep remembering more good movies based on books:
The Loved One is an excellent black comedy, based on the book by Evelyn Waugh and I think it was fairly faithful to the book - not that it matters: it can stand on its own. There's a lot of good actors in it, but Rod Steiger as Mr. Joyboy is a standout.

I haven't see the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo but found the Swedish two-part TV film to be pretty good, except for the miscasting of Michael Nyqvist as Mikael. Mikael in the book is described as a man all women fall for, not necessarily for his looks but rather for a magnetic personality. Nyqvist just doesn't have enough charisma - he looks like a bored thug throughout most of the film. Noomi Rapace, however, was excellent as Lisbeth. The rape scene is disturbing in the movie, but it's worse in the book. I cringed when watching it, but I cried reading it.

Ah! Netla, you've given me a rush of memories with "The Loved One." I didn't read Waugh's book until long after I saw the film, and frankly the reading experience was never of great importance to me because Tony Richardson's film has crowded out whatever reading impressions I got from the book.

I first saw the movie on a date when I was sixteen (circa 1966/67) at a drive-in movie theater. The movie was just the excuse to go to the drive-in, so my date and I weren't paying too much attention to the black & white film until something caught my date's eye on the screen (we were kissing up to that point). Or maybe it was something he heard through the tinny speaker attached to the driver's side window. I never thought to pinpoint it, but I knew something had replaced me as the center of my date's focus and I was a bit miffed. Oh well, if we weren't going to kiss, I thought I might as well watch the movie. Pretty soon I forgot my date!! When the film ended we looked at each and simultaneously exclaimed something to the effect of: Did we really see what we just saw?

I went home and babbled to my brother that he ought to go see "The Loved One." He wasn't going to believe anything I said about it until he did. He took my advice and took his girlfriend to the drive-in the next night, but the girlfriend did NOT appreciate "The Loved One" at all! And brother was mad at me for making a lousy recommendation. Later brother saw "The Loved One" under other circumstances and he thought it was a riot. He just had the wrong girlfriend.

I have a correction to make, the title of the movie adaptation of Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse is The Secret of Moonacre, not Moon Over Moonacre...my opinion remains the same however.

Frieda, I can't remember all that much about the stage version of 'Miss Brodie', 'though I do remember the set being fairly minimalist. Apparently the book was adapted with VR in mind for the title part. I also saw her as Rosalind in As You Like It in Stratford in the mid 50's. A family who have acting flowing through their veins, but certainly many of them have courted controversy especially Vanessa with her way-out political views which even caused a rift between her and her daughters.
We don't have drive-in movies over here, do you still have then in the US? Sounds like the sort of places the nuns from my school would have described as 'an occasion for sin' and I can't think many parents would have been too happy about their daughters spending time there! Did you tell yours you were studying at a girl-friend's house?

Nope, Vee, I had no need for subterfuge. I'd tell my parents I had a date at the drive-in and they would just nod their acknowledgement and tell me to have a good time.

Drive-ins could be 'passion pits', true -- those places the nuns warned about -- but they were also ideal for families with beaucoup kids. Admission was usually by the car, no matter how many occupants, and thus cheaper. It was an ideal (and idyllic) American-family excursion from the 1930s through probably the end of the 1960s, maybe into the 1970s. In Iowa the drive-in was a seasonal business, open from about May 1st through October 31st (Halloween was a big drive-in movie night). In Texas and other southern and southwestern states, drive-ins were open year round.

My dad usually parked our family station wagon so that the tail end faced the movie screen, then he flopped down the tailgate for us kids to sit on (or we could lie in the cargo area). Daddy and mama would sit in folding lawn chairs. Other families had similar routines depending on what sort of vehicle they had -- the whole point was the informality. The kids would wander the aisles and mingle with their friends at the playground (located beneath the movie screen) and the adults would chit chat with other grown-ups in neighboring vehicles. Young or dateless teenagers would usually congregate around one or two cars, sitting or lying on the hoods (bonnets) or trunk (boot) lids, gossiping and horsing around. The back two (darkest) rows were generally and tacitly reserved for dating couples' wheels. Their privacy was usually respected (everyone knew what was probably going on), but at our particular drive-in there was a guy who walked the aisles to periodically shine his flashlight through a window as an admonition and to break up hanky panky. It was a nuisance for couples, but it was expected.

There was another drive-in theater located on the other side of our town that had an altogether different character and reputation. It was not family oriented. It was artier, or more wicked, depending on one's sensibilities. I only went there once...to see "I Am Curious (Yellow)", the notorious Swedish film, after the US ban on it was lifted.

I can recall quite a number of movies that I first saw at drive-ins, perhaps because the outdoor setting itself was impressive to my mind. Nowadays I will not see a film in a regular cinema because I feel claustrophobic, but I would probably still enjoy the experience of seeing a film at a drive-in. There are a few -- but very few -- left in the US. In fact, my last recollection of going to a drive-in was not in the US, but in France in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

Another good thing about the drive-in movies was you could let little ones watch the cartoon and part of the movie and then they would get sleepy and conk out in the backseat.

When my daughter was in elementary school, the day after school was out we always did something special. She was eight the year Mary Poppins was released, and we went downtown for lunch and to see the movie in a real theater. She absolutely loved it and kept asking to watch "just one more" scene at the second showing. It was getting late enough I needed to go home and cook dinner, and she sighed and said, "Maybe Daddy will take us to see it again at the drive-in."

Just want to add that I wholeheartedly agree that the film of The Age of Innocence was marvelous--and very close to the book. If you've not read the book I can't recommend it more highly. I like Wharton so much better than James--same minute attention to atmosphere and nuance but far more compact. One of the most chilling moments in all of great literature, I think is when Archer realizes about his wife "she could die. . .people do" (sorry I don't have the line right as the book is not in my hands but it is something like that!)