Criterion Collection Themes - Novels on the Big Screen
Created by yormovies.
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There’s a long-held and widespread feeling that a movie adaptation of a novel is never as good as the source. It’s easy to see how this became received wisdom, given the sheer difficulty of translating a plot that unfolds over hundreds of pages to a feature-length film’s running time, the immensity of the passions and mysteries that a novel can hold. The challenge for the film version is to function as its own work of art while at the same time reflecting a previously established perspective. But there have been many films that brilliantly interpret the literary universes they take on. In the movies below, the words of Charles Dickens, E. M. Forster, Patricia Highsmith, Victor Hugo, Flannery O’Connor, and Erich Maria Remarque, among many other authors, are transmuted into compelling and expressive visual experiences. Whether faithful adaptations (Rosemary’s Baby, Howards End, The Ice Storm) or daring reimaginings (The Idiot, Naked Lunch, The Thin Red Line), these are films that deserve to be appreciated alongside their printed progenitors.
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1 new
Anatomy of a Murder
1959, in 12 top lists Check -
2 new
Narayama bushikô
1958 — a.k.a. The Ballad of Narayama, in 6 top lists Check -
3 new
Berlin Alexanderplatz
1980, in 7 top lists Check -
4 new
La bête humaine
1938 — a.k.a. The Human Beast, in 9 top lists Check -
5 new
Ostre sledované vlaky
1966 — a.k.a. Closely Watched Trains, in 14 top lists Check -
6 new
Les enfants terribles
1950 — a.k.a. The Terrible Children, in 5 top lists Check -
7 new
Fantastic Mr. Fox
2009, in 9 top lists Check -
8 new
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
1998, in 6 top lists Check -
9 new
Le feu follet
1963 — a.k.a. The Fire Within, in 8 top lists Check -
10 new
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
1973, in 4 top lists Check -
11 new
The Furies
1950, in 3 top lists Check -
12 new
Great Expectations
1946, in 17 top lists Check -
13 new
Ghare-Baire
1984 — a.k.a. The Home and the World, in 6 top lists Check -
14 new
Howards End
1992, in 9 top lists Check -
15 new
The Ice Storm
1997, in 5 top lists Check -
16 new
Hakuchi
1951 — a.k.a. The Idiot, in 2 top lists Check -
17 new
Island of Lost Souls
1932, in 5 top lists Check -
18 new
The Last Picture Show
1971, in 21 top lists Check -
19 new
The Last Temptation of Christ
1988, in 7 top lists Check -
20 new
Il gattopardo
1963 — a.k.a. The Leopard, in 18 top lists Check -
21 new
Lord of the Flies
1963, in 1 top list Check -
22 new
Les bas-fonds
1936 — a.k.a. The Lower Depths, in 1 top list Check -
23 new
Donzoko
1957 — a.k.a. The Lower Depths, in 2 top lists Check -
24 new
Magnificent Obsession
1954, in 2 top lists Check -
25 new
Sasameyuki
1983 — a.k.a. The Makioka Sisters, in 2 top lists Check -
26 new
The Man Who Fell to Earth
1976, in 8 top lists Check -
27 new
Marketa Lazarová
1967, in 9 top lists Check -
28 new
Maurice
1987, in 0 top lists Check -
29 new
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
1983, in 6 top lists Check -
30 new
Les misérables
1934 — a.k.a. Les Misérables, in 6 top lists Check -
31 new
Naked Lunch
1991, in 4 top lists Check -
32 new
Oliver Twist
1948, in 6 top lists Check -
33 new
Plein soleil
1960 — a.k.a. Purple Noon, in 10 top lists Check -
34 new
Rebecca
1940, in 23 top lists Check -
35 new
Rosemary's Baby
1968, in 21 top lists Check -
36 new
Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma
1975 — a.k.a. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, in 14 top lists Check -
37 new
Seconds
1966, in 10 top lists Check -
38 new
Tirez sur le pianiste
1960 — a.k.a. Shoot the Piano Player, in 10 top lists Check -
39 new
The Silence of the Lambs
1991, in 36 top lists Check -
40 new
The Small Back Room
1949 — a.k.a. Hour of Glory, in 3 top lists Check -
41 new
Solyaris
1972 — a.k.a. Solaris, in 28 top lists Check -
42 new
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
1965 — a.k.a. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, in 4 top lists Check -
43 new
Tess
1979, in 5 top lists Check -
44 new
The Thin Red Line
1998, in 14 top lists Check -
45 new
Die Blechtrommel
1979 — a.k.a. The Tin Drum, in 14 top lists Check -
46 new
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
1988, in 6 top lists Check -
47 new
Under the Volcano
1984, in 2 top lists Check -
48 new
The Uninvited
1944, in 2 top lists Check -
49 new
Wise Blood
1979, in 7 top lists Check -
50 new
Der junge Törless
1966 — a.k.a. Young Torless, in 3 top lists Check
Last updated on Jun 11, 2014; source