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Novel movies
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Five British novels translated on the big screen are set to woo film fans
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"ADAPTING A novel is like taking a car apart and putting it back together again as a motorbike," explained screenplay writer Billy Mackinnon.
Viewers at "Novel Scene", the British Council's Women Writers Film Festival (September 27 and 28; October 2,4 and 5) at Sree, the Satyam theatre complex, will be able to check out the five British novels reassembled for the screen - Virginia Woolf's "Mrs Dalloway", Esther Freud's "Hideous Kinky", Meera Syal's "Anita and Me", Jane Austen's "Persuasion", and "The Heart of Me" based on Rosamond Lehmann's "Echoing Grove".
The British productions bring a range of characters from backgrounds varied in time and place. "Persuasion" (1814) is a realistic version of the Cinderella myth, where Anne Elliot (Amanda Root) finds herself still in love with Captain Wentworth whom she had rejected years ago. When he reappears, affluence and success have transformed his status, but a smouldering resentment makes him ignore her. The leashed and hidden emotions are not easy to depict on the screen. The lovers speak very little, and almost not at all to each other. But director Roger Michell offers no period drama; he focusses on psychological intensities for contemporary appraisals.
Two features set in the 1970s deal with the fascination for the "other", the "alien" and the "exotic". Directed by Gillies Mackinnon, "Hideous Kinky" has actors from two different worlds in Kate Winslet (Britain) and boxer-turned-actor Said Taghmaoui (Morocco). When her marriage fails, the young woman decides to travel through Morocco with her children. Bizarre adventures and disasters follow. Heartbreaks are inevitable as the mother is attracted to the charming vagabond Bilal, but is unable to mesh into his culture. The search for happiness ends in a return to the flat in south London, but the travellers are wiser now, about themselves and their expectations from the world.
Meera Syal's "Anita and Me" (winner of Betty Trask Award, finalist, Guardian Fiction Award) describes the teen traumas of Meena, child of Indian immigrants whose unquestioning acceptance of Punjabi family life is shattered by the entry of the gorgeous blonde Anita into the neighbourhood. As directed by Metin Huseyin, the film has been praised for retaining the quirky charm and rumbustiousness of the novel.
"The Heart of Me" brings a complex story of shifting times and perceptions. The original story is believed to be based on the author's own relationship with the poet Cecil Day Lewis. Director Thaddeus O'Sullivan admits that he was attracted to Lehmann's novel because it was non-judgemental, full of ambiguities in characters and their bonds. The film stands out for its casting and seamless flow in tracing relationships. Dinah (Helena Bonham Carter) comes to stay with sister Madeleine (Olivia Williams). Her passionate affair with brother-in-law Rickie (Paul Bettany) plays havoc with all their lives, dark under the shadows of World War II.
Its sumptuous look, excellent performances and canny editing have been applauded even by those reviewers who found "Mrs.Dalloway" unconvincing in flashbacks, or skimping on emotions. Marleen Gorris as director and Eileen Atkins as scriptwriter stress the feminine perspective, while Vanessa Redgrave plays the lead role with seasoned ease. Planning her party, polished hostess Clarissa Dalloway ruminates over her choice in marrying a successful politician instead of the reckless suitor who has now returned from India. The sub-plot underlines wry comments on post-war English society.
The festival holds the promise of something different from the Hollywood brand. And for viewers who have read the novels, there is scriptwriter Mackinnon's assurance: "You can travel on the same roads but the engine is different, so there's a different feeling to the journey."
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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