Spurred on by some good and bad movie-watching experiences over the weekend, as well as input from colleagues Mahnaz and School Library Journal’s Sarah Bayliss (who sent me this clip of a light-up lion cub statue at the Boston Public Library), I took the LJS and Junior Library Guild gang out to the cinema, asking them what they’re reading and/or watching, which movie adaptations they thought were better than the books, and which ones were not. I welcomed discourse on remakes, as well as picks for best Batman or Superman portrayer. Lastly, I asked the assembled readers and watchers which movies-from-books they’d recommend the next time that question pops up for our #askalibrarian live-tweet sessions (held online every Thursday, 12–1 p.m.—and that’s it for shameless cross-promotion this week).
Oh, and the best Batman? My vote would probably be Michael Keaton, but Jack Nicholson was the showstopper as the Joker in 1989’s Batman movie directed by…Tim Burton!
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Mahnaz Dar, Assistant Managing Editor, LJS
If there’s anything I love as much as reading books (and talking about them), it’s watching movies based on the books I love—and then kvetching about what the directors got wrong. Of course, it’s hard to do that with a particularly stellar adaptation. I’m a die-hard fan of Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, otherwise known as satanic rituals vs. the search for the perfect apartment. Roman Polanski was incredibly faithful to the novel, even reproducing most of the dialog verbatim. And Ruth Gordon absolutely knocks it out of the park as the nosy Minnie Castevet. The one thing that didn’t quite work for me was John Cassavetes as Rosemary’s self-centered husband, Guy. Though in the book, Guy is initially charismatic, I found Cassavetes too unlikable even from the start.
And speaking of horror books to movies, one of my all-time favorite adaptations is The Silence of the Lambs. I adore Thomas Harris’s original novel, but Jonathan Demme did amazing work here, as did Ted Levine. I don’t think Harris could have conceived of the scene in which Levine, as Buffalo Bill, vamps to Q. Lazzarus’s “Goodbye Horses,” but it adds both a camp and a creep factor. I’m also a fan of Harris’s Red Dragon, but I don’t believe that either Manhunter (a 1986 film based on the book, with Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecter) or the 2002 film version, which featured Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins, and Ralph Fiennes, lived up to the book. (Though Manhunter wins points for being so awesomely Eighties: between the synthetic music and the clothing, it felt a bit like Hannibal Lecter meets Miami Vice.)
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Kate DiGirolomo , Community Coordinator, SELF-e
I’m going to play a bit fast and loose with the adaptation theme this week because I’ve been living in Andi Teran’s Ana of California (Penguin) for the last few days. A modern twist on the delightfully wonderful, amazingly perfect Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (my favorite book in this whole wide world, if that wasn’t clear), it focuses on Ana, an orphan sent to intern on Garber Farm to avoid another round in a group home. I confess, unabashedly, to growing up longing for Anne Shirley’s red hair, hoping to get into a scrape or two on Prince Edward Island, and wishing for a Gilbert Blythe of my very own. Every reference—subtle or glaring—to the source material is a thrill, but Teran manages to make Ana and her surroundings unique. There’s a lot to unpack in the small (and sometimes small-minded) town of Hadley as Ana dreams of pinning down something with permanence. I suspect there will be another viewing of the 1985 Anne of Green Gables miniseries after I finish reading. Talk about a nearly flawless adaptation!
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Liz French, Senior Editor, LJ Reviews
Last week I suffered through the Tim Burton movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (file under: totally unnecessary remakes); laughed and cried while watching Jacob Bernstein’s documentary Everything Is Copy, about his mom Nora Ephron; and re-re-re-watched Francis Ford Coppola’s two “Godfather” movies, based on Mario Puzo’s blockbuster novel of the Seventies. Two outta three ain’t bad, right? I kept saying to myself that I’d only watch the “Godfather” flicks for “one more scene….” And suddenly it was 1:00 in the morning on a work night. I did read the Puzo book, but it was so long ago that I really don’t recall much of it, but I think in this case Coppola is the “winner.” As for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Roald Dahl book of the same name is indeed dark and nasty at points, but it’s not unremitting. Burton’s movie has no soul (and Johnny Depp is just plain creepy and entirely unlikable in the Willy Wonka role—at least the 1971 film adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, had Gene Wilder portraying Wonka with *some* warmth…better songs, too).
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Barbara Genco, Special Projects Manager, LJ
We are halfway through screening the two-volume DVD set of Alec Guinness as John Le Carré’s George Smiley: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (completed) and Smiley’s People (just beginning). I am not an espionage fan, so I cannot make any sort of useful comparison between the books and the series. But I was working as a public librarian when the series originally aired in the late Seventies/early Eighties, and they certainly had an impact on the number of holds on Le Carré’s books! I did see the 2011 film version of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (starring Gary Oldman in an astonishing performance). I confess. I liked the Oldman film far more—and it’s much less of a commitment!
Did anyone else watch the 2015 Brit miniseries based on Agatha Christie’s classic, mind-blowing And Then There Were None? This two-parter (just shown here on Lifetime) is really great good fun. We enjoyed seeing some fave Brit actors like Charles Dance and Anna Maxwell Martin. Then there is Irish-born Sam Neal (sigh). I watched the original British 1945 film late last year, and it was just terrific; all are worth the time and the read!
I watched the 1944 film The Uninvited via TCM on demand this past weekend. The film and the book, a classic of romantic suspense, were favorites of my late mother. I read a bound library copy of the book the film was based on (The Uninvited by Dorothy Macardle) when I was in high school. (I remember that the book had a red binding.) Interestingly, it was originally published as Uneasy Freehold in the early 1940s but renamed and repackaged after the film’s success. Still a wonderfully enjoyable British seaside ghost yarn with great black-and-white cinematography. Cornelia Otis Skinner does a calculating and scary Miss Holloway.
Meredith Schwartz, Executive Editor, LJ
I’m about halfway through Criminal Minds on Netflix, as I try to wait out the eternity until Sense8 season two appears and not get ahead of my Orphan Black watching partner (no spoilers, please). As for books made into movies, my go to #askalibrarian answer is Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go.
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Stephanie Sendaula, Associate Editor, LJ Reviews
One of my favorite films is The Princess Bride (1987), and I love the 1973 book by William Goldman just as much. I can never decide which I enjoy more, which isn’t usually the case with book-to-film adaptations. I’m also a huge Batman fanatic (as is the rest of my family), and my favorite Batman, hands down, is Christian Bale. I know there is an ongoing debate between crowning Val Kilmer or George Clooney as the worst Batman, but I have to go with George. Batman Forever wasn’t as terrible as Batman & Robin, in my opinion. I’ll definitely be watching Batman vs. Superman, but I doubt Ben Affleck will top Christian Bale as my favorite Bruce Wayne. And it’s hard to top Christopher Reeve as Superman. (Sorry, Henry Cavill.)
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Henrietta Verma, WWR emerita
I just binge-watched the second season of Happy Valley, a BBC crime drama set in a Yorkshire town that’s dismal and troubled, and that’s not just the weather. It stars Sarah Lancashire as Constable Catherine Cawood, a woman who is raising her grandson after her daughter’s death from suicide. The boy’s criminal father’s machinations are the backdrop to the series, and the second season concentrates on his efforts to get closer to his son; at the same time, Cawood and her colleagues at “the Nick” are investigating a series of murders. No spoilers, but I will say that I am firmer than ever in my resolve not to have an extramarital affair with a makeup-counter lady.
On movie adaptations that are better than the books they’re based on: for me, Atonement. While Ian McEwan is one of my favorite authors, I couldn’t follow the book but loved the dreamy film.
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Wendy Xu, Editorial Assistant, JLG
I’ve been watching Daredevil! I’m not a huge fan of the character to begin with, but this season we have Elodie Yung as Elektra Natchios and I’m in love. The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) Elektra breaks so many Asian stereotypes on TV—even though in comics canon she’s Greek, but since Frank Miller created her, she’s about as culturally Greek as Fu Manchu is Chinese, which is to say, not at all. MCU Elektra is an adoptee, which makes her backstory doubly interesting. Her comics canonical origin story had her as the daughter of a Greek diplomat who was killed so she…becomes a ninja to avenge him. It’s more interesting (and culturally appropriate, in my opinion) to give her a backstory as an adopted daughter who somehow has ties to the Hand, a criminal organization that is linked with the yakuza and the triads.
I’m only on episode seven, but I’m pretty excited about the rest of the season.