Unusual Film Adaptations of Literature

Fractured Books on Movie Screens

Movies have always taken inspiration from novels. Most film adaptations try to stay true to the book while making necessary adjustments for the film medium. These writers turned the stories inside-out and upside-down. Taking themes, characters, and sometimes basic structure from the original literature, they rewrote the stories to make unusual movies.

Adaptation (2002)
Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich") writes strange and witty screenplays. Susan Orlean, staff writer for "The New Yorker" wrote an introspective, meandering book exploring obsession, The Orchid Thief. It started as interviews with a man who searches for and collects rare orchids. Kaufman accepted the challenge to write the film adaptation of this non-linear, non-narrative literature. He started by adding himself in as a character along with his invented twin brother as an alter ego. The result is a surprising philosophical comedy. It is uneven and perhaps looses its way in the end. Even so, it is a fascinating and unusual film.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990)
Writer Tom Stoppard ("Brazil", "Shakespeare in Love") decided to retell Shakespeare's "Hamlet" through the eyes of the least significant characters. This film adaptation is the result. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Hamlet's friends from school. The king summons them to come and talk to Hamlet and find out what is bothering him. He uses them as pawns to get information and to unknowingly deliver a message ordering Hamlet's execution. This movie is an absurdist, dreamlike reinvention of Shakespeare's tragedy. Very black comedy indeed. Gary Oldman and Tim Roth play the bumbling pair perfectly as they try to grasp the rules of the game they find themselves in. Watch as the childlike and inquisitive Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) discovers gravity, displacement of mass and other physical laws without quite understanding what they mean. This movie is easier to follow and more enjoyable if you know the plot of the original play well. If it has been a while, read a synopsis of the story of the melancholy Danish prince.