5 Film Adaptations to See in 2015

As someone who adores both cinema and literature, I do get pretty excited when the two of them collide in the form of a nice, little book-to-film adaptation. 

Unlike some geeks who cringe at the very thought that their favourite book may get destroyed by a poor script and a terrible acting from some up-and-coming movie star (let’s be honest here: this could get very annoying very quickly), I am quite looking forward to those kind of films. Of course with the regular exception….Case in point: The Catcher in the Rye… Salinger did not want it adapted for the big screen during his lifetime, and why should we? That is a pretty easy book to mess up and I do not want to see that. Having said that, I am willing to change my mind if I see some ground-breaking, Oscar-worthy performance in it.

Anyway, in most cases the book is still waay better than the film. Naturally. I do not think I need to explain the whys and hows to this, it is just common knowledge – although there are a few exceptions. Today, I decided to talk about the film adaptations I am most excited for because 2015 looks like a pretty big year for this genre. Some old classics that have already graced the screens a few times before are revisited, as well as some never before filmed stories. So, here are the five book to film adaptations, coming out in 2015, that both me and you, should give a watch!

1.     Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Starting off with a classic, Far from the Madding Crowd has been adapted for both the big and small screen a few times before. However, this new version already looks quite good for a few reasons. Firstly, it is directed by Thomas Vinterberg who also did The Hunt with Mads Mikkelsen – a very good Danish drama that I highly recommend. Secondly, it stars the lovely Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdene. Seriously, this film has no excuse to fail (it premieres on the 1^st of May in the UK FYI).

For those of you unfamiliar with the story it revolves around Bathsheba Everdene, who attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a sheep farmer; Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a prosperous and mature bachelor. A vivid story about passion and courtship, it has Hardy’s signature in-depth descriptions of English rural life and unapologetic study of sexual relationships. Hopefully all of that would be translated to the screen, too, here is the trailer for Far from the Madding Crowd.

2.     Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

A book that has been on my to-read list for quite some time and I will really try to get my hands on it before I see the movie. Beginning in Paris on the eve of the Nazi occupation in 1940, Suite Française tells the remarkable story of men and women thrown together in circumstances beyond their control. What really makes this book a must in my eyes is the tragic story surrounding its author: Irène Némirovsky herself was a successful writer of Jewish origin. So, in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she died. As a result, Suite Française remained hidden and unknown for 64 years.

Right after I read the book, I will be amongst the first to watch the film too. Starring Michelle Wiliams, Margot Robbie, Kristin Scott Thomas and Sam Riley, Suite Française is already getting some serious critical approval. Here is the trailer.

3.     Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Ah, Madame Bovary! Another classic that is going to be adapted yet again for the big screen. This can go wrong in many ways, but for now we can just dreamily long for the future moment when we are going to be able to see its new film adaptation (it premiered on the London Film Festival last October, but will be released worldwide in 2015).

Starring Mia Wasikowska as the scandalous Madame, the films also stars Ezra Miller, Paul Giamatti, Rhys Ifans, Logan-Marshall Green, and Downton Abbey’s Laura Carmichael. As for the story, Madame Bovary centres on a young woman who marries a small-town doctor, Charles Bovary. However, she soon becomes bored with her married life and looks for new excitements outside of it. Here is your saucy trailer.

4.     Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

Another book I have not read yet, but I am really looking forward to the film. Because Tom Hardy.

Source

Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Child 44 is about secret police agent Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy), who loses status, power and home when he refuses to denounce his own wife, Raisa (Noomi Rapace), as a traitor. Exiled from Moscow to a grim provincial outpost, Leo and Raisa join forces with General Mikhail Nesterov (Gary Oldman) to track down a serial killer who preys on young boys.

Apart from having a great cast, the film is based on English writer Tom Rob Smith’s debut novel that has already been translated into 17 languages, and received quite a lot of praise in the literature world. Read the book + watch the film and you’ve got yourself a winner. Trailer is right here.

5.    The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

One of the greatest books ever written coming to the cinema near you? Obviously, the only natural reaction to that is to simply get super excited.

Set to be released some time in 2015, Le Petit Prince is an animated movie based on the beloved classic story about a little boy who travels the universe. If you have never read it, please do yourself a favour and read it now. It is so much more than a children’s book – touching on a range of profound philosophical topics, this is a book that never gets old as with each read you find new meanings to it. Not to mention, deeply touching and a truly emotional rollercoaster, Le Petit Prince is a true masterpiece.

As for the film, it borrows some quite talented voices, including those of Marion Cotillard, Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, James Franco, Benicio Del Toro and Paul Giamatti. Must-see? Yes. Trailer? Yes.

P.S Sorry, for my lack of posts lately. Having started a new job is catching up with me, but I am starting to get the hang of it and hopefully will keep this blog up and going :)

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Love, according to your favourite classic heroes

Mr Darcy. Mr Thornton. Mr Rochester. I could think of a lot other "misters" that come from classic period pieces and have turned into the ultimate literature heroes. They are the original leading men, who have made women around the world fall in love with them decades before films were invented and the Hollywood leading man was introduced.

And as we know, they still make a lot of us swoon and wish we could go back in time just to find one of the original English gentlemen, standing at the end of the ball room, tall and proud…unsuspecting of the fact that he is about to be smitten by our grace, and will have no other choice but to admit to his feelings in a reserved, yet charming way, as he asks us to marry him…

Anyway.  

Without these literary characters we wouldn’t have enjoyed Colin Firth’s or Matthew MacFadyen’s wonderful performances as Mr Darcy. Or even worse…without Elizabeth Gaskell’s beautiful North and South, we would never have witnessed the perfection that is Richard Armitage in the skin of a 19^th century mill owner.

So, without further ado, let’s look at what made those men so inhumanly perfect. This is not a post describing their ideal features (although I would not mind reflecting on that some time, too). Instead, here is a look at some of the loveliest lines from classic period literature – thoughts from men, so hopelessly in love, they turn into the definition of a romantic hero.

North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell. Mr Thornton:

“He could not forget the touch of her arms around his neck, impatiently felt as it had been at the time; but now the recollection of her clinging defence of him, seemed to thrill him through and through,—to melt away every resolution, all power of self-control, as if it were wax before a fire.”

“One word more. You look as if you thought it tainted you to be loved by me. You cannot avoid it. Nay, I, if I would, cannot cleanse you from it. But I would not, if I could. I have never loved any woman before: my life has been too busy, my thoughts too much absorbed with other things. Now I love, and will love. But do not be afraid of too much expression on my part.”

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. Mr Darcy:

“In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.”

“You are too generous to trifle with me. If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes are unchanged; but one word from you will silence me on this subject for ever.”

Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë. Heathcliff: 

“Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you--haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe--I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!”

“If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day.”

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy. Levin:

“He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.”  

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë. Mr Rochester:

“I have little left in myself -- I must have you. The world may laugh -- may call me absurd, selfish -- but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.”

“You — you strange — you almost unearthly thing! — I love as my own flesh. You — poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are — I entreat to accept me as a husband.”

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton. Newland Archer:

“Each time you happen to me all over again.”

“He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth she walked on, and the way the sky and sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty.”

Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy. Angel: 

“How very lovable her face was to him. Yet there was nothing ethereal about it; all was real vitality, real warmth, real incarnation. And it was in her mouth that this culminated. Eyes almost as deep and speaking he had seen before, and cheeks perhaps as fair; brows as arched, a chin and throat almost as shapely; her mouth he had seen nothing to equal on the face of the earth. To a young man with the least fire in him that little upward lift in the middle of her red top lip was distracting, infatuating, maddening. He had never before seen a woman’s lips and teeth which forced upon his mind with such persistent iteration the old Elizabethan simile of roses filled with snow.

Perfect, he, as a lover, might have called them off-hand. But no — they were not perfect. And it was the touch of the imperfect upon the would-be perfect that gave the sweetness, because it was that which gave the humanity.”

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5 best: Quotes from Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens. His humour has proven timeless just as his books - some of the most loved ones in English literature. He is the brilliant writer who has left us with such endearing characters such as David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickelby. In this post, I have decided to share with you five of his best quotes (as there are so many good quotes from his work, choosing just five was a struggle, but you have to begin from somewhere).

1.  'Love, however, is very materially assisted by a warm and active imagination which has a long memory, and will thrive, for a considerable time, on very slight and sparing food.'

     - Nicholas Nickelby 

2. '...we know, Mr Weller - we, who are men of the world - that a good uniform must work its way with the women, sooner or later.'

    - 'The Gentleman in Blue' The Pickwick Papers

3. '... although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion, if you can keep him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complementing other people.'

     - Nicholas Nickelby

4. 'No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.'

    - Our Mutual Friend

5. 'Tell Mrs Gamp to come up-stairs,' said Mould. 'Now Mrs Gamp, what's your news?'

 The lady in question was by this time in the doorway, curtseying to Mrs Mould. At the same moment a peculiar fragrance was borne upon the breeze, as if a passing fairy had hiccoughed, and had previously been to a wine-vault.'

   - Martin Chuzzlewit

So, what are some of your favourite quotes from Dickens?

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Happiness through Books

There are a lot of things that can make people happy - a hug from a loved one, listening to a favourite piece of music, getting the keys to a new house...the list is endless. But then there is those of us that can find happiness just as easily in the smell of a new book...or of an old favourite.

“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy."

The perfect morning: The Great Gatsby and a cup of hot coffee

I can find happiness in reading The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald's classic story of the man who wants to relive the past, can be considered quite a sad read, but there is a beauty in those kind of books that cannot be conveyed in other types of literature. I am utterly in love with Jay Gatsby, I feel his longing for the past, and I want to go back in time and live in the roaring twenties. However, although this read always brings me some nostalgic feelings (and quite a lot of anger during the end of it), I also feel happy. And this is the kind of happiness that only a great book can bring you - for as sad as it may be, it still makes you read it again and again, and again.

“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” 

Another American classic, The Catcher in the Rye, is one more book that makes me happy. The humour, Holden Caufield, the language - there is nothing not to make you smile. This, of course, does not mean that this is the most cheerful book - truth is, in the right hands, it could be quite thought-provoking. Salinger is an author with such a unique style, he makes Holden sound not only believable, but as if everything he thinks, comes from the reader himself. Definitely a book, every young person should read at least once. And then re-read when they are older, for suddenly, the book has a new meaning, that you did not quite grasp the first time round. And it is a different meaning to every one.

So, what about you? Which books make you happy?

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