Twisting the plot: When novelists take to the big screen

Successful film adaptations come from a deep aesthetic awareness of the distinct processes and relative strengths within the two art forms.

A movie — when well-adapted from a novel — requires a clear vision of the type and amount of written-word material suitable to create a cinematic masterpiece. It needs to be appreciated in its own right, without owing its success to the original.

How a book can claim the screen as its own

The best adapted films leave the novel as a fully-fledged and independent work of art, leaving it free to fulfil the specific aesthetic conditions particular to writing. They also thrive in their own right on screen — when judged on their own cinematic merits — distinct from the factors that inspired the readers of the novel.

While the art forms move in parallel, there are moments where they intersect. These crossover points do not just come when books are adapted for the screen.

A handful of brilliant novelists, with a gift for aesthetic awareness, show how it can work when writing screenplays completely unrelated to their previous works.

Suspicion, caution and a delicate rapport

The reciprocal relationship between the two art forms appears in both. Many films — biopics or otherwise — chose writers as their main characters.

Likewise, the plots of many novels not only discuss cinema or depict filmmakers but also adapt cinematic techniques and the visual language specific to filmmaking. Still, the rapport between the two art forms can be delicate and coloured with suspicion and caution.

Some famous writers believe film adaptations will always distort the novels on which they are based, however creative and brilliant the work undertaken to get the book on the screen

This scathing view drove many an author to refuse cinematic adaptation of their novels despite tempting financial offers.

Film adaptations turned down

Columbian novelist Gabriel García Márquez emphatically turned down several lucrative offers by global production companies to turn his acclaimed novel 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' into what was sure to be a blockbuster movie.

On his part, Mexican-American actor Anthony Quinn went as far as coaxing the writer into approving a film adaptation which Quinn himself would produce, but to no avail.

Some filmmakers, too, are apprehensive and prefer that cinema operates independently. For them, novels are not the source of their creativity. As such, some directors write the scripts of their films on their own, while others do not use formal screenplays altogether.

A multitude of films have picked up novels, novelists have also used cinema in their written work, taking elements of the 'seventh art' into their plots or picking up its techniques, as well as going on to make their own films.

Writers-turned-directors

French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet is a prime example. An agricultural engineer by training and a pioneer of the 1960s Nouveau Roman trend, this writer-turned-director defended filmmaking that departs from fiction to portrays straightforward day-to-day reality.

His films show everyday life, captured in miniscule detail by his camera, paying little heed to cinema's theatrical demands. He launched his directing career with 'The Immortal One' in 1962, and went on to direct eight other films, the last of which was 'It's Gradiva Who Is Calling You' in 2006.

The relationship between Robbe-Grillet's novels and films is indisputable. His experiments as a director enriched his novels, as he forged a creative path based on the daily reality of his characters, rather than following a broader vision.

He turned his back on the culture of shooting in ready-made studios and approached the process with great honesty in the public space, drawing the audience into the filmmaking process.

Before Robbe-Grillet, French novelist Marcel Pagnol had also directed films, most of which did not depart much from his novels' recurrent themes of life in the Provençal countryside.

France's Provence was the backdrop of his famous movie 'The Baker's Wife' (1938), which is based on the novel Jean le Bleu byfellow writer Jean Giono, who in turn dabbled in directing with his film 'Crésusin' in 1960.

André Malraux also experimented with directing in 1945 with his only movie 'Man's Hope,' based on his eponymous novel about the Spanish Civil War.

On his part, novelist, playwright, and poet Jean Cocteau approached cinema like an aesthetic adventure. He directed many films, his first being 'The Blood of a Poet' (1930), but perhaps his most significant is 'Beauty and the Beast' (1945), which set him up as a pioneering filmmaker.

Thus, in his later movies, like 'Orpheus' (1950), Cocteau combined the elements of magic, legend, and surrealism, tearing down the walls between reality and dreams and upending the commercial film traditions that Hollywood had established.

Marguerite Duras was one of the brightest female writers who turned to cinema.

The French novelist wrote screenplays based off her most famous novels, such as 'Hiroshima mon amour' (1959), directed by Alain Resnais, but also directed 19 films, the most notable of which is 'India Song' (1975).

Margaret Duras' films and novels reflect her audacity to unconditionally depict sensual experiences, which elevates her own life experiences and fragile existence to a sort of self-centred but universal poetry.

She explained her philosophy and unique vision in extensive dialogues with French-Swiss film director Jean-Luc Godard.

Beyond France, Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima's experience with cinema is also worth mentioning. In 1966, Mishima and Masaki Domoto co-directed the short feature film 'Patriotism,' based on the writer's short story about a secret society of young officers revolting against the corrupt regime.

The main character, Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama, portrayed in the movie by the writer himself, is a member of this secret society, but does not take part in the uprising to be able to celebrate his marriage.

In the tense last moments of the film, Takeyama, faced with the dilemma of fighting his comrades or disobeying military orders, decides to honour his friends and homeland by committing seppuku, a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide, which the writer would go on to actually commit off screen five years later.

On the African front, Senegalese novelist Ousmane Sembène became a film director after studying cinema in Moscow. He directed 12 films which became known for their political boldness and rich mixture of drama and comedy.

However, Sembène's boldness came at a cost.

Aside from a travel ban that prevented him from receiving his award from the Venice Film Festival, he was banned from directing for 10 years. However, his strong comeback in 2004 with his iconic film 'Moolaadé' about female circumcision earned him international fame.

In America, Paul Auster is a remarkable contemporary novelist who ventured into cinema and directed three feature films.

'Smoke' (1995), which Auster co-directed with Wayne Wang, is based on his masterpiece 'Auggie Wren's Christmas Story,' which takes place entirely in a Brooklyn cigarette shop. The film won Auster the Independent Spirit Award for best screenplay.

He also co-directed with Wang 'Blue in the Face' and 'Lulu on the Bridge' (1997) which tells the story of a jazz musician shot on stage.

Auster then left directing, claiming to retire, but returned in 2007 with his fourth film 'The Inner Life of Martin Frost,' inspired by Auster's life, especially his childhood.

Before Auster, American novelist Susan Sontag had also tried her hand at film directing, oscillating between feature films and documentaries with aesthetic interests and bold themes. She mixed radical politics with the intimate and personal, dark realism with poetry, and chaotic surrealism with capricious anti-patriarchy. 

Sontag directed five films: 'Duet for Cannibals'(1969), 'Brother Carl(1971)', 'Promised Lands(1974)', 'Letter from Venice' (1983), and the documentary 'Waiting for Godot... in Sarajevo' which she co-directed with Nicole Stéphane.

Famous American writer Stephen King also tried his hand at directing with 'Maximum Overdrive' (1986), based off his short story 'Truck'. The film depicts three scary days in which machines like trucks, radios, and vending machines come alive and kill humans after Earth crosses an unknown comet.

King's attempt at directing came in response to what he saw as disloyal adaptations of his original novels 'Christine' and 'The Shining' from directors John Carpenter and Stanley Kubrick respectively.

Austrian writer Peter Handke directed a screen adaptation of his novel 'The Left-Handed Woman' in 1977. The film explores the struggle with loneliness and the severity of its complications which ensue after Marianne asks her husband Bruno to leave her and their son alone.

Handke did not stop at this attempt and followed it with 'The Absence' in 1992, based on his novel of the same title. The film follows the story of a soldier, a gambler, a woman, and an elderly man who guides them on a journey of discovery.

Despite sharing elements of their personal stories in their conversations, and sometimes in monologues, the chaos of their collective intersection ends in cruel loneliness.

Chilean author Antonio Skármeta is also famous for directing four films: 'Residence Permit' (1978), 'The Postman', 'If We Lived Together'(1983), and 'Farewell to Berlin' (1984).

His works explore the themes of exile, political persecution, and Chile's plight under a corrupt regime, predicting an anxious future where hope and nostalgia still find a place to grow.

Another Chilean writer who ventured into the world of films is Luis Sepúlveda, with 'Living in Los 17' (1986), 'Green Heart' (2004), and his most notable work, 'Nowhere' (2002), which reflects the situation in his native Chile under military dictatorship.

The film follows the story of a group of dissidents captured by the police and taken to an unknown camp as their comrades hatch a plan to break them out.

On his part, Czechian novelist Vàclav Havel decided to approach political drama with dark humour with the movie 'Leaving' (2011), which highlights the moral, political, and economic decadence of a battle between a former chancellor and his successor.

Likewise, Chinese novelist Dai Sijie took the path of dark humour in his direction of 'Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress' (2002), inspired by his eponymous novel that recounts the adventures of two young Chinese men with a seamstress passionate about Balzac's books, which were banned under Mao.

French novelist Michel Houellebecq explored in the film adaptation of his novel 'The Possibility of an Island' (2005) the issue of cloning and its impact on humanity.

Dozens of other contemporary authors, like Neil Gaiman, Atiq Rahimi, Jaafar Yaacoub, and Youssef Fadel, also had filmmaking adventures, contributing like others before them to the rich history of cinema not only as screenwriters, but also as directors.