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Author
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Comment
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Kerrie
Moderator
(2/25/03 9:07 am)
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Film adaptations we'd like to see...
I've been watching my G/G fairy tales and searching for trailers for more recent FT film adaptions to add to my media files, and I was thinking about other tales that have yet to be adapted to film. Perhaps it's just the length of my hair these days that's getting to me, but I think Rapunzel would be a wonderful tale to adapt again (I do not count Barbie), perhaps based on Zel, by Donna Jo Napoli. After hearing about Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (unfortunately not on DVD yet), I'd like to see more of these serious adaptations. Perhaps Sleeping Beauty or Donkeyskin would make good film adaptations as well.
Jane, has anyone approached you about Briar Rose?
What film adaptations would others like to see made?
Sugarplum dreams,
Kerrie
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Jess
Unregistered User
(2/25/03 9:32 am)
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Donkeyskin
There is an adaptation of Donkeyskin already an older one in French. If you haven't seen it, you should.
Jess
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Kerrie
Moderator
(2/25/03 9:41 am)
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Re: Donkeyskin
Oh, is that the one with Catherine Deneuve? I can never find it
anywhere- not my local video store, not even through Netflix.
I guess I'm hoping for adaptations that would be more readliy available
to the general public; though I suppose in time, they all must fade
to the background.
I wish I had cable.
Sugarplum dreams,
Kerrie
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Kevin
Smith
Registered User
(2/25/03 9:54 am)
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hmm
I'd quite like to see the new Italian version of Pinocchio. It didn't get a theatrical release in the UK unfortunately, so I will have to seek out a DVD version with subtitles.
It should be interesting, because having recently read Carloddi's Pinocchio it seems one of the most surreal literary fairy tales in existence.
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swood
Unregistered User
(2/25/03 10:33 am)
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Frog Prince
I can't figure out why the D***** Co. has never tried to adapt the Frog Prince or Puss in Books. Instead they always insert pyramids of singing animals into movies where they don't belong.
Sarah
*ducks beneath volleys of abuse launched at the 'D' word
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Kerrie
Moderator
(2/25/03 10:50 am)
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Froggies...
Actually, there have been three versions:
1) Tales from Muppetland: The Frog Prince (1972) "NI'm ineteen, nI'm ineteen..." Features our favorite froggies, Kermit and Robin. I still have the record!
2) The Frog Prince(1988 ) Golan/Globus version with Aileen Quinn and Helen Hunt.
3) Shelley Duvall's "Faerie Tale Theatre" (1982) [TV-Series
1982-1987] Robin Williams and Teri Garr starred in this one. I remember
it fondly. A bit of warning: I think there may be partial nudity
when he becomes the prince, but I can't recall exactly.
I would like to see one that is closer to the original tale though.
Sugarplum dreams,
Kerrie
(who is now wondering how many tales have not had film adaptations)
Edited by: Kerrie at: 2/25/03 11:01:01 am
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arsekickingrl
Registered User
(2/25/03 12:18 pm)
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.
Has there ever been a feature length version of Bluebeard? Disney obviously wouldn't touch it (nor should they). There seems to be a lot of material for such a scenario, though.
And I don't think versions of Jane Eyre count, either --
though I personally would love to see an "update" of that story.
In my children's literature class recently the subject was Disney and fairy tales, and it was brought up that the tales most often chosen for adaptation by Disney centered around princes and princesses or focused with the goal of becoming a prince or princess or had the protagonist as such. Therefore, tales that have animals as protagonists (Puss In Boots, The Frog Prince) or ones in which they don't feature at all (Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood) aren't made into movies.
Of course, this is just a theory by some undergraduate English majors, so who knows . . .
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(2/25/03 6:24 pm)
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Nightingale and D***** : )
The most recently kicked around fairy tale at Disney was The Nightingale, but I haven't heard any scuttlebutt in months about it. Since most of the 2-D animation teams at Disney are now laid-off, this project might be permanently shelved. Of course, the version that was described to me by some animator friends did not resemble the Andersen tale at all.
I would most like to see a Rapunzel or Donkeyskin film. Kerrie, I haven't seen the Deneuve version either. I really need to look for it around here in LA where there are some rare movies to be found in hole in the wall video shops.
And for fans, the Criterion DVD of Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast has just been released. It is selling well on Amazon.
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
Heidi
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Gregor9
Registered User
(2/26/03 6:45 am)
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Re: Bluebeard
Arsekickingrl,
There has been at least one film version of "Bluebeard." It's pretty embarrassing and sexist on a grand guignol scale. It was made by Edvard Dymytrk and starred Richard Burton in the title role, with a bevy of 1970s beauties as his victims--Raquel Welch, Marilu Tolo, and (god help us all) Joey Heatherton. The tale was recast into the early 1930s with Bluebeard a fascist and budding Nazi, who also happened to be impotent, and so killed each woman as she became a sexual threat...except that the film is so busy trying to be a comedy that all of this plot evaporates under attempts to make the women's deaths amusing. About all the film has in the plus column is a terrific score by Ennio Morricone.
Greg
P.S. If anyone wants to film FITCHER'S BRIDES, my rendition of Bluebeard, please try to get Daniel Day Lewis for the lead. Thanks.
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allysonrosen
Registered User
(2/26/03 1:33 pm)
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Grimm-tastic!
Hi, all...
I hope I am not repeating old news, but did you know that Terry Gilliam is currently working on a movie about the Brothers Grimm?
www.smart.co.uk/dreams/
"The action-adventure tale revolving around the legendary German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is set to start shooting around Prague in June. Written by The Ring scribe Ehren Kruger, the fictional plot has the folklore collectors, now called Jake and Will, traveling from village to village pretending to protect townsfolk from enchanted creatures and pulling off exorcisms. They are put to the test when they encounter a real magical curse, requiring genuine courage."
Needless to say, I am soooo looking forward to that...
Allyson
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Kevin
Smith
Registered User
(2/27/03 2:21 am)
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oh no!
Terry Gilliam's a genius, but I do hope that he doesn't film that project. My enjoyment of it would be hindered by the fact that somewhere in the back of my mind there'd be a voice saying "they were philologists, and they didn't wander round from village to village". That said, it does sound like a great approach to the subject, especially if it's anything like the unfairly maligned Baron Munchausen.
Has anyone else seen the film , "The wonderful world of the Brothers Grimm", by the way?
Terrible, just, terrible.
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swood
Registered User
(2/27/03 6:33 am)
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Re: oh no!
It could very well go the way of Don Quixote...
I think there is a fascinating trend of invention in movies. The description of this Grimm film sounds like the Bros. Coen "O Brother Where Art Thou" in its total invention of background information.
I loved O Brother, but as the Coen Bros. admitted, they had never *actually* read the Odyssey. The result was a beautiful film, in some ways thematically similar, but not a strict retelling in the way we've come to know it.
I sometimes wonder if the "oral tradition" has been replaced by a sort of cultural saturation point, where everyone knows the stories without really having been specifically told or read them.
I experienced this over the summer when I read A Tale of Two Cities for the first time. There were no surprises. I simply couldn't be a well educated person living in the 21C without knowing all the salient plot points and a good number of the speeches. Reading it after all of this time was a let down, really, because I had imagined it being so much better.
Any thoughts?
Sarah
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Kevin
Smith
Registered User
(2/27/03 12:03 pm)
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exactly
I think you're exactly right. It's something that Mikhail Bakhtin called "epic distance", as he points out, he doesn't go on to tell the story of the Trojan horse in The Iliad precisely because he knows his audience has already heard it. Calling a character Odysseus or Ulysses brings up the idea of the odyssey even to those of moderate reading competence who may never have read it. I'm not entirely sure I believe them when they say they haven't read it though (they have a habit of lying, remember the Fargo "based on a true story thing), but if the incidents that roughly correspond to the Homeric epic (lemme see, the Cyclops, the Lotus Eaters, the Sirens, the muses, Penelope) were really written without consulting Homer that definitely proves your theory.
The truly ironic thing about O Brother is that here in the UK some wily book publishers released versions of Homer's Odyssey with pictures of George Clooney on the front.
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snowdrop
Unregistered User
(2/28/03 7:43 am)
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TAM LIN!!
I would LOVE to see Pamela Dean's version of "Tam Lin"
filmed, but it would have to be a miniseries event on TNT, like
"The Mists of Avalon". And of course, if anyone decided
they would like to undertake filming any fairy tale, I would be
more than happy to act in it!
I also think "Fitcher's Brides" would be great to watch.
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allysonrosen
Registered User
(2/28/03 8:56 am)
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Re: exactly
This "epic distance" idea is pretty interesting... I need to read up on it. As someone who writes theatre pieces that always have some kind of foundation in myth or folklore, I am counting on the "epic distance" of my audience...even if they've only heard the story of Rapunzel once in their lives, I count on them understanding intellectually and viscerally when I say "I feel like a princess in a tower!" (or do I have it reversed...is it epic distance if they understand intellectually and viscerally if I say "I feel like Rapunzel!"?)
Anyway, I personally have no issue with Terry Gilliam telling an imaginative, if not accurate, story about the Brothers Grimm...folklore is for the folk, and what excites me about it is how people take ownership of the stories and re-invent them. A lot of "fairy tale" movies out there are wonderful and faithful adaptations of the "old tales" before the advent of D1$^**. The Sigourney Weaver "Snow White" comes to mind....you can tell there was a folklore expert or enthusiastat work on the movie. At the same time, its just as exciting to see what insight a non-traditional re-telling of the tales have to offer.
I can't wait to see what springs from the slightly askew imagination of Terry Gilliam.
Allyson
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Jess
Unregistered User
(2/28/03 9:56 pm)
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Fitcher's, etc.
Greg: Have you been approached? And who would you have play the girls? Enjoyed the book - loved the end. DDLewis would be interesting in the lead role. Did you think of that afterward or while you were writing? I ask because as I toil through my novel I keep thinking of a score written by Laurence Hobgood, but the main characters are more amalgamations of people I know, or even me, but definitely not actors.
Heidi: Have you seen the newly released DVD of Coucteau's (sp?) B & the B? Is it clean? I tried numerous times to rent the video - it was always out and then lost. Sigh. Maybe I can get our video store to buy the DVD! It is on many people's best 100 movies lists.
Kerrie: Yes, that is the Catherine Deneuve version of Donkeyskin - recommended earlier by Charles Vess, I believe.
To all: I still love the White Cat. Don't ask me why, but it remains
my "first love". I guess I would like to see a movie version
of it more than any other. But I would love to see it start with
the Cat's enchantment, rather than that be a flashback. It is funny
how many fairytales start with the mother getting in trouble craving
something during pregnancy. I am sooo glad I didn't have any of
those cravings during mine. I have a hard enough time avoiding chocolate
and coffee.
Jess
Jess
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Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(3/1/03 10:15 am)
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Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast
Jess,
I haven't seen the new DVD yet and missed out on the first edition of it since it sold out rather quickly. However, I have been impressed with the other Criterion DVDs I have viewed--this edition is fully restored and uses high definition transfer. (We own "Seven Samurai" since it is one of John's favorites.) This second edition is supposed to be even bigger and better than the first edition unless you want the film imperfections that make it feel more "real" according to some fans. Of course, the price is amazingly high, but I imagine this is the best way to view it, even over a scratchy theatre print, which is the first way I saw it years ago. There is also quite a bit of bonus material on the DVD to make it more interesting for "must know everything" people like myself.
www.amazon.com/exec/obido...lalufairyt
I am hoping Deneuve's "Donkeyskin" will make it onto DVD in the next few years. More and more movies are appearing now, so we might be surprised. I buy the DVDs for the library and keep up with most of the upcoming titles that way.
Heidi
Edited by: Heidi Anne Heiner at: 3/1/03 10:23:22 am
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swood
Registered User
(3/1/03 11:28 am)
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Tam Lin
I would love to see Pamela Dean's Tam Lin back in print. I put the NYPL only copy on hold 6 mos ago and still haven't gotten hold of it!
Sarah
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Angel
Feather
Registered User
(3/5/03 11:02 am)
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The Six Swans
First of all, Tam Lin would make a great movie: romantic with an empowered female who frees her true love. I also would like to see a movie of the 6 Swans- my favorite Andersen tale.
But on a note of black humor, we already have a real world version of the 3 little pigs with G. Bush as the big bad wolf and Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts as the 3 little pigs- they keep getting away!
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(3/6/03 3:57 am)
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BRIAR ROSE
Briar Rose keeps getting optioned and then. . .nothing.
It's Kirstin Dunst's favorite book (says so on her website) so I would hope she'd like to do it. But who knows. . .
Jane
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swood
Unregistered User
(3/6/03 7:13 am)
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Briar Rose
Jane,
Have any of your books been made into films?
Sarah
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