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Filmmakers changes

lady_horbury 08 Oct 08 at 2:21 a.m. GMT

What do you think about  the liberties taken by filmmakers when they make a movie of a classic AC book?  I just fininshed reading Murder on the Links and I was amazed at the alterations.  The whole relationship between Cinderella and Hastings was changed.  Her personality was totally different.  The personality of Giraud was very different and the sparring between him and Poirot was less prominent.  The end  of the story was very different, however, at least they didn't change the person who committed the crime!  I think AC would enjoy seeing her stories and characters come to life on the screen, though I don't believe she would appreciate the changes!  What do you think?

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Noah 08 Oct 08 at 2:33 a.m. GMT

I think Christie would be like most authors today: she doesn't expect the adaptation to be word for word and wouldn't mind changes as long as the spirit remains the same.  People assume that every book comes out exactly as the author intended, but there are ideas that come out when making a film that the author never really thought of.

For example, Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" was made into the film "The Haunting."  When they were writing the screenplay, they worked closely with Jackson and one of the screenwriters had wondered while reading the book if it was really happening or if it was supposed to be just in Nell (the protagonist)'s head.  He asked Jackson if that was the case and she said, "I never thought of that, but that's a hell of an idea!"  And so was the movie lol.

squatty 08 Oct 08 at 6:13 p.m. GMT

AC was very protective of her work being film or staged whilst she was alive and there are reports of her not giving permission to several directors who wanted to film one of her books. There was a lot of discussion on the old forum about whether the "spirit" of her work remained in the modern adaptations. I've struggled to get on with the latest Marple production since the first episode (The Body In The Library) where the murderer was changed to a different character and they introduced a pointless same-sex relationship sub-plot.Neither of those major changes seemed to be in-keeping with the spirit of the original book and my feeling is AC would have been horrified.

ariadnepoirotmarple 08 Oct 08 at 7 p.m. GMT

Literature and cinema are different things. Books can't be put on a film exactly as they were written but there's certain things that can be avoid. One word: equilibrium. A cinema/tv adapt might be balanced. Filmmakers shouldn't add unnecessary things to the script, they only should make necessary changes, because there's a lot of scenes that can't be portrayed in a movie. I don't how would be Agatha Christie's reaction if she was still alive and if she saw the new adapts of her wonderful novels, I think she'd been horrified with the "Cards on the table" and "The body in the library" adapt because of the homossexuals affair. But there's another movies that weren't totally loyal and faithful to the novel and were pretty enjoyable because the story itself and the spirit remained and I think Christie wouldn't mind it.

lady_horbury 09 Oct 08 at 1 a.m. GMT

A couple of you bring up another interesting point.  Why do you think so many of the latest film adaptations have inserted homosexual relationships and connotations into the storylines?  I think it narrows the audience they could reach because it is such a turn-off to fans of a good, clean mystery classic.

Noah 09 Oct 08 at 2:42 a.m. GMT

Recently with most television, it's become the standard to have at least one gay character, usually recurring.  It doesn't matter if they furthers the plot, they're just there.  I find it rather ridiculous.  It feels like when networks have to have at least one person of a different race in each television show just to have "diversity."  It's more about political correctness than artistic vision.

I never really liked this at all.  Having many gay friends, I always felt like it was categorizing them into a certain group and treating them like they weren't "normal" human beings, which is just as bad as not having them at all.  The only time I ever approved of such a change was in Five Little Pigs, because I think it made more sense for that particular love triangle.

squatty 09 Oct 08 at 6:22 a.m. GMT

It's interesting that we all seem to have picked up on the tendency in the new productions to change a character's sexuality. My own feeling of when this was done in The Body In the Library was that the producers were looking for something to grab the headlines and plug the series. I think they also wanted to distance themselves from the Joan Hickson series, which by and large, remained true to the original books (They certainly didnt change the identity of the murderer). Another example is where the GM version of Marple iincluded several flashback scenes to an early love interest of Miss Marple. It may have added a bit of background colour but I believe, was once again used to sell the series. I remember the publicity at the time and a lot of the press focused on Marple's early love affair. Of course it is impossible to guess what AC might have made of these changes. One thing we do know though is that she hated the changes that were made in The Margaret Rutherford films and she admitted to feeling "pleasure2 when the series was scrapped.

Tweed 24 Oct 08 at 9:06 a.m. GMT

I hate the subtle or in some case not that film makers make, they should obviously stay true to the book. Joan Hicksons Miss Marple's were outstanding, I'm sure Agatha Christie would have admired them for their simple truth and spirit. Its such a shame the Geraldine McEwan 'Marple's' have felt the neccessity to change things and as you say mould characters into one, I for one think its very stupid and in bad taste!(A Dora Bunner, Renee Ashetton quote from Murder is Announced). I didnt particularly like to see Towards Zero with 'Marple' in it, why dont they make new productions of the lesser known detecting characters, Inspector Battle for example?