Paper vs. celluloid

Now, as mentioned before, the written word differs extremely from the blend of audio and video that is to be found in film. As a starting position they have in common that they both possess the feature of performing incredibly well in delivering stories (as well as feelings) to the readers or to the viewers. How good or bad these stories turn out most likely depends on the author or the director. Therefore, stories can be the same in film and literature. It is important to keep an eye on how they are dealt with in different kinds of media. The story can stay the same, but its form has to change to fully survive the transformation and to not get harmed in the process of being changed into something else. This does not only apply to the course of literary adaptation, but also to any other kind of adaptation. Be it radio play to TV show, TV show to graphic novel, graphic novel to play and play to anything else. The story or the single strand itself is universal and, if handled with care, convertible to almost everything imaginable.

In blurring the textual boundaries between print and film, adaptations must confront preconceived notions of authorship and improvisation. [...] While Dudley Andrew and other adaptation theorists tentatively offer alternatives to the explicit privileging of the written word over the cinematic experience, they do not suggest the possibility of considering a film adaptation as an “edition” or “version” of a text [...]. (Decker 2007: 142-143)

Thus, especially in the case of turning literary originals into motion pictures, what is there that has to be taken care of? What differentiates literature from film, or film from literature? In particular, what does change in the form how the story or the strand is received by the reader or the viewer - or how it is told by narrator or screenwriter and director?

Concluding from the above there are several things that have to be considered. It has to be regarded that the structure of written narratives can be far more complex than those of narratives in film. Complex movies can end up rather confusing to the viewer if they are not narrated in a well-regulated manner. However, sometimes a confusing narration in motion pictures can be utilized as a stylistic device for creating a certain kind of mood or effect. This is the case in some of David Lynch’s films, for example LOST HIGHWAY (Lynch 1997), MULHOLLAND DRIVE (Lynch 2001) or his newest film INLAND EMPIRE (Lynch 2006). Lynch for example uses those kinds of stylistic devices to create the effect of uncomfortableness and unpleasantness or to make the viewer feel lost.