The cinematic rebirth of world classics

by Amal HEWAVISSENTI

The epic masterpieces of world literature, the legacy of the accomplished writers - have left such a powerful impact on the general readership that film makers have made a choice of them as possible plots for their films which in turn have earned them the due acclaim. What drove the movie makers to adopt those novels for their films, was the fact that the novels were characterized by cinematically dramatic elements to capture the popular interest. However, it is interesting to note that the same novel had multiple cinematic versions, each with unique feature introduced by different movie directors.

As a result, these productions have come to be films with broad appeal and have ever since preserved the originality of plot and characterisation of the relevant literary works, to interest and inspire millions of future fans. The long and the short of it is that the original novels came to be widely read due to the universal appeal and their cinematic versions.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte in three movie versions

1. Starring Lawrence Olivier as Heathcliff (1939)

2. Starring Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff (1970)

3. The famous BBC version in 1998

The plot revolves around the incidents which take shape within the two mansions of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The protagonist of the story, Heathcliff who is a starving gypsy boy, is brought to Wuthering Heights by a kind farmer, Earnshaw.

All the children of Earnshaw family develop an antipathy to Heathcliff except beautiful Catherine. As time went on Heathcliff and Catherine develop a poignant love for each other but Catherine is forced to marry Edgar Linton of Thrushcross Grange. Highly enraged and disappointed by the turn of events, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights and after sometime, reappears as a wealthy man bent on taking revenge from those who maltreated him.

By this time, Hindley has become a total bankrupt because of his heavy drinking and gambling.

Now that Mr. Earnshaw is long gone, Heathcliff, tactfully buys Wuthering Heights and starts the process of revenging on Hindley who ill-treated him when he was brought as an orphan, next his brutal revenge turns on Edgar Linton's sister Isabella whom he marries for the very purpose of avenging the disgrace brought upon him when Catherine was married to Edgar.

A story of revenge and passionate love.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

1 Film in 1934 - Virginia Bruce as Jane Eyre

- in 1944 - Joan Fantaine as Jane Eyre

in 1983 - Zelah Clerk as Jane Eyre

in 1996 - Charlotte Gainsbourg

Jane Eyre, an orphan is maltreated by her aunt and is finally sent to a boarding school where she trains herself to live a life of seclusion.

Later she serves in a house as a governess and is enraptured to find her love, after a life of loneliness, in Rochester who is the owner of the house. A bitter reality overwhelms her soon.

The reality that Rochester is an already married man makes her depart from him for good but the fact that Rochester is left alone because he becomes blind, makes her poignantly sympathetic to Rochester and she decides to go back to him.

Silas Marner - by George Elliot

Film starring Ben Kingsley as Silas Marner (1985)

Silas Marner, a weaver, is falsely charged with theft and is dispelled from his religious community. In the village of Ravelee, he adopts a reclusive life with no human contact whatsoever except for the money he makes by spinning. Money becomes his sole companion. One day he finds a baby lying asleep at his hearth and adopts her as his daughter who brings new life - new hopes and spiritual rebirth for him. This girl, Eppie is brought up with tremendous care and love by the "alien." Soon Marner discovers that the child has been fathered by Godfrey and everything in the story comes to a tragic turn of events but ends with a note of posterity.

Middlemarch - by George Elliot

Filmed in 1994 - Juliet Ambrey - Robert Hardy.

The plot is set against the backdrop of industrial revolution in the 19th century Britain. In the city of Middlemarch, Dorothea Brooke, a lady with liberationist attitudes, goes in quest of intellectual fulfilment and is socially forced to enter into an unsatisfying marriage with an elderly, educated man Casaubon. By a twist of fate, the honeymoon itself paves the way for her to develop an illicit relationship with Will Ladislaw, who is Casaubon's younger cousin. They fell victim to the complex forces and the former tranquil city of Middlemarch dramatically changes as a result of industrial revolution. The story shows how the industrial revolution transformed their lives and how much emotional impact it brings on their relationships.

The Count of Montechristo - by Alexandre Dumas

French novel filmed in 1934 - Robert Donat as Count of Montechristo

1974 - Richard Chamberlain as the Count

1996 - Guy Pearce as the count.

The very wedding day for Edmund Dante proves to be a great confusion when the police arrest him on false accusations and send him, without trial, to the death prison over the sea. In this infernal prison, he gets information and a map about a treasure from Faria who ultimately dies and Dante, in the guise of Faria's dead body, is thrown into the sea below. Thus he escapes from the prison, follows the traces of treasure, and assumes a new identity as the Count of Montechristo in order to avoid recognition. Now the "two handed engine" of his revenge is in action and Dante may come to everyone who has been responsible for the inhuman arrest on his wedding day!.

Frankenstein - by Mary Shelly

Laurence Olivier (Heath Cliff) and Merle Oberon (Cathy) in 1939's Wuthering Heights

Filmed in 1994 starring Kenneth Branagh as Victor Frankenstein and Robert de Nero as the creature.

Victor Frankenstein, an energetic scientist, plans to spawn a living creature to counter poise the power of death. Victor has gone through a traumatic ordeal of witnessing his mother dying while delivering a child and has decided to leave his ancestral home in Geneva to join a university. Professor Waldman, malicious in nature, inspires him in studies and laboratory experiments on possible theories of man-made creature.

Having collected limbs and other body parts cut from criminals in the mortuary, Victor finds himself to be the creator of a strange ogre which takes everybody by fright and is intent on obliterating mankind from the earth. Childhood experiences have toughened Victor into a man incapacitated to distinguish right from wrong and to inspire love and kindness in place of hatred and malice.

The last of the Mohicans - by James Fenimore Cooper

The basic events of this American novel unfold against the background where French are fighting lndians and the British are battling with Americans. Here, Hawkeye, with the assistance of Chingachgook and his son Uncas, the last survivors of the Mohican tribe, accompanies Cora and Alice (Who are the daughters of a senior British Officer) along a track highly vulnerable to enemy attacks. Hawkeye's heroism is unleashed when he manages to keep Alice and Cora safe from lethal ambushes by native Americans.

However Hawkeye gradually falls in love with Cora. Much of the story centers around their love and the tragedies which determine the course of the plot. Filmed in 1992 starring Daniel Days as Hawkeye and Madeleine Stowe as Cora.

The Bridge of the River Kwai - by Pierre Boulle

The Camp commander Colonel Saito gives a command to the British prisoners of war (PoWs) in Burma to build a bridge across the River Kwai to be used to transport Japanese Military weapons and ammunitions.

In the beginning, Colonel Nicholson in charge of British PoWs refuses the order but after second thoughts, he resolves to accomplish the task of building the bridge.

Quite contrary to their expectations, British and American intelligence officers jointly make secret plans to explode the bridge just as the train, on its maiden journey, runs over it. Yet Colonel Nicholson, who is positive and optimistic about his prowess as the mastermind of the unique bridge, attempts to countervail the conspirators' plans.

Flimed in 1957 - Alec Guinness as Colonel Nicholson William Holden as Shears (conspirator)

Anna Kerenina by Leo Tolstoy

Anna is the sensitive wife of a Russian nobleman and soon develops a powerful emotional relationship with Vronsky, an imposing army officer.

The relationship becomes so intense that she is forced to live with her secret lover deserting her husband and son. Vronsky soon confines her into a state of social outcast and Anna is trapped in the dilemma whether to live or commit suicide rather than living a death like life in the hostile and unforgiving society.

Films - in 1935 with Greta Garbo as Anna, Fredrick March as Vronsky.

In 1948 with Vivien Leigh as Anna, Ralph Richardson as Vronsky

In 1985 - Jacqueline Bisset as Anna.

(To be continued)