Favorite movie based on literature?

[Imogene]

What are your recs? Preferably, available on Netflix streaming .

And yes, I'm leaving this wide open for y'all.

[Imogene]

Hmm. Ok, that clearly didn't work.

<--- sunglasses to hide confused and ashamed expression of being shunned by the Lit/ Rhet forum

[Stately Plump]

I have no idea what is or is not on Netflix...

I think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is better as a movie than book. The English version (i.e., the translation) is awful; I thought the movie was fantastic.

I think Game of Thrones is faaaaaar better as a T.V. show than it was a book. The book is so poorly written it is literally laughable. The story is good and the characters are entertaining, but the writing itself--bah! I suppose part of the reason for my hatred of the book is that I both feel and believe that I could do better, which is never a good feeling to have while reading a book. The T.V. series, however, is fascinating.

Finally, the T.V. show Sherlock. All time favorite. Done.

[athousandlemmings]

Agree with Sherlock, of course. They only have the first season on there (at least last time I checked).

The version of Coetzee's Disgrace on Netflix (with John Malkovich) is pretty good, but it's one of those where you're doing yourself wrong if you don't read it first. Couldn't even finish the film version of Brief Interviews With Hideous Men. Considered watching Naked Lunch ...

[R Deckard]

Hmmm...

[kaykaykay]

pride and prejudice BBC version. I am not sure if you take it as a movie. BBC adoptions are all great.

[Datatape]

I'm counting it as literature because the book it was based on won the Pulitzer Prize - The Hours is one of my all-time favorite movies.

[Enzian]

Adaptation with Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep, and two Nicolas Cages (which, I know, seems like potentially three or four too many) is a blast. Not sure if The Orchid Thief is what you're looking for when you say "literature" but it's really only a point of departure for the film (which is self-consciously hyper-literary) anyway.

[Enzian]

Hmmm...

Oh, right. There's that little Ridley Scott film, too.

[Stately Plump]

I'm counting it as literature because the book it was based on won the Pulitzer Prize - The Hours is one of my all-time favorite movies.

Yes please.

[kaykaykay]

oh gosh I almost forgot about my absolute favorite: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

[wreckofthehope]

The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks version)

[TripWillis]

I've been racking my brain, but I'm having trouble thinking of one. I can say NOT Shortcuts, that's for sure. Boy you'd think Altman and Carver together would be quite a formidable duo, but that one just fell flat. The problem is that most of the great movies based on literature are not based on particularly "literary" stuff. Except, oo, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood!

There we go!

[margarethale]

I'm counting it as literature because the book it was based on won the Pulitzer Prize - The Hours is one of my all-time favorite movies.

The Hours is so completely amazing.

One of my favorites isn't based necessarily on a particular book, but it is inspired by the lives of literary figures. Pandemonium is based on the early lives of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. Most people I know either love it or hate it.

Edited May 14, 2012 by margarethale

[Silent_G]

Except, oo, No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood!

There we go!

Yes! I also have to add Brokeback Mountain. Great book and great movie, in my opinion. I also love the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (guilty pleasure Austen-lover, I must admit). Also, The Princess Bride, although the book and movie are completely different, I still love them both.

[menard]

I like both the Kubrick and Lynne versions of Lolita. Neither film really captures the sarcastic and absurd/comic personality of Humbert that I enjoy, but the films are interesting revisions of the novel. Salo is an interesting adaptation of 120 Days of Sodom. Sade's text is more gruesome in my imagination, but the somehow the film manages to be nearly as disturbing by setting the events in 20th century.

[veniente]

I'd have to say that there are many more terrible adaptations than admirably handled ones. That said, a few good (literary) adaptations that immediately spring to my mind include: Ford's A Single Man, Huston's Under the Volcano, Von Trier's Medea, Potter's Orlando, Cronenberg's Crash, Haneke's The Piano Teacher, Taymor's Titus, Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy, Visconti's The Leopard, and Kaufman's Unbearable Lightness of Being.

My guilty pleasures are American Psycho, Howl's Moving Castle, and Rumble Fish

[Two Espressos]

I'd have to say that there are many more terrible adaptations than admirably handled ones. That said, a few good (literary) adaptations that immediately spring to my mind include: Ford's A Single Man, Huston's Under the Volcano, Von Trier's Medea, Potter's Orlando, Cronenberg's Crash, Haneke's The Piano Teacher, Taymor's Titus, Winterbottom's Tristram Shandy, Visconti's The Leopard, and Kaufman's Unbearable Lightness of Being.

My guilty pleasures are American Psycho, Howl's Moving Castle, and Rumble Fish

I loved A Single Man, though I haven't read the novel on which it's based (isn't it by Isherwood? I cannot remember).

I also hated the movie, because I was single at the time (still am, lol) and it made me feel lonely as shit-- "An aging, gay, horribly sad English professor...christ, that's going to be me!"

Edited May 15, 2012 by Two Espressos

[figuredso]

A close tie between Barfly and Total Eclipse.

[Sanchéz]

Maybe this is a bit of a wildcard, but I'm a huge fan of Burton and August's adaptation of Daniel Wallace's Big Fish. It may be debatable whether or not Wallace is "literature" (though I would argue he's one of the more creative voices of this generation of writers...all four of his novels engage narrative in such a playful way, but underneath it all, there's still a touching reverence for the act of storytelling), but I found this adaptation to be so visually and cinematically pronounced...a declaration of the power of film narrative. What Big Fish was to Burton is what Hugo was to Scorsese...an incredibly personal film and love letter to two things they deeply care about: storytelling and the medium of cinema. Not to mention, the film is bolstered by wonderful performances by Finney, Lange, McGregor, Cotillard, and Crudup.

[R Deckard]

Blade Runner (1982/2007)

Children of Men (2006)

There Will Be Blood (2007)

[eatriceorgohome]

Jesus' Son - the collection and film are both wonderful.

[Augusta]

I watched the BBC adaptation of Gaskell's North and South during a Victorian Lit class and adored it so much that I bought the DVDs.

[Imogene]

You guys rocked this. Some great ideas here I hadn't thought of/known about -- added to my queue.

(I want to +1 to Big Fish, A Single Man, Princess Bride, and the BBC versions of P&P and N&S)

I also wanted to throw out some suggestions here, too:

The old BBC mini-series version of Tinker Tailor, with Alec Guinness

Where the Wild Things Are (RIP, Maurice! -- or, I should say, let the wild rumpus begin, for eternity)

almost any Merchant Ivory production (though I did not like The Golden Bowl)

The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles)

[Augusta]

I just remembered watching the Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged) performed by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. If you're well-versed in Shakespeare and in need of a good laugh, check it out. I searched Netflix's website, and it is in their library.