This document summarizes the adaptation of British literature into film over time. It notes that early films in the 1900s adapted novels and plays as cultural exports. From the 1930s-1950s, novels and plays were widely adapted as genre films that prioritized entertainment over historical accuracy. In the 1960s-1970s, "art films" brought social realism and auteur directors to adaptations of works like Look Back in Anger and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. The 1980s-1990s saw the rise of the "heritage film," prioritizing historical settings and costumes. Notable cycles included Merchant-Ivory adaptations of Austen and Forster. More recent adaptations from the late 1990s blend historical realism

1. MAIN FACTS AND
TRENDS
A Survey of Adaptation of UK
literature into film

2.  UK and national film
 British literature as cultural heritage for anglophone
countries.
 Novels and plays as sources for films: early pioneers
 Dickens: Scrooge or Marley’s Ghost (1901) Br.
 Alice in Wonderland (Hepworth and Stow, 1903) Br
 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1903)
 The Tempest (Stow, 1908)
 Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922)
 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide (Robertson, 1920) USA
 The last of the Mohicans (Brown and Tourneur, 1920) USA

3. Adaptation in the classic film period (1930s-1950s)
 Novels and plays used as sources of films. The adaptations
vary greatly in approach and scope but generally they are
done to meet the film tastes of the time (genre films).
 They were typically written by a team of scriptwriters and
produced in the established manner of the studio system.
 No faithful historical location, setting, etc. Realism or
historical accuracy are flaunted in favour of genre features
 Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847 - William Wyler,
1939), Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1860 - David
Lean, 1946).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXyo68s-f1E

4. The 1960s and 70s: influence of
art film and film auteurism
 The Angry Young Men tradition, aka kitchen-sink drama [a
tradition of social realism later continued in films such as
Trainspotting (Irvine Welsh 1993– Danny Boyle 1996), or
Control (Deborah Curtis 1995– Anton Corbijn 2005)]
 Tony Richardson with Look Back in Anger (1958) (John
Osborne, 1956)
 and A Taste of Honey (1961) (Shelagh Delaney 1958)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7LK_-rUfdU and The
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962) (Alan Sillitoe
1959)
 Karel Reisz Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
(Alan Sillitoe)
 The French Lieutenant’s Woman (J. Fowles 1969- K. Reisz,
1981): an experimental turning point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTO1wDxAAxc

5. A new tradition: The heritage film
(1980s and early 1990s)
 Typically “costume” or “period” film. The focus changes
from narrative to setting. Interest in depicting the past in
a celebratory manner.
 Careful display of historically accurate dress and décor,
in the line of “anthropological museum aesthetic.”
 Parallel TV movement: Brideshead Revisited (serial)
(Evelyn Waugh 1945 – Charles Sturridge & M. Lindsay
Hogg, 1981)
 Focus on contemporary approaches, including aspects of
feminism and sexuality but not so much from a
social/historical perspective. Accused of political
conservatism, specially in the view of the empire

6. Cycles: Merchant-Ivory
 A Room with a View (E.M. Forster, 1908 – James
Ivory 1985),
 Maurice (1987)
 Howards End (1992)
 The Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 -
Ivory 1993).
 The Bostonians (Henry James 1886 – Ivory 1984),
 Heat and Dust (Ruth Prawer, 1982)
 The Golden Bowl (2000)

7.  Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen 1811 –
Screenplay Emma Thomson, dir. Ang Lee 1995),
Emma (D. MacGrath, 1996)
Mansfield park (P Rozema, 1999)
Orlando (Virginia Woolf 1928 - Sally Potter
1992),

8.  Dickens
 Henry James
 Shakespeare
 1989 Henry V (K. Branagh)
 The Tempest (D. Jarman)
 As you like it (Christine Edzar, 1992
 Richard III (Loncraine, 1995)

9. The Post-heritage film (late 1990s onwards)
 Settings and décor range from faithful historical
realism to postmodern reinterpretations: Great
Expectations (Charles Dickens 1860 – Alfonso
Cuarón 1998) Romeo + Juliet (Baz Lurhman)
 A combination of both previous trends: e.g. Never
Let Me Go (K. Ishiguro 2005 – Mark Romanek
2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXiRZhDEo8A
