The burden of fidelity : from Frank Norris' McTeague to Erich von Stroheim's "Greed"
Date
1981
Authors
Land, Kevin Arthur
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Abstract
This study concerns what I consider to be the prototypical novel to film transition, that from Frank Norris' McTeague (1899) to Erich von Stroheim's "Greed" (1924). Prior to the removal by the releasing studio of three-quarters of its approximate nine and one-half hour original length, the film represented an uncompromising adaptation of a literary work to a visual medium. Because of its comprehensiveness, Stroheim's work was one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of cinema. While not proclaiming this project to be equally uncompromising, I do feel examines some of the major issues operating within the translation to the screen. Essentially, it is a study of the differences between two texts, the novel and screenplay, supplemented by the use of the extant film and a reconstruction of the first cut using production stills.
These differences involve changes imposed, whether accidentally or intentionally, on the original text during the transformation. These alterations, I believe, occur primarily for one of two reasons. First, they emerge as a result of the movement from one medium to another, that is, they are caused by the inherent fundamental differences between the two art forms. Second, in a more personal manner, they reflect the presence of another artist, one who, in the process of adapting the work, in some way , recreates it. Basically, this two-fold process of adaptation and recreation is described in the following study by reference to such traditionally literary features as character, techniques of characterization, symbolism and imagery, and point of view. In each of these areas, my study will consider several shifts in emphasis caused by the director's treatment of the novelist's material.