The Difference Between Books and Movies
It’s an age-old debate: was the movie as good as the book? It’s safe to say that with movies adapted from Henry James novels, the book is always better; unless you haven’t read the book. And since most people haven’t read Henry James, they content themselves with the movies to get an understanding of his work.
This evening, I watched Wings of the Dove again. This is a very difficult novel to put on the screen, and I feel that the director and screenwriter did quite a good job of making a movie that works on its own merits in a mere one hour and a half. But it’s not Henry James.
First of all, too much sex. Not that I’m averse to seeing Helena Bonham Carter naked, but the way that sex scene was used – at the very end of the movie, in what is the key scene of the story – was quite out of place. There is a sex scene in the book, when Kate and Merton are in Venice. In the movie, it’s a quickie, done standing up in an ill-lit passage, but in the book it’s an understated scene where nothing is described but the feelings that come after, the next day, with a series of euphemisms suggesting what had happened the night before:
It played for him – certainly in this prime afterglow – the part of a treasure kept at home in safety and sanctity, something he was sure of finding in its place when, with each return, he worked his heavy old key in the lock. The door had but to open for him to be with it again and for it to be all there; so intensely there that, as we say, no other act was possible to him than the renewed act, almost the hallucination, of intimacy.
But worst of all was the way the movie ends. Sorry if I give spoilers here, but, in the movie, Morten Densher returns to Venice, because he is in love with Millie’s memory:
“Your word of honour that you’re not in love with her memory.”
“Oh – her memory!”
The thing is, he never goes back to Venice, in the book, and the ending of The Wings of a Dove is one of those great open endings where you wonder what will happen; where the future of the characters is in your hands, in your mind. One of Henry’s great lines closes the book:
He heard her out in stillness, watching her face but not moving. Then he only said: “I’ll marry you, mind you, in an hour.”
“As we were?”
“As we were.”
But she turned to the door, and her headshake was now the end. “We shall never be again as we were!”
The movie is certainly worth watching, and if it gets people to read the book, all the better. But they’ll find a story that’s quite different – and less sexy – than the one on screen.
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Addendum: My wife watched the movie with me, and, discussing it today, she thought that it was just a lame romantic story. She did not at all perceive the evil of Kate Croy, it having been masked so much by the way the film was made. She saw more of the costumes and love story, but totally ignored the manipulations and machinations of Kate Croy. I tried to explain to my wife – who has never read any Henry James – that James’ characters are rarely what they seem on the surface, and that this movie only kept the surface. But even the surface of Kate’s actions is evil, so it’s more the blandness of the movie that hid the truth of her character, at least as far as my wife was concerned.
I haven’t read The Wings of the Dove nor seen the film adaptation, but I remember that Robin Wood, a renown film scholar, has analyzed this film in his book, which was published by British Film Institute. Wood usually writes interestingly yet in an easy to understand manner, so it’s probably a good place to start, if anyone’s interested in digging deeper into this movie.
http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Dove-BFI-Modern-Classics/dp/0851707343
That book seems to be out of print and quite expensive from Amazon.com, but at Amazon UK there are more affordable used copies.
I thought Jane Campion’s film of ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ was really wonderful, although it felt a little constricted – as if she never quite fully realised her vision. My impression after watching it was that Ms Campion must have been a real fan of the book – for me, it felt as if she really captured some of the mood I felt when I read the novel. I also thought that Barbara Hershey and Martin Donovan were outstanding as Serena Merle and Ralph Touchett.
It really doesn’t matter to me whether a film is true to the book it is based on – what interests me about the film is seeing how other people (the cast as well as the director) have connected with and interpreted the work, since that can add to one’s own interpretation and enjoyment of the book. What upsets me is when an interpretation hasn’t even been attempted and all that is delivered is a flat recreation of scenes.
I was thinking of that movie the other day; telling my non-Henry James reading wife that, as a movie on its own, it probably stands up much better than The Wings of a Dove. I last saw Portrait some 5 years ago, and what remained in my mind was how good Nicole Kidman was, how she totally owned that character.
I’ll watch it again, but not until I reread the novel. That may not be in the next few months. :-)
I’d really recommend you get the DVD version that has ‘the making of’ special feature, which shows just how Nicole Kidman went through the wringer to get that performance out – Jane Campion worked with her quite intensely. It also came out just what a (semi comedic) nightmare Shelley Winters was…
Come to think of it, apart from dear old Shelley and possibly dear old Johnny Gielgud playing Mr Touchett in that slightly dis-interested way of his, I enjoyed all the performances in that film – Osmond was a perfect part for John Malkovich and Viggo Mortensen and Christian Bale were suitably intense as Goodwood and Rosier.
Even the music in that movie was enjoyable . Think I may have to watch it again soon!
Thanks for this…I was just reflecting upon the ending of the book and the movie which I saw about five years ago and have found your comments helpful.