Translation

A successful film translation all begins with the correct understanding of the written work. Next is the addition or subtraction of details to make the film flow, but trying not to alter the storyline. It ultimately ends up with ability fo make the movie all go smoothly and having a plot. Unfortunetly, this plot is not always the same as the original one.

I believe three critia a film must fill to be successfully translated are that the screenwriter and/or director should understand and try to protray the same feel as author did in the original text, that the film has a beginning, middle substance, and an ending, and that although trying to stay true to the original text and subject matter, details be added or deleted to make words into an actual flowing movie. Without these three things, the book and the movie will be so different that the only thing they end up having in common is the name, the movie will make no sense, and it won't flow or have a significant plot/message.

Adaptation

My reaction to watching Adaptation was, in one word, shock. The whole movie, almost nothing happens. It is just Charlie struggling to write a screenplay about flowers, which is basically writing a screenplay about absolutely nothing. Then all of a sudden, the ending of the movie comes, and it's pure craziness all over the place. There's drugs, love affairs, sex, murder, death, and ALLIGATORS! It makes no sense, but yet in a mixed up way, it does. The movie itself is hard to follow because it does back and forth from when Orleans was writing the book to after when Charlie is writing the screenplay, until eventually the two different times meet up, and you don't know which is which.

The problems the screenwriter faces seem quite challenging to me. No doubt he must have been creative to take the job, but who in their right mind makes a film just about flowers? As the movie shows, it is impossible, unless other elements are added into the story. Another problem he has in writing the screenplay is making an ending. If the movie is just about flowers, there is no substance, which leads to no ending. So in order to find an ending, he follows the author of the book. And where does that get him? In a swamp with cuts and bruises, the police, and with a dead brother. I find it terribly ironic, in the most melodramatic way.