The books on which films are made are very numerous and diverse. When the directors undertake to film an interesting work, the picture is either bad or good, or simply corresponding to its original source.
What books are we interested in?
The books themselves, on which films were shot, are also of different quality. Probably based on outstanding works, it’s more difficult to shoot. Therefore, many directors prefer to carefully handle the classics. Unknown books on which films are made are quite numerous today. They are treated more boldly. They often form the basis of a successful picture. We will not once again describe the great books on which films have been made. Many of them probably know the reader. Let us dwell on tapes that are based on not very outstanding works. The filmmakers who are the authors of the pictures below exceeded in their work literary originals, many of which were so bad that it is not clear why the directors even wanted to take on their screen version.
"Dizziness"
Movies made from books, we begin to describe with the picture "Dizziness". This tape was shot in the USA in 1958. The film is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Dizzy Genres: Thriller, Detective, Romance. Starring James Stewart, Barbara Bel Geddes, Kim Novak, Henry John, Tom Helmore.
Of course, it cannot be said that the detective "Among the Dead" by Boileau-Naserzhak is a bad book. But who knew that Hitchcock would make a film based on it, which removed Citizen Kane from first place in 1958? In the critics' rating compiled by the British Institute for Cinematography, Citizen Kane lost to Dizziness.
"Face with a scar"
Back in 1932, this film appeared in the United States. Its directors are Richard Rosson and Howard Hawks. By genre it is noir, crime, drama. Roles in it were performed by Ann Dvorak, Paul Mooney, Osgood Perkins, Karen Morley, S. Henry Gordon.
Also the film of the same name was released in 1981 in the United States. The director of the picture is Brian De Palma. Film genres: thriller, crime, drama. Starring Stephen Bauer, Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Lodge and others.
Writer Maurice Koons is said to have written a novel under the pseudonym Armitage Trail. The work was based on the life history of Italian gangsters, in particular Al Capone. At the same time, all laurels went to Howard Hawks’s film “A Scarface,” which shocked the audience at that time with a frank display of violent scenes (even the name of the censors at that time was considered unacceptable). Half a century later, a remake was created by Brian de Palma, in which Al Pacino showed his hero, a drug dealer from Cuba, so attractive and at the same time frightening that with a mixture of admiration and horror, people left the auditorium. Movie connoisseurs still remember these names: De Palma, Paul Mooney, Hawks, Pacino. But the name of Maurice Koons has long been forgotten.
"The invasion of the bodies of the bodies"
We continue to describe films made from books. In 1956, the United States premiered this picture, directed by Don Siegel. By genre, it's fantastic, horror. Roles in it were played by Dana Winter, Kevin McCarthy, King Dolovan, Larry Gates, Carolyn Jones.
Another film adaptation, also American, appeared in 1978. The director of the picture is Philip Kaufman. The genre is horror, detective story, science fiction. The film starred Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright.
And another remake, which is certainly worth mentioning, is the work of 1993, also made in the USA. This time the director of the picture was Abel Ferrara. By genre, it belongs to science fiction, horror, detective story, thriller. Starring Terry Kinney, Gabrielle Anwar, Riley Murphy, Billy Worth, Meg Tilly.
Thanks to the plot of the book, on which the films of interest to us were shot, these films released in a genre that is not very close to reality speak more about their era than any documentary film.
Three versions of the picture commented on the public climate and political paranoia of the time, telling the same terrible story about the capture of our planet by predatory creatures, telling differently. The literary basis of the same name written by Jack Fini outside the narrow circle of connoisseurs is practically unknown and does not at all pretend to describe the society, the contemporary author. This happened, perhaps because Kaufman and Siegel ended their films with the enslavement of the Earth, while Finney offered a boring and banal happy ending.
"Psycho"
After analyzing various paintings, we selected the best films made from books. Their list includes the following work. Psycho is an American painting released in 1960. Its director was Alfred Hitchcock. Genres: Horror, Detective, Thriller. Starred in the film Vera Miles, Anthony Perkins, Janet Lee, John Gavin, Martin Bolsam.
This is the second Hitchcock movie on our list. The well-known director risked his own money, because he was not at all eager to film a criminal semi-documentary novel by Robert Bloch at a film studio, which tells about a psychopathic killer suffering from an oedipal complex. Hitchcock gave Anthony Perkins, the nervous handsome, the role of the villain who killed the heroine Janet Lee, the main star, in the first third of this film. "Psycho" is one of the most cited paintings in the history of cinema.
Chapaev
You can describe various films made from books for a long time. The list is huge. We present only the most interesting. Among the most curious films can be attributed to "Chapaeva." This is a domestic tape, released in 1934 in the USSR. The Vasilyevs took it off. By genre, this film is a drama. It was played by Varvara Myasnikov, Boris Babochkin, Vyacheslav Volkov, Illarion Pevtsov, Nikolai Simonov.
The Vasiliev brothers shot their popular hit, based on the novel by Dmitry Furmanov, written in 1923. This picture was awarded at the first Moscow Film Festival with the first prize personally by Sergei Eisenstein. Thanks to the film adaptation, folklore got the images of Chapaev and Petka, his adjutant. They went into jokes. Of course, the best films made from books in our country include this work.
"9 1/2 weeks"
The film was released in the USA in 1986. This is melodrama, drama. Starring Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, David Margulies, Margaret Whitton and others.
Films based on books are sometimes quite frank, like the following picture. It tells about a gallery owner, a blonde who, during a stormy relationship with a businessman, completely lost herself. The picture was in the eighties in Russia hit the video halls. In Hollywood, she is considered one of the first in the history of erotic films for a new generation, calmly relating to the image on the screen of bed scenes. Although the picture was somewhat similar to a set of sexual episodes, beautifully shot, it turns out to have a literary basis - a novel with the appropriate name, created by writer Elizabeth McNill. If the work was successful, it could be compared with “50 Shades of Gray,” a very popular novel today.
Shield and Sword
"What films were made from books other than those described?" - you ask. Well, if you still have not decided what to see, we offer you an overview of another picture. In 1968, in the USSR, Vladimir Basov shot a film called "Shield and Sword". Her genres: drama, military, adventure. The roles were played by Georgy Martynyuk, Stanislav Lyubshin, Natalya Velichko, Valentina Titova, Juozas Budraitis.
The novel, entitled “Shield and Sword,” for its time “correct,” was written in 1965 by Vadim Kozhevnikov, editor-in-chief of the then famous Znamya magazine and a former war correspondent. It described the heroic work of Alexander Belov, a Soviet spy. However, the film by Vladimir Basov, who glorified then-beginning actors Oleg Yankovsky and Stanislav Lyubshin, showed the Nazis smart and even humane. He immediately pleased everyone - both critics and the masses. "Shield and sword" in the early days of hire watched 134.5 million people. This is only slightly less than the entire population of today's Russia.
P.S
Films made from books (novels, short stories, short stories, etc.) can be found for every taste. Cinema has been booming for more than a century. During this time, many books have been made into films. Unfortunately, the format of this article allows us to describe only some of the paintings of American and domestic cinema. In our opinion, they are certainly worth a look, since this is a classic. In addition, all these paintings are interesting in their own way and you will surely like it.