Old Joy is one of my favorite recent movies. I haven't read the short story, but the film itself is a gem, and Oldham and London carry the film well.
As someone who was trained in an English department but eventually did research on film and media studies, I'm fascinated by the issue of adaptation, and quite often I find that the best adaptations are the ones that acknowledge how they depart from the original text (and, of course, Adaptation is a clever negotiation of the problematics of adaptation).
Rory Mach
· 2 years ago
Which, neatly enough, is one of the themes of Old Joy, as well. How we all end up "departing from the original" over time -- with or without admitting it.
It's been done in writing often enough - first and maybe still best in Wordsworth -- but it's interesting to see it done well in the time and space of a movie.
pasquinn
· 2 years ago
Shouldn't that be Sofia Coppola's Virgin Suicides?
Rory Mach
· 2 years ago
Mea Maxima Culpa. Sort of a Jungian slip! Thanks for the correction...
All Comments
As someone who was trained in an English department but eventually did research on film and media studies, I'm fascinated by the issue of adaptation, and quite often I find that the best adaptations are the ones that acknowledge how they depart from the original text (and, of course, Adaptation is a clever negotiation of the problematics of adaptation).
It's been done in writing often enough - first and maybe still best in Wordsworth -- but it's interesting to see it done well in the time and space of a movie.
Marcia Wesley, Psy. D.
http://cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/11/11/steel.ap/