Novel Ideas on Film

“It’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:04:17 -0400

“It’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it.”
-Roger Ebert

"Hey, have you read that new F. Scott Fitzgerald story?"

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:21:39 -0400

"Hey, have you read that new F. Scott Fitzgerald story?" : Things I never thought I’d hear in...

"Moneyball" - Finally, statistical evidence to prove that "Yankees Suck!"

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:45:00 -0400

It’s that magical time of year. The time of year where the crack of the bat replaces the...

What Makes a Good Book-to-Film Adaptation? (From the A.V. Club)

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:54:22 -0400

What Makes a Good Book-to-Film Adaptation? (From the A.V. Club): “The question filmmakers...

life: Happy birthday to the man that LIFE Magazine once...

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:31:09 -0400

life:

Happy birthday to the man that LIFE Magazine once described as “a dreamy young man with an unconquerable compulsion to write.”

Here, on Williams’ 101st birthday (he was born, not in Tennessee, but in a small town in eastern Mississippi, on March 26, 1911, and died in New York City in 1983), LIFE.com offers a series of portraits of the great American playwright by some of LIFE magazine’s finest photographers.

Putting one’s finger on why Williams’ plays have held pride of place in theater goers’ hearts for so long is another matter. Yes, the dialog is a thrilling mixture of the perfectly colloquial and the poetic. Yes, the passions on display in works like The Rose Tattoo, The Glass Menagerie and, of course, A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are as blistering as those given voice by any other American dramatist, while the characters Williams brought to life remain, for many of us, as indelible as members of our own families.

(see more photos here)

Happy birthday Tennessee Williams! What’s your favorite Tennessee Williams film adaptation?

The Hunger Games: How to Woo Your Fellow Tribute...and Live to Tell the Tale

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 01:25:00 -0400

Like the rest of you out there, I saw The Hunger Game this weekend. And, after suffering through...

apriki: God Katniss now is not the time Yes. I saw The Hunger...

Sat, 24 Mar 2012 23:36:44 -0400

apriki:

God Katniss now is not the time

Yes. I saw The Hunger Games today. And, whaddya know, it was a book first! Expect a review tomorrow.

A year ago today, another icon of Old Hollywood passed away. RIP...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 13:01:54 -0400

A year ago today, another icon of Old Hollywood passed away. RIP Elizabeth Taylor…and thank you.

oldhollywood: Mary Badham, Harper Lee, and Gregory Peck on the...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 22:55:26 -0400

oldhollywood:

Mary Badham, Harper Lee, and Gregory Peck on the set of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962, dir. Robert Mulligan) Photographer: Leo Fuchs (via)

Does it get any better than Gregory Peck as Atticus?

No. It does not.

Add this to my ever-growing list of film adaptations to write about. (It’s one of my favorites!)

The Help: How to Make Your Enemies Eat Sh*t

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:16:00 -0400

I wanted to write this post weeks ago but, unfortunately, technical difficulties kept me from it....

unabridgedbookstore: MADMEN starts up again on Sunday. They...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:37:53 -0400

unabridgedbookstore:

MADMEN starts up again on Sunday. They also read occasionally when not drinking or smoking.

fsgbooks:

As you could probably guess, there are a lot of “Mad Men” fans here at FSG. Think about it: what other show on television features so many characters reading books? Or penning an autobiography, as Roger Sterling does, out of spite for a competitor’s success?

So with the new season starting on March 25th I thought I’d share the official “Mad Men” Reading List. Each of these titles has appeared or been referenced on the show:

Season 1

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe

Exodus by Leon Uris

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

Season 2

The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone

Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O’Hara

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

Season 3

Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy

The Group by Mary McCarthy

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

Season 4

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict

The Clue of the Black Keys by Carolyn Keene

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carré

Read like a “mad man.”

theatlantic: the-overlook-hotel: Stanley Kubrick’s personal...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:57:07 -0400

theatlantic:

the-overlook-hotel:

Stanley Kubrick’s personal copy of Stephen King’s novel, The Shining. This well-worn book, now housed in the Stanley Kubrick Archive in London, is filled with Kubrick’s notes and comments. Many passages are highlighted, and Kubrick has filled the margins with hand-written notes that run the gamut from notating passages that inspire him, to crossing out sections he found silly.

(click images to enlarge)

Today, in found objects.

Very cool! Physical representation of the adaptation of a novel into a film.

My computer died!!! And, unfortunately, I don’t have...

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:22:13 -0400

My computer died!!!

And, unfortunately, I don’t have another at my immediate disposal to finish my review of “The Help” (which I wanted to post over a week ago, following the Oscars). Yes…I know the interwebs (and tumblr) are everywhere, but nowhere I could sit and THINK for a moment to finish my writing.

And my phone is only good for short postings. Like this one.

So stay tuned!

life: On laureate Gabriel García Márquez’s 85th birthday (the...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 12:21:46 -0500

life:

On laureate Gabriel García Márquez’s 85th birthday (the Colombian master was honored 30 years ago, in 1982, and is the earliest winner still alive), LIFE.com looks back at how LIFE magazine portrayed some Nobel winners through the years: photographs of writers who had already garnered the prestigious —in fact, the most prestigious — of all literary plums, and those who still had a few years to go before the Academy came calling.

Pictured: Ernest Hemingway in Cuba in 1952. He was awarded the Nobel in 1954. When LIFE magazine published Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, in its entirety, in its September 1, 1952, issue, five million copies of the magazine were sold … in two days.

(see more here)

Great LIFE magazine photo series of Nobel Laureates for Literature.

See? Reading is good for you. life: Her sex-symbol image aside,...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 23:18:53 -0500

See? Reading is good for you.

life:

Her sex-symbol image aside, Marilyn Monroe was an avid reader of 20th-century literature and was often photographed curling up with a book, as in this Peter Stackpole shot taken at her Hollywood home in 1953.

(see more photos here)

life: Presenters Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly wait...

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:05:38 -0500

life:

Presenters Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly wait backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 1956 Academy Awards.

(see more here)

Great vintage Oscars photo of two of my favorite leading ladies in honor of yesterday’s Academy Awards.

vintageorgasm: Happy Birthday Elizabeth Taylor!

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:49:47 -0500

vintageorgasm:

Happy Birthday Elizabeth Taylor!

Some Observations on "The Artist"

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 01:18:00 -0500

Okay, so The Artist is not based on a book. BUT…as a classic movie nerd I just can’t...

betterbooktitles: Dashiell Hammett: The Thin Man Reader...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:36:15 -0500

betterbooktitles:

Dashiell Hammett: The Thin Man

Reader Submission: Title by Ned Casey.

Everyone needs to read The Thin Man. Then watch the movie (or all of them). Once you’re done with that, I’ll have written about the adaptation.

betterbooktitles: Ernest Hemingway: For Whom The Bell...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:29:10 -0500

betterbooktitles:

Ernest Hemingway: For Whom The Bell Tolls

Reader Submission: Title by Cami Adair.

I think I just found my new favorite pastime. My inner lit nerd is going crazy.