adaptation

Adaptation (Superbit Collection)
$14.94
If this is critically acclaimed as a movie than we have New york critics who are
in therapy or need to be? I suppose there are two ways to look at this movie:
a through the looking glass comedy about intellectual instability
or just a play by someone who should probably be in prison for
the safety of the community? Something like van Gogh
cutting off his ear without the excuse of great art?
In the decline of the Roman Empire the ruling class just lost it.
That behavior seems to be the state of New York in the entertainment industry?
People get critically acclaimed for making trash and
calling it art.
I think the totally lost fellow who gives the screen writing class
kind of sums up how bad thing really are?

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Widescreen Edition)
$12.98
10 THE FILM ITSELF
8.5 VISUALS
10 SOUND
8.0 PACKAGING
7.7 EXTRAS

What is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?
A love story? Yes.
The best performance by Jim Carrey? Yes.
An extremely depressing look at modern romance? Yes.
An instant classic? Yes.

From the first preview I saw of Eternal Sunshine, I was instantly curious as to what this movie would be about. And after watching this film over 3 dozen times, I find something new every single time. Is it kind of confusing to follow with how the plot is set up and the quirky special effects? Yeah, but does that make it hard to enjoy? Absolutely not. Girls who love chick flicks will find something to enjoy and guys who want a film that isn't a normal everyday bore will find something new and interesting here.

The story follows Joel Barish (Jim Carrey, in what I believe is his best performance in his career) as he retraces his memories of his up and down relationship with Clementine Kruczynski (Kate Winslet). After learning that she has erased him from her memory after a series of fights, he quickly and hastily does the same. And then, during the procedure - which is the equivalent of a "night of heavy drinking" - he decides that he'd rather keep the memories than not have any recollection of someone so important in his life. It makes you think, what would you do? Would you erase someone from your mind because it ended badly, or would you keep them because it makes you who you are? The most interesting point is that the film ultimately runs backwards, from the disruptive end of their relationship tracing back to the good times they had when they first met before problems became a main thorn in their side. And it's great to see a film shot this way because I believe most people always think when their personal relationships end, 'how did it go so wrong? Things were just perfect' and this shows that shift between a 'perfect' beginning and an abrupt ending.

The film makes you think, like all great films. The zany plot twists, creative characters and sci-fi type feel of the movie make this an entirely new, fresh experience. few films are this bold or puzzling, and with such an amazingly well known cast, I'm surprised this movie isn't a bigger hit because it definitely should be.

8.5 VISUALS
It's a character driven film, but the special effects come through nicely. When random objects start infiltrating memories they aren't apart of it really gives you a sense of chaos but nothing looks out of place or cheesy.

10 SOUND
One of the best soundtracks in a movie yet. Great collection of songs and a beautiful score by Jon Brion really add another dimension to an already wonderfully underrated film.

8.0 PACKAGING
The cover is simple and not overdone with scenes or characters (usually when film covers have tons of junk of them it means the film is going to be bad) and the menu screen is easy to naviagate although it reuses one of the images from the cover again when there's tons of images they could've used to set up the feel for the film.

7.7 EXTRAS
There's only 6 special features on the single disc set of Eternal Sunshine, and while none truly standout it's still a good collection of features.

1. "A Look Inside" is a behind the scenes look at the movie and people's ideas and thoughts about the project.

2. "A Conversation with Jim Carrey & Michel Gondry" is exactly what the title says. The two men don't really offer alot in terms of information. Short and kind of a fluff piece.

3. Commentary w/ Michel Gondry & Charlie Kaufman. I was expecting more from this commentary. That's not to say that it's bad, but it is a little slow and it's almost impossible to understand what Gondry says half the time.

4. "Deleted Scenes". There are not alot of scenes here and none are necessary for the film (hence why they were cut), and most are usually pretty short. Only a few minutes of scenes.

5. "Polyphonic Spree 'Light & Day' Music Video" is a 3 minute song that has clips from the film over the song. It's kinda creepy since the only change in the scenes is the overexaggerated mouth that moves over the characters' own. Good song though, fits the film well.

6. "Lacuna Commercial" is a 30 second clip about Lacuna by Dr. Howard Mierzwiak.

IN CLOSING
Eternal Sunshine is my second favorite movie (behind Fight Club, of course) for many, many reasons. And this DVD release does a great job with visuals and a masterful score along with some good bonus features. While ultimately I would've liked something a little better or more substantial for special features, I guess that's why there's a 2-dsic special edition I must get my hands on.

9.4/10 "OUTSTANDING"

Punch-Drunk Love (Two Disc Special Edition) (Superbit Collection)
$28.96
about the writing stupid . and direction . love ANDERSON and his films . i've since become quite the ADAM SANDLER fan as well , purchasing a number of his films that came out subsequent to this picture . i suppose there are folks whose cup of tea this is not . better luck elsewhere .

Adaptation: Studying Film and Literature
$46.96
ADAPTATION: STUDYING FILM AND LITERATURE is a joy to read. Historically, films adapted from a literary text have won seventy-five percent of all best-picture Academy Awards, so this engaging textbook would interest not only readers taking film courses but also other film aficionados.

The co-authors teach college courses in Film Studies, Literature, and English Composition. Their composition expertise shows in the exceptional clarity of their writing. Throughout the book, they present engaging examples of adaptations from novels, novellas, short stories, nonfiction, and graphic stories (animations).

Too many film-reviewers assume that successful film adaptation emerges principally from fidelity to the original literary text. Not so. "Film is another medium with its own conventions, artistic values, and techniques, and so the original story is transformed into a different work of alike. . . . We use fidelity not as an evaluative term that measures the merit of films, but as a descriptive term that allows discussion of the relationship between two companion works. To begin the description of the relationship between text and film, we ask you to compare the two in detail and then to classify the adaptation as a close, loose, or intermediate interpretation (page 2)."

Among the several novel adaptations discussed, the book presents a detailed analysis of Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." The discussion begins with a brief summary of the novel and goes on to describe Robert Mulligan's adaptation under the following rubrics: kept elements--setting and situations; added elements; and dropped elements. An example of dropped elements: of the novel's sixty-eight characters, forty are dropped.

The novella adaptation presented is Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It," directed by Robert Redford. Short-story adaptations include: Ernest Hemingway's "The Killers," directed by Robert Siodmark; John Cheever's "The Swimmer," directed by Frank Perry; Jonathan Nolan's "Memento Mori," directed by Christopher Nolan with the title "Memento." Both the Memento short story and the adaptation are excellent examples of postmodernist nonlinear narratives.

The stage play adaptations analyzed include Tennessee Williams's "A Streetcar Named Desire," directed by Elia Kazan. The outstanding nonfiction film adaptation analyzed is Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward's "All the President's Men," directed by Alan Pakula.

The concluding chapter reviews a failed adaptation: F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," directed by Jack Clayton. The analysis of this failure elucidates many choices the screenwriter, the producer, the director must make along with the invevitable conflicts among practitioners of different crafts all collaborating to make a film.

I would have liked to see discussion of at least some international adaptations in this five-star book.

-- C J Singh