Syllabus
Note: this syllabus is a work in progress—final version to follow
English 391W 9W3A
Senior Seminar:
Jane Austen and Henry James in Hollywood
Prof. David Richter
391W: Jane (Austen) and Henry (James) in Hollywood
9W3A 0676 W 9:15-12:05 HH 08 RICHTER
This course on fiction-to-film adaptation will take up the fortunes of two canonical novelists, Jane Austen and Henry James, who became the unlikely darlings of Hollywood in the 1990s. The course will begin with boot camp in working on narrative in film as well as fiction. Then we will examine Jane Austen’s novels Pride and Prejudice and Emma and tales by Henry James, “Daisy Miller,” “The Turn of the Screw,” and “The Altar of the Dead,” along with Washington Square and his mature novelThe Wings of the Dove. We shall be reading the texts first for pleasure and then in relation to the films that have been made of them. Some, we will find, are attempts at almost literal-minded “fidelity” to the text, while others involve translation across cultural boundaries to contemporary America or India.
Required Texts:
David Bordwell & Kristen Thompson, Film Art: An Introduction (any recent edition—check online for inexpensive used books).
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Norton Critical Editions PB ISBN: 0393976041
Jane Austen, Emma, Norton Critical Editions, PB ISBN: 0393972844
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Novels, Signet PB ISBN: 0451526066
Henry James, Washington Square.
Henry James, The Wings of the Dove, Oxford World Classics PB ISBN: 019283861X
Extra secondary materials (e.g. academic articles on fiction/film) will be distributed via e-reserve.
Schedule—considerable revision will happen here:
Week I. Wednesday February 3rd: Organizational Meeting. – Discussion of film adaptation of literary texts: literal and free translations, interpretations, re-creations. Theory of adaptation in the world of Charlie and Donald Kaufman. Film focus: Versions of the ball scene of Pride and Prejudice; versions of the opening of Mansfield Park. Art treatments versus Hollywood treatments in Spike Jonze, dir., Adaptation (1999, scr. Charlie [and Donald] Kaufman).
Week II. February 10: Pride and Prejudice as novel (1811) and as film property.
Week III. February 17: Miss Austen meets MGM and the studio system. Film Focus: Robert Z. Leonard, dir., Pride and Prejudice (1940, scr. Aldous Huxley, perf. Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier)
Week IV. February 24: Yesterday’s Austen. Film Focus: Joe Wright dir., Pride and Prejudice (2005, scr. Deborah Moggach, perf. Matthew MacFadyen, Keira Knightly)
Week V. March 3: The Post-Colonial Austen. Film Focus: Gurinder Chadha dir., Bride and Prejudice (2004, scr. Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges)
Week VI. March 10: Austen’s Emma (1815)
Week VII. March 17: Film Focus: Douglas McGrath dir. and scr., Emma (1996, perf. Gwyneth Paltrow) and Diarmuid Lawrence dir., Emma (1996, scr. Andrew Davies, perf. Kate Beckinsale).
Week VIII. March 19: Film Focus: The Austenoids: Sharon Maguire, dir.; Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001); Amy Heckerling, dir. and scr., Clueless (1995)
Week IX. March 24: Introducing Mr. Henry James. “Daisy Miller” (1878). Film Focus: Peter Bogdanovich, dir., Daisy Miller (1974, scr. Frederic Raphael, perf. Cybill Shepherd). No class on March 31.
Week X. April 7: The Wings of the Dove (1902).
Week XI. April 14: Film Focus: Iain Softley, dir., The Wings of the Dove (1997, scr. Hossein Amini, perf. Helena Bonham Carter).
Week XII. April 21: The Turn of the Screw (1898). Film Focus: Jack Clayton, The Innocents (1961, scr. William Archibald and Truman Capote, add. dial. John Mortimer)
Week XIII. April 28: “The Altar of the Dead” (1895). Film Focus: François Truffaut, dir. and scr., La Chambre verte (The Green Room, 1978, perf. Truffaut and Nathalie Baye).
Week XIV: May 7: Two portraits of a lady. Film Focus: The Portrait of a Lady (1968 – James Cellan Jones, dir; Jack Pulman scr) The Portrait of a Lady (1996 – Jane Campion, dir; Laura Jones, scr)
Week XV: Final session (exam week; no final examination).
Paper and Oral Report Topics
One term paper, three response papers on screened films, responses to other people’s response papers.
Filmography: Films for Study, Oral Reports and Writing
(some of these will be shown during class time)
Major films and miniseries based on Jane Austen:
Sense and Sensibility (1809)
Sense and Sensibility (1995, Ang Lee, dir., Emma Thompson scr.; Emma Thompson, Kate Winslett, Hugh Grant, perf)
Rajiv Menon, dir. and scr., Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000, Tamil, English title I Have Found It)
Pride and Prejudice (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1940, Robert Z. Leonard, dir., Aldous Huxley, scr.,; Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, perf; MGM)
Pride and Prejudice (1995, Simon Langton, dir., Andrew Davies, scr., for A&E and BBC)
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001, Sharon Maguire, dir)
Pride and Prejudice – A Latter-Day Comedy (2003, Andrew Black, dir., Anne Black scr.,)
Bride and Prejudice (2004, Gurinder Chadha, dir. and scr.,. Paul Mayeda Berges co-scr)
Pride and Prejudice (2005, Joe Wright dir. Deborah Moggach scr.)
Mansfield Park (1813)
Mansfield Park (1983 – BBC - David Giles, dir., Kenneth Taylor, scr. )
Mansfield Park (1999 - Patricia Rozema, dir. and scr.,)
Emma (1815)
Clueless (1995 - Amy Heckerling, dir. and scr.,)
Emma (1996 - Diarmuid Lawrence, dir.,scr. Andrew Davies , BBC)
Emma (1996 - Douglas McGrath, dir. and scr., Miramax)
Emma (2009-2010 – Jim O’Hanlon dir, Sandy Welch, scr, BBC)
Persuasion (1817)
Persuasion (1995 - Roger Michell, dir., Nick Dear scr.,)
Northanger Abbey (1817)
Northanger Abbey (1986 - Giles Foster, dir.,Maggie Wadey scr.,, BBC)
Major Films based on Henry James
The Ghostly Rental (1876)
The Haunting of Hell House (1998 - Mitch Marcus dir.)
Daisy Miller (1878)
Daisy Miller (1976 - Peter Bogdanovich, dir; Frederic Raphael, scr)
The Europeans (1878)
The Europeans (1979 - James Ivory, dir and scr; Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, scr, 1979)
Washington Square (1880)
The Heiress (1949 – William Wyler, dir, Ruth and Augustus Goetz, scr, based on their play)
Washington Square (1997 – Agnieszka Holland, dir, Carol Doyle, scr)
The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
The Portrait of a Lady (1968 – James Cellan Jones, dir; Jack Pulman scr)
The Portrait of a Lady (1996 – Jane Campion, dir; Laura Jones, scr)
The Bostonians (1886)
The Bostonians (1984 – James Ivory, dir; Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, scr)
The Aspern Papers (1888)
The Lost Moment (1947 – Martin Gabel, dir; Leonardo Bercovicci, scr)
Hullabaloo over Georgie and Bonnie’s Pictures (1978 - James Ivory, dir; Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, scr)
The Altar of the Dead (1895)
La Chambre verte (1978 – The Green Room - Francois Truffaut, dir and scr)
The Turn of the Screw (1898)
The Innocents (1962 – Jack Clayton, dir; William Archibald and Truman Capote, scr; add. dial John Mortimer, Deborah Kerr, perf)
The Nightcomers (1971 – Michael Winner, dir; Michael Hastings, scr; Marlon Brando, perf; note: this is a “prequel” to The Turn of the Screw)
The Turn of the Screw (1974 – Dan Curtis, dir; William F. Nolan, scr; Lynn Redgrave, perf)
Presence of Mind (1999 – Antoni Aloy, dir and scr; Barbara Cogny, scr.; Lauren Bacall and Harvey Keitel, perf)
The Wings of the Dove (1902)
The Wings of the Dove (1997 – Iain Softley, dir; Hossein Amini, scr; Helena Bonham Carter perf)
Under Heaven (1998 – Meg Richman, dir and scr; Joely Richardson, perf)
The Golden Bowl (1904)
The Golden Bowl (1973 – James Cellan Jones, dir; Jack Pulman, scr; Gayle Hunnicut, Barry Morse, Daniel Massey, Cyril Cusack, perf)
The Golden Bowl (2000 – James Ivory, dir; Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, scr; Uma Thurman, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Northam, Nick Nolte, perf)
The Sense of the Past (1917)
Berkeley Square (1933 – Frank Lloyd, dir; Sonya Levien and John Balderston, scr; Heather Angel and Leslie Howard, perf)
I’ll Never Forget You (1951 – Roy Ward Baker, dir; John Balderston and Ranald MacDougal, scr; Tyrone Power, Ann Blyth, Michael Rennie perf)
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970 - Vincente Minelli, dir; Alan Jay Lerner, scr; Barbara Streisand, Yves Montand, Jack Nicholson)