Grave Visions: Visual Experience and Adaptation

Rather than approaching the ‘look’ of adaptation through point of view or the ‘vision’ of the adapter, this chapter examines the material, visible texture of screen adaptation. Using two adaptations of Bram Stoker’s gothic novel Dracula, I analyse how each uses mise en scène, cinematography, and editing to thicken and make tangible Stoker’s questioning of the reliability of vision in modernity. The first, Nosferatu (F.W Murnau, 1922) employs the tricks of early cinema to shock spectators, while the second—Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)—uses a neo-baroque aesthetic that ruptures the screen and engulfs the spectator, much like one of Dracula’s victims. This chapter suggests that critical insight into an adaptation can be found quite literally in sight, and embraces how the materiality of adaptation overlaps with the materiality of vision.

Collaborative self-translation in the screenplays of The Godfather trilogy

This study examines the adaptation of the novel The Godfather into screenplays by author Mario Puzo and director Francis Ford Coppola. Combining translation and adaptation studies, we regard this adaptation as a case of ‘collaborative self-translation’, a concept that has so far been rarely applied beyond translations studies, and use a model designed for the study of adaptation to analyse it. However, we expand the model by applying it to screenplays, and examining prequel and sequel, which are mainly present in the second and third screenplays of the trilogy. In addition to calling attention to the screenplay as a vital stage in the transformation of a literary work into a film, this article shows that the adaptation model can be a valuable tool to systematically analyse adapted screenplays, thus expanding the methodological repertoire of both adaptation and screenwriting studies. Moreover, it was found that the combined discussion of adaptation, sequel and prequel may contribute to an understanding of the complex relations between them and the source. Based on these theoretical insights, we show that through merging the creative powers of Puzo and Coppola, the screenplays shed new light on social, family and cultural themes that appear to some extent in the novel, taking the conventions of the crime genre in new and surprising directions.

Harry Dean and the New Hollywood

This chapter begins with an interview with Monte Hellman, one of the seminal directors of the "New Hollywood" era of the 1960s and 1970s that followed the decline of the old studio system and ushered in a new spirit of independence, rebellion, and commitment to film as an art form. Harry Dean was in three Hellman films -- Ride in the Whirlwind (1966), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), and Cockfighter (1974). He would also appear in the films of several other leading New Hollywood directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Sam Peckinpah, and John Milius. Harry Dean remained in the supporting cast while his good friend Jack Nicholson rose to stardom. However, a cult status began to grow around him, fueled by his work in films such as Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and Arthur Penn's The Missouri Breaks (1976), which starred his Mulholland Drive neighbors Nicholson and Marlon Brando.

Tucker i inni

Artykuł stanowi przypomnienie innowatorów i wynalazców, którzy przegrali walkę z wielkimi korporacjami. Autor skupia się na dwóch takich przypadkach: Edwinie Howardzie Armstrongu – wynalazcy superheterodyny i odkrywcy możliwości nadawania programów radiowych na falach FM, oraz Prestonie Thomasie Tuckerze – konstruktorze nowatorskiego samochodu, o którym Francis Ford Coppola zrobił film Tucker – konstruktor marzeń (1988). Podobny los spotkał też Barthélemy’ego Thimonniera – wynalazcę maszyny do szycia, a nawet kilku pionierów kina, którzy nie zdążyli w porę opatentować swoich wynalazków, m.in. Louis Aimé Augustina Le Prince’a.

Manual de instrucciones para perder el control

Reseña a Francis Ford Coppola (2018). El cine en vivo y sus técnicas. Barcelona, España: Reservoir Books, 240 páginas Reseña de la más reciente publicación de Francis Ford Coppola, este libro es el corolario de una exploración intensiva de las posibilidades narrativas, estéticas, tecnológicas y de los modos de producción, distribución y fruición del cine en vivo, un nuevo medio que el director vislumbra como el futuro posible del cine.

Niedokończona konkwista. O niezrealizowanym projekcie filmowym Wernera Herzoga

Unfinished conquest. On Werner Herzog’s unmade film projectThe paper shows Werner Herzog’s unmade project The Conquest of Mexico in the context of the director’s complex relations with mainstream cinema. The film which was supposed to initiate closer Werner Herzog–Francis Ford Coppola cooperation with time became known as one of cinema’s “unfinished masterpieces”. Trying to pinpoint the causes of the project’s failure, the author of the paper analyses the status of European auteur in contemporary Hollywood. One of the main contexts of the analysis is Indiewood, where the influence of mainstream cinema meets the potential of independent cinema and where such directors as Werner Herzog may find their place without the necessity of abandoning their artistic visions.

“I Believe in America”

In his Godfather films, Francis Ford Coppola created American classics by dwelling on a classic American experience—immigration. In the story of the Corleone family, Coppola portrays Sicilian immigrants struggling to create a new and better life in the United States. They must navigate the difficult transition from the Old World to the New, and also from the past to the present, from a quasi-feudal way of life in Sicily to a modern America characterized by impersonal economic relations and corporate organization. Vito Corleone achieves the American dream by succeeding in business and providing for his family, but his hopes for his sons are dashed. Carrying on Vito’s struggle, Michael Corleone defeats all his enemies, and yet in the process he destroys his family. Coppola sees the American dream as a source of tragedy, and this chapter analyzes both Vito and Michael as tragic heroes.