Literature and Cinema

Categories: Film

Essay, Pages 8 (1796 words)

Views

3907

Life is a Theme of Literature, Literature is the expression of Life. Life fashions Literature and Literature moulds Life. The intimate relation between Literature and Cinema is one of the common place truths which have been illustrated again and again, both Social and literary life history. Literature is the most fascinating creation of a literary artist based on the style and stategy of life. Life and reality are the basics of Literature.

It’s a product of creation of a literary artist, accompanied with his theoretical and practical knowledge, intellect, thoughts and imagination, where an artist creates his own animated world with realistic events and incidents.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get your custom essay on

“ Literature and Cinema ”

Get custom paper

NEW! smart matching with writer

As through the words of Mathew Arnold “ Literature is the best record that is thought and Known in the world”, in the words of Satyajit “Literature was another avenue for the expression of his creative talents”.

Cinema, an art of showing life of human beings and the respective happenings in life, which literature glorifies, not only the actual occurances but also reflects in an idealized form, the standards of social thought and morality.

Cinema/Movies, the most remarkable, illuminating & fascinating discovery of Science and Technology, where the credit goes to the American scientist ‘Thomas Alva Edison’. The tone of literature changes with the stages of society, life style and the respective incidents, which portrayted & given a clear view by means of perfect moulding in mode of Films.

These film/Vedio tapes are chosen out of the American experimental tradition to exemplify the various techniques of marrying the two arts “Literature & Cinema”.

Every natural incident before the poet, around him, in world is the only source of utterance, arouses out his inspiration & his creative energy that rests upon the core of reality. This what further transformed into poems, speeches, songs and novels respectively.

The poet presents his skillfulness, an admirable creation of his imagination and fancy in the mind of the readers, but in Later Middle Ages with the growth and development of drama led the people to exemplify another form of art, their intense fascination on gestures and acting, Various forms of drama were performed based on different scripts gives a clear evidence from the popularity of “Miracle” and “Morality” plays and “Interludes” before the advent of Elizabeathan drama and playwrights.

The dramatic performances were based on antiphonal singing, dialogues were written and the possibilities were in Roman Catholic Church, with the advent of Elizabeathan drama, various plays of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Dickens and others followed, enriching the English literature. Considering the nature of work of literature can be comprehended by means of two stages, the art of reading and the art of showing, in which the later transforms poetry, novels, short stories into Cinema.

The major distinction between them lies as poetry belonging to the art of utterance, while cinema/movies the art of showing, but on the whole they both don’t make easily a good couple. These films and the vedio makers have taken up the challenge anyway to make a way of responding the poet’s work, creating original cinematic writing, gradually leading to the magical, amusing world of entertainment and the fantasy in films.

Cinema, A proportionate to the style of language as when a novel, short story transformed into a film, the first note worthy part comes the script. The script writer may or may not mould down the language of the novel in order to make an easy communication and understanding to the audience, mainly applicable in commercial films. In case of commercial films the novel or short story may be taken as a script but it may be modified according to the flavour of audience.

The director Overrules the whole cinematographic sequence and drives away his workshop, tackling all barriers, creating a view of life and reality, giving a colourful portraiture of a dream world mingling with comic and tragic sequences with distinct and dancing, stepping on toes, wooing each other with charms of mouth, eye and mind.

Finally ending with an admirable climax. Thus listening and reading a poet’s work is equally proportional to viewing and listening film maker’s work. Infact, Movies/Films are a director’s medium, as they reflect director’s own vision and his thoughts, but a fact acts as a contradiction and though debateable, how can a cinema be its truly literaray genius ?

As when a great work of literature is adopted and placed on the screen by a director, whether it will be true or equal to the writer’s vision, as while transforming it into a celluloid. With the inception of Cinema, Literature has attracted all the creative film makers, pioneers in the world of cinema such as Pramathesh Barua, Debaki Basu have based their films on the eminent works of Sarat Chatterjee, Tarashankar Bandhopadhyay and others.

Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” was the first which brought International Acclaim, was wholly based on the great work of literature of Bibhuti Bhusan Bandhopadhayay, Other than his Imaginative Creation Of Feluda, a Private Investigator, His nephew and literary artist Jatayu, together making “The Three Musketeers”, roaming different places, solving cases purely based on intellect also placed on the screen- “Sonar Kella”[The Golden Fortress], Joy Baba Felunath [Mystery of the Elephant God] and many more.

His Creation Of Professor Shonku a Scientific, mystery thriller and Tarini Khuro, an adventurous, mystery sequence bring us to his imagination, art and literacy. Film Meastro Tapan Sinha in his film “Kabuliwallah”, which is wholly based on Tagore’s story, have also struck the writer’s vision. Eminent film makers as Mrinal Sen, Kumar Shahani and Adoor Gopala Krishnan were criticized ruthlessly when their literary works are adopted but distinguished from the original work.

Mrinal Sen’s Oriya film “Matira Manusya” in 1965, the first Oriya film with an extraordinary literacy but had to face criticism due to the differentiation of literacy work with the film. Godrad and Mrinal Sen always based their films on the recreation of literacy classics. In this case the ideas and statements of the film makers get dwarfed in order to be true to the literary classics. Now lifting the veil of literary classics, there are many other eminent countless good Indian films were made simply by translating the works of Sarat Chatterjee, R.

K Narayan, Banophool, Premchand, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhayay, Manik Bondhopadhayay and many more. It is indeed a credit of the director, translating these fabulous works into films by enhancing the appeal of the novel, doing a perfect justice to the writer’s work, possibly contributing a commercial support. Apart from this there are also enough contribution of the film makers of abroad. Films/Movies based on Shakesperean Comedy drama “Romeo and Juliet, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “Twelfth Night”, “The Merchant Of Venice” etc.

Even Shakespeare’s tragedies are transformed in Movies- ‘Macbeth’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Othello’, ‘King Lear’ ‘Tempest’ etc. Marlowe’s ‘Edward II’, Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’, Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, Charles Dicken’s ‘Great Expectations’ and many more have been moulded and given a new look, quite popular to our present generation. Penny Gay interested in film 'adaptation' of classics, particularly of Shakespeare and Jane Austen: she is enthusiastic about free, imaginative, and wide-ranging rather than literalist attempts to translate these works to the screen.

She has supervised several Honours dissertations in this field, and has taught a unit of study called 'Shakespeare in the City' which is entirely based on film versions. A close analysis on the films of Premchandra and Saratchandra, we find the characters and the situations are created in such a way, it seems it appears from modern day. Mordern world are in the urge of horror, mystery,thriller Stories, suspence thriller, brutal murders, death sequences centering round a single cause – may b a human being, living dead or alive, beasts and insects, by any cause of scientific or natural disaster, take a major role in the world of Cinema.

Commertialy they usually do a huge amount of business. “Species 1& 2” shows how natural concequences takes a major part in creation of a new species, a living organism with in human beings. “Spiders and its Offsprings” “Arachnophobia”, Eight legged Freaks” gives a proper evidence of how a simple carelessness can turn into a terror of death, an unstoppable end. Similarly in movie “Final Destination”It is seen a different style of terror resulting death and its consequent horrors, with a superb touch of realism, blood hell and unyielding spirit of revenge paralysed the audience with terror.

Mrinal Sen said “Cinema is never overawed by Literature” as he never based his films on any literary piece of work nor he translated any literary work into films, but he never moved away from literature. The Joyous elements of literature always attracted his vision. A small synopsis of the work or novel is enough for him to produce a film, as he belived “Cinema is a joint form of art, as a new form of art, borrows ideas from the old, creating a new way out from its curves and leads the path of progress as a medium. ”

Kevin Bacon Says “A good director creates an environment, which gives the actor the encouragement to fly”, Hector Babenko said “Curiosity doesn't matter any more. These days people don't want to be transported to emotional territories where they don't know how to react. ” -Robert Bresson said “My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.

” The Script for making a movie always comes from literature, Pratical incidents, Realism, Beauty, Nature, Romance, comedy, Tragedy, Soliloque are the common facts of both literature and cinema. Cinema is Solely indebeted to literature, either partially or completely. Though the world of literature never ends, each moment of life, makes a literary artist discover new ideas and thoughts, a debateable question, indeed both literature and cinema are interconnected to each other, Literature can turn into a Cinematic view/cinema, but a cinema can never turn into literature.

To a Literary genious, Literature is a view of life, a mode of survival, thinking, communicating, expressing his thoughts, but to a Director, film the only mode of communication. A question arises whether cinema should be a true literary genius, it depends on the director as he should be given complete freedom of cinematizing the literary classics in his own view. Cinematising, creating a celluloid of the great classics of literature reflects the vision of the writer and the ideas of the director simultaneously, Still remains unquestionable Literature is bound to cinema or Cinema is bound to literature ?.