Book vs. movie

Worst movie made from a good book? Or what’s the best movie adapted from a lousy novel?

But that’s why we love adaptations, or at least arguing about them. We have the text; we have the film. We can pick which side of the fence we’re on. The book always exists. And so does the movie.

Adapting a book to the screen, successfully: If a reliable formula for that creative challenge existed, we wouldn’t have “The Bonfire of the Vanities” or “The Lovely Bones” or “The Great Gatsby” (any of ‘em) to kick around anymore. ¶ Critic, editor and author Kristen Lopez wrote a book about the subject. It’s called “But Have You Read the Book? 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films.” A Turner Classic Movies project, it comes out March 7.

Lopez offers a breezy, engaging survey of mostly well-known, occasionally lesser-known titles representing both highly faithful pageto-screen adaptations and looser, more inventive ones. The movies range from “Frankenstein” (1931) to the recent “Dune” and Rebecca Hall’s superb “Passing,” both from 2021.

Adaptations have been on my mind ever since the new film version of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front,” racked up nine Academy Award nominations, including for best picture.

You know how it goes with movies based on books: Sometimes you’ve read them, sometimes you haven’t. Sometimes you appreciate fidelity to the source material; sometimes it turns out like sludge. And sometimes, a wilder, more eccentric adaptation pays off in ways you couldn’t have predicted. “You really have two different audiences when you film an adaptation,” Lopez said in an interview last week. “You have to please people who love the source material. but you also have to get people who’ve never read the book to go see the movie. That’s two very different types of audiences.”

So, Kristen, the hook for this is what was, for a lot of people, an unforeseen number of Oscar nominations for “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Whether it gets people to read the Remarque novel, who knows. But it certainly is getting an

audience on Netflix. First, though, how did you arrive at the 52 titles in your upcoming book?

The idea had already been approved at TCM, and they were looking for someone to write it. They told me, “give us all you’ve got, a list of any and all adaptations you’re thinking of, and we’ll start from that.” That original list had 80, 90 titles, everything from “The Wizard of Oz” to “Twilight.” Then I got it to 40 titles I knew I wanted. TCM came back with a few suggestions, and they wanted a broad mix of authors including women, LGBTQ authors, people of color. The only one they (required) was “Dune,” by Frank Herbert, since at that point the movie was coming out, a big Warners film.

I love this quote you include from director W.S. Van Dyke, who made a classic out of Dashiell Hammett’s “The Thin Man” (1934). He told the screenwriters Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich to “treat the novel as a foundation, not a guide.” Do you think that’s a good guideline for contemporary screenwriters?

Sure do! I think some of the strongest adaptations follow that adage. It’s a good idea to use the source material as a guide to hit specific story beats that readers expect to see in an adaptation. People want the characters to remind them of the ones they met in the book. But it doesn’t have to be this strictly followed road map.

— Author of “But Have You Read the Book? 52 Literary Gems That Inspired Our Favorite Films” Kristin Lopez

REINER BAJO — NETFLIX Felix Kammerer in” All Quiet on the Western Front,” the latest cinematic version of Erich Maria Remarque’ s landmark novel.