Film rentals go up - in line with exam texts! Which are your favourite adaptations?

Public exams don't normally include film stars, but this year's students have turned to actors including Leonardo Di Caprio, Ian McKellen and the late Natasha Richardson for inspiration. New research reveals that demand for film adaptations of English Literature set texts rose by almost fifty percent during the summer exam period.

Film adaptations of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (an A level text this year) starring Natasha Richardson, King Lear starring Ian McKellen, and Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet were the most rented titles; increasing by 624 per cent, 271 per cent and 270 per cent respectively.

Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo and Juliet (on many GCSE papers), which starred Leonardo Di Caprio and Clare Danes (whom you can see above) as the star-crossed lovers, saw a 65 per cent increase in demand. It was followed by 1961 war film The Long and the Short and the Tall - an adaptation of Willis Hall's 1958 play, which increased by 30 per cent.

LOVEFiLM.com compared rental figures of film versions of this year's GCSE and AS/A-Level English Literature set texts before and after the summer exam period. You can see the list below.

But Ian McNeilly, Director of the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE) warned that although he is happy for his students to watch film adaptations of set texts, they mustn't rely on them too much.

"They have to be complementary and not relied upon as primary material," he said.

Mr McNeilly said that he often has pupils mentioning films in English literature essays - they will write about a particular scene, for example, even though it isn't actually in the text. The danger, of course, is that students will not bother to read a book properly or in great depth, and instead concentrate on their interpretation of a more easily-understandable film.

"The film's obviously had an impact," said Mr McNeilly. "But you need to sideline that and talk about the novel. The danger is that a weak candidate may struggle with a book, rely on the film and write about that instead. It's only a small minority of students, but it can happen."

LOVEFiLM's Helen Crowley, perhaps unsurprisingly, took a more relaxed view :

"Whilst we don't advocate cheating, let's face it - DVD versions of set texts are a great refresher and a quick way of catching up on a book's theme and storyline," she said. "Students should be warned however that in many cases they are in no way completely faithful to the book and shouldn't be used on their own - we can't imagine there were many flash cars and disco music knocking around in Shakespeare's time!"

The Top Ten most rented DVD adaptations of set texts are: (comparing rental figures on 1st Jan 09 and 1st June 09)

1. The Handmaid's Tale (1990) - up 624%
2. King Lear (2008) - up 271%
3. Hamlet (1996) - up 270%
4. Romeo & Juliet  (1996) - up 65%
5. The Long and the Short and the Tall (1996) - up 30%
6. To Kill a Mocking Bird (1962) - up 25%
7. Death of a Salesman (1985) - up 23%
8. A Man for all Seasons (1966) - up 22%
9. Great Expectations (1997) - up 20%
10. Silas Marner/'A Simple Twist of Fate' (1995) - up 18%

Which adaptations do you favour? I wasn't too impressed by the film of The Handmaid's Tale, although I loved the book. I felt the same about A Man for All Seasons - a play which I loved, and a film which I didn't (though I know many did). Let me know your recommendations....

Read School Gate:

Which children's book inspired you?

Which is the best film about school?

Why do so many ex-teachers write children's books? Here's a top 10

Comments

[Bob]

This is nothing new. I made my dad hunt around for a rental copy of Polanski's Tess about 25 years ago.

I don't think it helped with my exam at all, although Nastassja Kinski did make a big impression.

[opinononeverything]

I absolutely hated the Handmaid's Tale when we did it for A-level, I'm grateful I didn't know there was a film version as I would have tortured myself with that as well!
The BBC adaptations of Mansfield Park and Pride and Prejudice both came in very handy...

[Whimsey]

Bob - the most excruciating thing about that Tess (apart from the ghastly accent of NK) was the setting. It was SO obviously NOT Dorset that only an American could possibly have thought it could pass as such. From what I read, RP had to film in Normandy as he's still on that stat.rape rap in the UK.

That said, the bit where the blood drips through the ceiling was very vivid, and shocking in its intrusion into a banal Victorian guest house.

[Whimsey]

I would recommend the Baz Ro and Ju to any 'Shakespeare-is-boring' teen. Only problem - after watching it, the 'real Shakespeare' IS boring! No gas station hold-ups, no riot police and no helicopters. Chiz.

Still, the opening sequence is definitely one of my all time favourites, especially the chorus read by a TV newsreader.

THE big problem, of course, is that Ro doesn't kill Paris, which is a real moral cop-out. I get the feeling it was thought too villainous for a 'hero' to do. The film caught, though, Mercutio's Pain-in-the-Butt character perfectly. What a toXXer the character is!

[Dana Huff]

On your list, my favorite is Romeo and Juliet. Whimsey, for some reason, the killing of Paris (and death of Lady Montague) get left out a lot. Zeffirelli made the same choice. To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful classic film. Did you know that Harper Lee gave Gregory Peck her father's watch?

http://www.huffenglish.com/

[Whimsey]

I'd forgotten about Lady M. I think the reason the films whitewash Romeo killing Paris is because it's a tad too 'dark'. All very well showing romantic young love, etc, but they are not so 'noble' if Romeo kills a perfectly innocent bystander.

[sho]

I bought videos of Twelfth Night and King Lear when I did my A-level English - and made sure to watch them with the text close at hand.

At least the Silas Marner film came out after my time as even though it was an O-level set text, it has turned out to be one of my favourite novels.

Out of the films on the list I like A Man for All Seasons best -but that is probably because I have never had to study the play.

[Whimsey]

Is anyone else old enough to remember the seriously bad TV versions of the entire Works (well, Plays) that was made in something like the 70s? They had great casts, but the production values were zilch, and the performances were just SOOOOOO wooden and tedious. Really enough to put anyone off.

Personally, I have a fondness for the American High School Versions of Shakespeare. I wonder why they haven't done Much Ado yet - it would be a gift for that teenage setting.

I also really like the McKellan RichIII - watch him put a glove on with one hand! Amazing. I saw him do that (twice!) on stage at the National. Stole the show.

I've not yet seen the 'updated' versions on British TV, except the Dream, which wasn't bad - bit overlong, but apart from that. I hear the Much Ado one ends with Hero very sensibly telling Claudio to get stuffed! Go girl!

[Liz]

Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh's Streetcar Named Desire. Definitely a film worth watching in its own right. I do remember writing essays at university on Much Ado based mainly on my memory of the Branagh version...

[Robert Rudolph]

I'm one of those who liked "A Man For All Seasons". The film adaptation ruthlessly stripped out Bolt's Common Man character, a device that could work perfectly well on stage but would be a distraction on film, and boiled the script down to the central conflicts... and did it well.
As far as other adaptations go, the John Huston version of "The Maltese Falcon" is a very intelligent adaptation. Huston helps himself to the best things in the source novel-dialouge, atmosphere, themes. Huston also did a "Man Who Would be King" which is unfaithful to Kipling when it needs to be, and works very well as a film.

[Whimsey]

Has anyone seen the Billie Piper Mansfield Park? The casting was SO appalling that I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it. I still cannot for the life of me imagine what they thought they were doing. Talk about 'casting against type'!

I wonder what some of the other 'casting against type' choices might be. Here (because I'm doing a displacement activity instead of working....) are mine off the top of my head:

* Lilly Allen cast as Beth in Little Women

* Madonnna as Mrs Weasley

* Meryl Streep as Mrs Bennet

* Tom Cruise as Mr Micawber

* Dawn French as Becky Sharp

* Helena Bonham-Carter as Jane Eyre

* Leonard di Caprio as Mr Rochester

* Simon Pegg as Heathcliffe

* Bradd Pitt as Mr Bennet

* Angelina Jolie as Fanny Price

There, that'll do for now. Hmm, let's see if the tooth fairies been getting on with my work in the meantime. NOOOO!! DAMN DAMN DAMN.

[Whimsey]

Forgot!

* Johnny Depp as Bill Sykes.

Actually, thinking about it, he'd be fantastic as BS. Or, indeed, any literary character all. Or, indeed, anyone.....

[William]

Any votes for John Huston's version of The Dead?

[Tom Fleet]

Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon". Definitely the best film adaptation I ever saw. So true to the original, that (at least to my eyes) Kubrick even adapted his cinematographic techniques to try to capture the thrust of the novel, e.g. Kubrick
abstained from close-up shots to emulate the point of view and ethos of the original

[GV]

Why recommend a version of Romeo and Juliet that is thoroughly modernized and partly unrecognizable ?
Zefferelli's Romeo and Juliet is an excellent alternative to reading the book. Set in a renaissance Italy faithful to the story and more than exciting enough even today despite the lack of guns.

[Jay]

The 'Mel Gibson Hamlet' was beautifully done. Authentic settings and managed to be totally gripping even though you knew the story backwards. I have never shown it to a teenager who didn't love it.

[Jay]

'Tom Jones' with Albert Finney - brilliant. 'Les Miserables' with Anthony Perkins .. very long but kept your interest right through. 'The Great Gatsby' with Robert Redford. 'Doctor Zhivago' with Omar Shariff. And best of all .. 'The Princess Bride'.

[Emma]

Nice list there Whimsey - though personally I think Helena Bonham-Carter is such a superb actress she'd be able to play almost any role!

Jane Eyre though, hmm. I'm going through one of my cyclical phases with that book, I hated it in my teens, liked it in my early 20's and now I'm nearing 30 I'm starting to loathe it again... "Reader, I married him" - ick!!!!!!!

[LUCY]

The best film adaptation I have ever seen was the Dame Judi Dench/Sir Ian McKellen version of Macbeth - the production uses very little props and no scenery - just a backdrop of black and the actors/actresses themselves also wear black throughout the production. It sticks to the original dialogue and as there is nothing else to divert your attention it was an excellent way to add to the study of the play.

[Sarh]

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is my vote for the best. They changed a few minor things from the book but not many. A wonderful book and a wonderful film. BTW,the character of Dill was based on Truman Capote who was Harper Lee's neighbor when they were kids. It was also Gregory Peck's favorite film.

[Theda]

Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet is fantastic. Rather long, of course, but also very faithful, and captures just enough nuances from the play to make it useful for students.

Another lovely adaptation is the 1993 Lolita, starring Jermey Irons. Utterly beautiful. It sticks very much to the letter of the book and perhaps misses the point somewhat, but is a vast improvement on Stanely Kubrick's castrated version.

[Bill Earls]

The BBC version of the various Horatio Hornblower stories were quite well done. I've taught "The Lion in Winter" at the college level and used the movie with Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn to much success. Ditto with "A Man for All Seasons," Branagh's versions of both "Hamlet" and "Henry V," and Zefferelli's "Romeo and Juliet" - the latter two cut the original scripts quite severely, but leave in what's important, I think, and both leave students interested in Shakespeare which is the point of using film anyway.

[April]

It has surely GOT to be the 90's BBC adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice"; so very faithful to the book (bar the wet-shirt scene, but few minded that addition...) and brilliantly cast.

[Mark]

The War of the Worlds from Spielberg is a fine movie. The book is a classic.

[J Crann]

A recent contribution that I felt was a great book-to-film transition was "House of Sand and Fog", starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connolly.

Another good one, I felt, was the Alistair Sim take on "A Christmas Carol", titled "Scrooge". That's a seasonal classic for me, and Sim was definitely the best Scrooge.

[perlow]

Totally agree with Theda @ 18:24 re: Lolita with Jeremy Irons!

Also have to add: Titus, based on the Bard's 'Titus Andronicus', with Anthony Hopkins & Jessica Lange. Movie sticks faithfully to the play with all dialogue remaining as written. And have your stomach ready because it is extremely violent, vicious, gory, and Intense! I Love it!

[Whimsey]

No one's mentioned the Merchant-Ivory EM Forster adaptations yet.

So I will.

:)

[sho]

Pride & Prejudice and the Hornblower adaptations were actually made by ITV...

A Passage to India was a bit boring I thought, Whimsey, but I loved Howard's End.

[Whimsey]

I loathe Passage to India - I read the whole stupid book simply to find out what did happen in the damn caves.

Bah!

Hornblower on the telly was spoilt by the actor - irritating man. Goodness only knows how he's regarded as some dreamboat!!! (Probaly a very nice chap, but....)

:)

[Terrence Paris]

Marc Singer ( the Beastmaster !!!) as Petruccio in The Taming of the Shrew - a video of a stage performance. He's great and I can't see anyone not enjoying the performance.

[David Stillaman]

Here in New Zealand Shakespeare has just been made optional (i.e. too difficult- drop it). Instead we have vigorous support of local literary pieties that have little merit...

[Matthew]

The Fay Weldon adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1980) is excellent - better than the 1995 Andrew Davies version, and not afraid of emphasizing feminist themes over the love story. The Olivier version (1940) is also good to watch, with an interesting reversal of the usual form: Elizabeth is Proud and Darcy displays Prejudice.

I also really like Clueless (1995), as an adaptation of Emma, but this probably doesn't help too much with exam revision!

And don't forget Sir Ian McKellen's Richard III (1995).

[Sonia]

Baz Lurhman's 'Romeo and Juliet' was great to study! This guy was brilliant at picking out Shakespeare's topical issues and presenting them in a modern way. Go Baz!

[ED]

I still think Watership Down is a great adaptation... although I haven't seen it for a while. The book has several more Elairai-rah (sp.?) stories in it & as I recall it was these that were cut, meaning the film didn't skip many points of the main plot.

I was a bit remorseful that Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility cut the book's 'cad explanation' scene with Willoughby when Marianne was sick, but I still that that film as a whole is excellent.

The Australian TV adaptation of Anne of Green Gables is brilliant and pretty faithful to those books in the series that I have read.

[Rudi]

The greatest ever adaptation is The Man Who Would Be King. A throwaway short by Kipling turned into a modern British classic by career best performances of Sean Connery and Michael Cain. Cinema at its very best.

[Bongo]

BBC's Pride and Prejudice (90's) is what an adaptation sholuld be, so thorough and precise in every detail! And what casting... Kenneth Branagh's Much ado about Nothing would come a close second.

[Bill C]

"Twelfth Night": with Imogen Stubbs, Ben Kingsley, Helena Bonham-Carter and Richard E. Grant. Lovely.

"King Lear": both the McKellan and Olivier versions.

"The Revenger's Tragedy": with Christopher Ecclestone; Eddie Izzard and Derek Jacobi.Good film of the under-performed Jacobean masterpiece.

"Our Mutual Friend" BBC TV. Gripping.

"The Barchester Chronicles": with Alan Rickman, Donald Pleasance and Geraldine McKewan. High comedy, perfectly performed.

All are excellent films, even if the sets in Olivier's "King Lear" are now somewhat olde-fashioned.

[John Yohalem]

If I were a teacher, I'd assign books that hadn't been filmed yet. And the greatest books never have been WELL filmed, and never can be - Wuthering Heights, Great Gatsby, Huckleberry Finn, The Idiot, Mme Bovary, Lord of the Rings.

[Clayton]

I'm a very big Lawrence Durrell fan. The awful "Justine" directed by George Cukor is a disgrace. "The Alexandria Quartet" is the perfect vehicle for the gifted director, Joe Wright. Come on Joe, you know you can do it.

[Paul]

Let's not forget 'Far From The Madding Crowd' with Alan Bates and Peter Finch. Though a blond Julie Christie was a bit of a departure from the text.

[Victoria]

Speaking as an English teacher, I can tell you that even the best films get very sickening after having to watch them 5 times within 7 weeks, with 2 year 8 classes, 2 year 9 classes, and a year 10 class. Baz Luhrmann, I'm looking at you...

[Emma]

Having watched several films for my English Literature GCSE, they were only ever used to help extend our understanding of the plot. When you're analysing imagery, etc, it's sometimes easy to miss the main point of the plot, as the book is disected so much.
And as some people don't even bother to read the book (no matter how many times they are asked) it ensures everyone's familiar with the story.

[Beth]

Kenneth Branagh's Henry V has to be the best all time classic adaptation. It's just like the Bard would have done it if he had had modern movie technology.