Captain Corelli's Mandolin

[juliely]

Is the film as good as the book?
I have just finished it and loved it.

[Golden Shred]

Yes. Marvellous. My only grumble is that I play the mandolin and bought it in the hope of listening to mandolins. There are none !! Oh for Troise and his Mandoliers !!!

[sithlord]

Barry Norman reckoned this was the worst adaptation to film that he had ever seen, if thats any help. His favourite (just in case you're curious) was the David Lean version of Great Expectation's.

[Narolines]

As is often the case, the book is 20 times better than the film (in my opinion); nothing wrong with it as a film, but it's a pale shadow of the real thing......

[Narolines]

I think B. Norman may well be right - the Lean Great Expectations is a lesson in how to do it. The John Schlesinger Far From The Madding Crowd isn't bad, either.......though I'm not sure Julie Christie is the ideal Bathsheba. Oh sorry, we were talking about Captain Corelli, weren't we...?!

[dilf]

they change so much of the story to adapt to the audience that they rob it of everything that makes the book special

[jaywhybee]

I thought the film didn't have any of the subtlety of the book. It was ok but over-sentimentalised in my opinion.

[juliely]

Thanks everyone. I will give it a go but not expect too much. In my experience films are never as good as the novel.

[andy-hughes]

For me, the enjoyment of a novel is visualising characters and scenes in my mind. An adaptation obvious plants its own visual and verbal images, which is fine, if it is done well. the critical wisdom of this adaptation, led by Mr Norman, is that the subtleties and narrative flow of the novel have been sacrificed in order to make it more 'filmable', which obviously misses the entire point. I have neither read the novel, or seen the film, but I remember the common thread of the reviews was unaceptable changes to plot lines and characterisations, which you will be aware of from previous posts.

[stevie_c2it]

As is often the case, I'm in agreement with Uncle Andy.

I too, tend to build up my own mental picture of how the characters look and sound when reading a book, that is often at odds with the cinematic directors portrayal.

The only time a film has ever come close to capturing, or reflecting my vision of how it should be, is when Peter Jackson created the 'look and feel' of the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy.

My only advice is to always read the book, especially if you've seen and enjoyed a film based on a book first. You'll appreciate it all the more later.

[MustafaTinkl]

Bella bambino at twelve o'clock !!

[scampchen]

Hi - I'm a tad late coming in here but here goes. I expected to come out of the film feeling slightly teary, considering how things panned out for Pelagia in the end (what a waste eh?) but after the film I could have wept tears of rage as they completely ruined it and cut out the build-up. And changed the ending, which really ****** me off. The soundtrack isn't bad though.