Hunting and gathering - The book or the film?

I find it interesting with books that are made into films (that's why I bring it up so many times here) but I try to read the book first, as most of the time I find the book is better.
In my last post, I wrote about the book Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda and the evening I finished the book I also saw the film (with the same name). The film stars one of my favourite actresses Adurey Tautou and had I seen just the film, I think I would have liked it more, but as always with making films from a book, cuts are made.
Unfortunately the film lost so many of the small nuances Gavalda is so good at portraying that make the three main characters more complex. What I missed the most were Camille's painting, there was so much more emotions in her paintings and I would have loved to see Mamadou's full outfit when she finally comes to sit for Camille.
Josefine

Title: Hunting and gathering Author: Anna Gavalda ISBN: 978-91-0-010605-4

Lives of a quiet desperation

Revolutionary Road – Book or Film?

Richard Yates book Revolutionary Road was one of the best books I read last year and I can't believe I'd missed that there is a film based on the book with Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet. So of course I had to rent it.

Where the book fails to capture April Wheeler's all emotions, I think the film highlights 1950s women loneliness better, watching the film, it felt as I was as reading  Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique again. The quiet desperation of many women's lives in the 1950s.
It's a difficult choice to pick the book or the film,they are both exceptionally well executed and I don't think you'd be disappointed picking up either of them.
Josefine

Title: Revolutionary Road Author: Richard Yates ISBN: 978-0-413-75710-4

Eat, Pray Love - Success??

It's difficult for me to understand the fame and success the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert has gained around the world. I do not agree with its fame at all. I'm in Italy and I am bored, how does that happen? I agree with Gilbert and her love for Italy and everything Italian that's why I am so confused with being bored. To me this should be a tale of a beautiful language, good food (after all Italy symbolises the Eat in the title), living La Dolce Vita. How can I possibly be bored? But I am.
The book is an autobiography and my moral conscious tells me to be sensitive about the author's feelings. After all she has been very brave, opening her heart and soul to the world. But it is just not to my taste, too much whining. She's in Italy, fulfilling her dream, a dream most people could just dream about and still she spend most of the time dwelling in her past.
I am curious about the film of the same name, based on the book, however, hopefully Julia Roberts can lift the story.
Josefine

Title: Eat, Pray, Love Author: Elizabeth Gilbert ISBN: 978-1-4088-0866-5

The book or the movie

The set up is perfect, Robert Downing Jr. and Jude Law as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson I was excited to see the result.
I spent December re-reading some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, to be ready for the big release on New Years Day (we are a bit late in Sweden). I had read the reviews and was therefore not as surprised as other people seemed to be of the characters Guy Ritchie had recreated. I thought he had done a brilliant job portraying the two and put some action into the stories.
I liked the movie a lot and would see a sequel when it comes out. What did you think?
Josefine

My recommendations: The Best of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The book or the movie – Take III

Act I
Q & A vs. Slumdogmillionaire.
Vikas Swarup’s story has more power, more drama and intrigues and less direct action and death, which makes it a nicer read but would be difficult to translate to the big screen, as in the case with many other books turned in to movies. The all too familiar dilemma of how to project some things in written form on to the big screen without being cheesy. Taking the book straight out would be too difficult task, if not impossible. Therefore changes have to be made and sometimes these are difficult to make and need to change.

Act II
Knowledge v. love
Swarup emphasises less on love and romance and more on the entire world around Jamal. The screen play has its central role around love and the pre-decided destiny the main character and his lover. It sells movie tickets, yes, but is it really what the story is about? When I read the book I did not get that message at all. The more important things were how he gained his knowledge, even though he is just a slum dog (not judging a book by its cover, would be a nice cliché to use here).

Act III
Judgment
The book wins hands down. I don’t say that the movie is bad. It is just that you might not want to see it as a compliment to the book, but rather see it for its own movie qualities.
The Bollywood influence in the after text is worth staying in your seats for.
Josefine

My recommendations: Bridget Jones’ diary by Helen Fielding

The book or the movie?

It’s the classical question. Every time a book is made into a movie, the discussion among reviewers in the newspapers and on TV repeats all over again. Does the movie give fair credit to the book? What is missing from the movie that was in the book? The questions are the same but the answers are always different.
Generally I fall on the side of the book. In my reading life, what I can remember, I only once thought the movie was better than the book. That was Umberto Eco’s In the name of the rose. In the book, the vivid and lengthy description of the monastery got me out of touch with the story and left me no desire to continue. The movie however had a quicker pace, which moved the story forward and thus making it easier to follow.
It do happens that I think the movie is equal to the book, it is usually because the movie portraits another angle. One book like that is Stephen King’s the Green mile. In the book version of the Green mile, the focus is more on the guard Mr. Paul Edgecombe. While the movie focuses on the destiny and life of the inmate John Coffey sitting on death row.
Now I pass the question to you, which is best, the book or the movie?
Josefine

My recommendations: The hours by Michael Cunningham.