Saturday, April 20, 2013
Differences in the movie
Well as we all know the movie was significantly different from the book in quite a few ways. The directors kept out a bunch of what I though were important parts. We did talk about how those parts may not have "flowed" was well in the film, but I think they could have made them work. The Cambodian Grand March in the novel was one of my favorite scenes, and I thought it was important. It showed how Franz never really got what he wanted and that he died essentially under control of the person he hated. Franz wasn't a big character in the movie so I sort of understand why they excluded this scene. Another part they kept out was Teresa and Tomas going back to the train station to get her suitcase. This would have shown how she was committed to him and left all she had for him. It also would have shown Tomas's reluctance towards commitment. One thing they added was the part when Tomas saw Teresa in the pool, as we talked about in class. This adds to the story of how they met and stuff. Overall it was a weird but pretty good film.
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3 comments:
I liked the movie and I thought it was a really good interpretation of the book, but I felt like it didn't fully show the extent of Tomas's infidelity and Tereza's insecurity surrounding his affairs. In the book, Tomas consistently sleeps with other women and pursues erotic friendships. Tereza is also constantly tormented by nightmares about his infidelity. While the movie definitely made it known that Tomas had affairs and Tereza was bothered by it, I expected it to be more of an issue in the movie.
I couldn't agree more that the movie was indeed different and after reading these comments as well as some on a separate thread, I've come to think that the movie was more geared towards the motif of romance between Tomas and Teresa than anything else, which would explain the underwhelming appearances of important and semi-important characters like Franz or Simon. It would also explain the ending of the movie, where we see Tomas and Teresa alive and happy together nonetheless, painting the picture of a oddly fulfilled (considering how the book and the movie to some degree have Tomas and Teresa and irrelevantly Sabina and Franz struggling to find what they want) life between the both of them right before their inevitable deaths.
I was bothered by the fact that nothing about Tereza's past was included. I felt that her relationship with her mother and her experience growing up in a "concentration camp" type home is essential in her character development and identity. That background is what leads to her, almost tragic, relationship with Tomas and her insecurities with her body. I knew it would be almost impossible to convey some of the important themes in the book, especially body vs spirit, which is emphasized in relation to Tereza's character. I did not, however, expect for them to exclude everything relating to her mother. I felt that would have been easy to portray.
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