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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>First things first: I'm new here. Harry
Potter fan since the first book (read it to my son before he was born and
haven't been able to stop). Also, our son is named Harry too. Cept
his full name is Harrison. But his name; Harry Porter, is awful close,
don't you think? ;)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This is an issue I have always been interested
in. When I was much younger, I would read a book and then watch the
movie, or, if I saw a movie and loved it, I would read the book in order to get
a deeper understanding. But sadly, most of the movies are VERY
lacking. I have to agree that Winona Ryder's Little Women was great.
I haven't read A Prayer for Owen Meany but since I enjoyed Simon Birch (flame me
now!) I bet I would love the book so I'll have to look it up. Stephen
King's The Stand was a great movie and the made-for-tv version was as good as it
could have been (King doesn't translate to screen very well).
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Very often the movie is disappointing. If i
haven't read the novel first, I don't tend to notice as much, but if I have, I'm
always upset by what is left out of the story and how the characters are
portrayed. My greatest dream is to have Cameron Crowe's job. To be a
writer and director would be heaven. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Great discussion!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Marilyn Porter<BR>wife to Kile (8/8/98), mom to Harry (11/10/99)<BR>"Making
the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have
your heart go walking around outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=heidit@netbox.com
href="mailto:heidit@netbox.com">heidit@netbox.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=HPFGU-OTChatter@yahoogroups.com
href="mailto:HPFGU-OTChatter@yahoogroups.com">HPFGU-OTChatter@yahoogroups.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, April 24, 2001 7:33
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [HPFGU-OTChatter] "But the book
was better!"</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><TT>An article today at Salon Magazine, at <BR><A
href="http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/04/24/movies_books/index.">http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2001/04/24/movies_books/index.</A><BR>html
was food for thought over breakfast.<BR><BR>My husband & I were talking
about this last week, because of a blurb <BR>in Entertainment Weekly about a
TCM airing of To Kill A Mockingbird - <BR>his favorite book ever (yes, if
Harry had been a girl, we would've <BR>named the baby Harper!) and one of his
favorite movies as well - the <BR>blurb said, to paraphrase, "The movie that
makes it impossible to <BR>say, The book was better!"<BR><BR>Obviously, some
books are better than the movies that were made based <BR>on them. The ones
that come to mind from recent years are The Prince <BR>of Tides, which defiled
an amazing novel, and Simon Birch, which <BR>annihalated all the wonder of A
Prayer for Owen Meaney.<BR>But Cider House Rules was wonderful, Kenneth
Branagh's Hamlet was <BR>amazing (but to show that it's not consistant, his
Frankenstein was a <BR>confusing mess) and I loved Little Women (the Wynona
Ryder version) <BR>but I know others who loved the book as much as I do, and
hated her <BR>adaptation, which was truly a labor of love for her.<BR><BR>The
article talks about how to *read* movies, and wonders whether
<BR>literary-obsessed people can *read* a movie with a look below the
<BR>surface, to see the organization and control that goes into adapting
<BR>and staging a scene.<BR><BR>It's an interesting read - and I'd love it if
some of those who read <BR>it bring a discussion of the writer's concepts over
here.<BR><BR>Any takers?<BR><BR></DIV></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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