Fantasy Film Festival: Librarian’s Delight
We at CHHQ have noticed lately–being in a contemplative state of mind these days, as fall descends–that we talk quite a lot about books being adapted to film. Say what they will about books being better than films, the reading public does love to see its favorite books on the big screen, and we are no exception. Fantasy casting for these things is practically a full-time job, right?
But if there’s anything we like better than books made into movies, it’s movies made about books. There’s a bit of a disconnect, here: watching people read is, to quote a certain CH brother, like watching cement harden. So how does the book-loving filmmaker pay homage to the love of reading without making audiences wish they’d brought a book to the theater? We offer a selection of book-centered films for those between-books moments.
84, Charing Cross Road (1987): Based on the wonderful nonfiction book of the same name, Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft exchange twenty years of bibliophilic letters across the Atlantic.
You’ve Got Mail (1998): Nora Ephron’s tribute to children’s books (and Pride and Prejudice), and the people who love them. Among other things, ridiculously quotable. May also be about e-mail.
Stranger Than Fiction (2006): A man discovers that he’s a character in a novel and can hear the writer’s narration.
The Ninth Gate (1999): Johnny Depp plays a rare-books dealer searching for a work written by…wait for it…THE DEVIL! (Mwahahaha!) Pretty good except when for a few unintentionally hilarious moments. (Sorry, Johnny. We cannot tell a lie.)
Possession (2002): A pair of Literature grad students study the relationship between a pair of Romantic-era poets. Do you see where they’re going with this? It’s a metaphor, people.
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