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Book versus film at the archive

HERE’S some fun from the National Film and Sound Archive. 

“My Brilliant Career.” Image courtesy of Margaret Fink Films
A new exhibition of film posters at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia looks at the old book vs. film divide, highlighting some of the many screen adaptations of Australian novels and plays held in the NFSA’s collection.

“Great Adaptations: Words to Image” ties in conveniently with the National Year of Reading 2012, as it explores the argument about which is better, the book or the film, an argument, the archive points out “which continues to polarise and entertain bibliophiles and cinephiles.”

CEO Michael Loebenstein says the exhibition features once popular but now rare Australian film posters, including those based on classic historical novels like Henry Handel Richardson’s ‘The Getting of Wisdom (1978) and Miles Franklin’s ‘My Brilliant Career’ (1979).”

Inspired by audiences’ love of a screen adaptation, filmmakers and scriptwriters engage in what writer Hunter Cordaiy has called “this delicate transfer of words to image.”

Producers, directors and screenwriters are more concerned with how to make a film faithful to the spirit of a text while creating something entirely new and how to produce a screen adaptation within the constraints of time, budget and skill.

An extensive list of film adaptations, with clips and curatorial notes is available on australianscreen online.

The public can also vote for the best adaptation of an Australian novel or play, the NFSA’s Facebook page.

Venue Foyer Gallery, National Film and Sound Archive until February 2013 Inquiries to 6248 2000. Cost FREE

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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