I think these are good screen-interpretations of classic literature.
1. The Postman Always Rings Twice by James Cain. With Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. Steamy with Lana and John too.
2. Double Indemnity by James Cain. With Babs and Fred MacStoneFace. Noir at its best. Eddie G. is so cool in this movie.
3. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. With Daniel Day-Lewis and Michele Pfeiffer. Directed by Scorcese. Beautiful period settings, clothes, manners.
4. The Sand Pebbles by Richard McKenna. With Steve McQueen. Prestige epic: violence plus ideas, what a rare combo for Hollywood. Teenage boys used to read this kind of thing back when teenage boys read.
5. The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham. With Naomi Watts. Superb production values, excellent acting. The Garbo version is worthless unless you are a Garbo fan.
We sometimes hear in reading challenge land "movie takes you to the book is cheating." No way for two reasons. Movie versions are often so loosely based on the source novels that inevitably the book is better than the movie on almost every score, plot, incident, believablity of characters and motivation, etc.
Second, one right as a reader is the right NOT to have to defend our taste. We avid readers read to develop our own unique authentic tastes and it is not for anybody else to be passing judgements on what we read or how we came to read it (or how much we read but that is another thread).
Naysayers would sneer at including McKenna, Cain, and Maugham on a list of writers of classic lit, but frankly my dear I don't give a - hey, how could I forget - but wait that novel is in bad odor nowadays....
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