Friday, April 04, 2003
Adaptation: Lesson 4: Embrace Your Inner Weirdo
Charlie Kaufman’s script Adaptation is an adaptation, of a demented sort, of reporter Susan Orlean’s nonfiction book The Orchid Thief. Kaufman reportedly had huge trouble transforming Orlean’s book into a screenplay…so he decided to make the trouble he was having one of the subjects of the screenplay, as well as one of its themes. Susan Orlean, who became a character in Kaufman’s screenplay, seems to share some of Kaufman’s trouble in truly capturing her subject John Laroux. She longs to connect with Laroux's passion. she longs to have some of it.
Adaptation is a good film to review when you’re stuck, because it suggests that perfection isn’t possible, and that Hollywood endings aren’t necessarily what we crave—in life, or in our movies. Charlie Kaufman’s naked neurosis connected with a lot of people, and not just blocked screenwriters. The frustration we feel when we’re unable to capture something, or to do our job right, is a universal one.
Exercise
Try this: the next time you’re having difficulty writing your movie, introduce yourself into a scene. Say you’re having trouble writing a scene between Napoleon and Josephine—Napoleon is anxious to rush off to fight a war, and Josephine is just as anxious to make love to Napoleon one last time. Now, enter you. How might you help or hurt things between them? What would you say?
Charlie Kaufman’s script Adaptation is an adaptation, of a demented sort, of reporter Susan Orlean’s nonfiction book The Orchid Thief. Kaufman reportedly had huge trouble transforming Orlean’s book into a screenplay…so he decided to make the trouble he was having one of the subjects of the screenplay, as well as one of its themes. Susan Orlean, who became a character in Kaufman’s screenplay, seems to share some of Kaufman’s trouble in truly capturing her subject John Laroux. She longs to connect with Laroux's passion. she longs to have some of it.
Adaptation is a good film to review when you’re stuck, because it suggests that perfection isn’t possible, and that Hollywood endings aren’t necessarily what we crave—in life, or in our movies. Charlie Kaufman’s naked neurosis connected with a lot of people, and not just blocked screenwriters. The frustration we feel when we’re unable to capture something, or to do our job right, is a universal one.
Exercise
Try this: the next time you’re having difficulty writing your movie, introduce yourself into a scene. Say you’re having trouble writing a scene between Napoleon and Josephine—Napoleon is anxious to rush off to fight a war, and Josephine is just as anxious to make love to Napoleon one last time. Now, enter you. How might you help or hurt things between them? What would you say?
