KOCHI:The Banner Film Society is presenting for its members and film lovers in the city yet another monthly visual treat. The society will be holding its monthly Banner Film Fest on Sunday, this time bringing forth a set of classic adaptations titled ‘Cinema and Literature’ on screen. The films will be screened at Lenin Balavadi in the Capital city.
The film ‘The Good Earth’ is the first one on the list. A 1937 American drama film directed by Sidney Franklin, is adapted from the novel of the same name, written by the Nobel Prize winning author Pearl S Buck. Showcasing the plight of chinese farmers struggling to survive, the critically acclaimed work starring Paul Muni and Luise Rainer speaks about the gradual rise of a chinese family from an impoverished background to wealth.The newly found position changes the farmer, and by the time he mends his ways it is too late. The film ended up giving Luise Rainer and Academy Award for the Best Actress. ‘The Good Earth’ also earned other awards namely the Academy Award for the Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Director.
The 1956 French-Italian film ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ is next on the list of adapted works. Based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name, the movie directed by Jean Delannoy, starring US actor Anthony Quinn and Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida as Quasimodo and Esmeralda respectively, is the first movie version of the novel made in colour. The French-italian work is also one of the few adaptations to use Victor Hugo’s original ending.
Mike Newell’s 2007 film ‘Love at the time of Cholera’ is one of the films to be screened. The first American fim adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel of the same name, it starred Javier Bardem and Glovanna Mezzogiomo as the central characters, and was the first English language work of the Academy Award nominated Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro. Last but not the least is Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, a 1992 British film directed by Peter Komsminsky. Based on the 1947 book of the same name written by Emily Bronte, the movie also includes the oft omitted second generation story mentioned in the book, that of Cathy, Hindley and Healthcliff’s children.