Sense and
Sensibility
Ang Lee, 1996,
Columbia Studios
• Adaptations of
drama
– Shakespeare
– Oscar Wilde
• Adaptations of
short stories
– King – The
Shawshank
Redemption
– Baricco – The
Legend of the
Pianist on the
Ocean
ADAPTATION
Geoffrey Wagner
The Novel and the Cinema
TRANSPOSITION - TRANSLATION
COMMENTARY - REINTERPRETING
ANALOGY
Transposition - translation
Commentary – re-interpreting
Analogy
AppFrom text to screenplayr
Text and Screenplay
Direct Speech
Dialogue
Indirect speech and interior monologue or focalization
Dialogue
Voice over or Mental subjective shot
AppFrom
text
to
screenplayr
Approccio testuale
 Plot and narration (diegesis):
 Episodes (→ sequences) preserved,
eliminated, modified (condensed),
added, shifted
From text to screenplay - Sequences
•Norland Park (Chap. 1-5), death of the father, arrival of new owners, Edward’s arrival, family departure. The
beginning of the main love plot: Elinor and Edward.
•Barton Cottage (Chap. 6-15 ): arrival, meeting with Colonel Brandon, Marianne and Willoughby, sudden departure
of Colonel Brandon after receiving a letter, non-declaration of Willoughby and his sudden departure. The setting of
the secondary love plot: Marianne and Willoughby.
•Barton Cottage (Chap 16-25 ) Edward’s visit, after Edward’s departure, arrival of Mrs Jenning’s other daughter,
Charlotte, with husband Mr Palmer and two miss Steeles; departure of the Palmers; Lucy’s revelation of secret
engagement with Edward, invitation to London. Evolution of main love plot.
•London (Chap. 26-41 ) Absence of Willoughby, ball and meeting between Marianne and Willoughby, Willoughby’s
letter, Brandon’s account of Willoughby’s misdeeds with Eliza Williams, arrival of the miss Steeles, dinner at Mr John
Dashwood’s . Party where Lucy meets Mrs Ferrars. Visit of Lucy and Edward at Elinor’s. Another party, Elinor and Lucy
meet Robert Ferrars. Fanny invites the miss Steeles. Revelation of the secret engagement and Edward disinherited.
Brandon’s offer of a rectory. Development of both main and secondary love plots.
•Cleveland (Chap. 42-45): Marianne’s illness, Mr Willoughby’s visit, return of Brandon with mother.
•Barton Cottage (46-end) Marianne’s recovery and growth, news of Mr. Ferrars’s marriage with Lucy, arrival of
Edward, revelation and proposal (not described). Reconciliation with Mrs Ferrars, Edward and Elinor get married, so
do Brandon and Marianne with Willoughby’s regrets.
AppFrom text to screenplay:
Approccio
testuale
From paper to flesh
 Descriptions →setting, location, frames
 Characterization → roles
 (preserved, eliminated, modified)
 Characterization → casting
 Age, previous roles, actors’ private lives
From text to screenplay - age
• Kate Winslet
– 17
• Emma
Thompson –
19???
From text to screenplay - casting
• Edward Ferrars (chap 3)
“Edward Ferrars was not recommended to their good opinion by any peculiar graces of
person or address. He was not handsome, and his manners required intimacy to make
them pleasing. He was too diffident to do justice to himself; but when his natural shyness
was overcome, his behaviour gave every indication of an open, affectionate heart.”
From text to screenplay - casting
• Mr Palmer
Rhetoric Figures
• Synecdoche (part for the whole): body details
(ankle, hand, hair lock)
– “‘Will you not shake hands with me?’ He could not then avoid it, but
her touch seemed painful to him, and he held her hand only for a
moment” (Chap. 28).
– I am sure they will be married very soon, for he has got a lock of her
hair […] I saw him cut it off. Last night after tea, when you and
mama went out of the room, they were whispering and talking
together as fast as could be, and he seemed to be begging something
of her, and presently he took up her scissors and cut off a long lock
of her hair, for it was all tumbled down her back; and he kissed it,
and folded it up in a piece of white paper, and put it into his pocketbook (Chap. 12).
Rhetoric Figures
• Metonymy (contiguity): gifts (hair lock,
flowers, handkerchief)
– Her three notes […] I was forced to put them up, and
could not even kiss them. And the lock of hair […] the
dear lock – all, every memento was torn from me (Chap.
44).
Analysis of relevant changes:
Marianne’s Illness
(Chap. 42) Marianne's feeling, in her head and throat, the beginning of a heavy cold, […] Two delighted twilight
walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there, not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery, but all
over the grounds, and especially in the most distant parts of them, where there was something more of
wildness than in the rest, where the trees were the oldest, and the grass was the longest and wettest, hadassisted by the still greater imprudence of sitting in her wet shoes and stockings- given Marianne a cold so
violent as, though for a day or two trifled with or denied, would force itself by increasing ailments on the
concern of every body, and the notice of herself. Prescriptions poured in from all quarters, and as usual, were all
declined. Though heavy and feverish, with a pain in her limbs, and a cough, and a sore throat, a good night's
rest was to cure her entirely; and it was with difficulty that Elinor prevailed on her, when she went to bed, to try
one or two of the simplest of the remedies.
[…] (chap 43) MARIANNE got up the next morning at her usual time; to every enquiry replied that she was
better, and tried to prove herself so, by engaging in her accustomary employments. But a day spent in sitting
shivering over the fire with a book in her hand, which she was unable to read, or in lying, weary and languid, on
a sofa, did not speak much in favour of her amendment; and when, at last, she went early to bed, more and
more indisposed, Colonel Brandon was only astonished at her sister's composure, who, though attending and
nursing her the whole day, against Marianne inclination, and forcing proper medicines on her at night, trusted,
like Marianne, to the certainty and efficacy of sleep, and felt no real alarm. A very restless and feverish night,
however, disappointed the expectation of both; and when Marianne, after persisting in rising, confessed herself
unable to sit up, and returned voluntarily to her bed, Elinor was very ready to adopt Mrs. Jennings's advice, of
sending for the Palmers' apothecary.
Analysis of relevant changes: From an
anti-Romantic attitude to a mixed one
•
(chap. 13) "On the contrary, nothing can be a stronger proof of it, Elinor; for if there had been any real
impropriety in what I did, I should have been sensible of it at the time, for we always know when we are acting
wrong, and with such a conviction I could have had no pleasure."
"But, my dear Marianne, as it has already exposed you to some very impertinent remarks, do you not now begin to
doubt the discretion of your own conduct?"
•
(chap 48) “Is Mrs. Ferrars at Longstaple?"
"At Longstaple!" he replied, with an air of surprise. "No; my mother is in town."
"I meant," said Elinor, taking up some work from the table, "to enquire for Mrs. Edward Ferrars."
She dared not look up; but her mother and Marianne both turned their eyes on him. He coloured, seemed perplexed,
looked doubtingly, and, after some hesitation, said,"Perhaps you mean my brother: you mean Mrs.- Mrs. Robert Ferrars." […]
Elinor could sit it no longer. She almost ran out of the room; and, as soon as the door was closed, burst into tears of
joy, which at first she thought would never cease. Edward, who had till then looked any where, rather than at her,
saw her away, and perhaps saw, or even heard, her emotion; for immediately afterwards he fell into a reverie,
which no remarks, no enquiries, no affectionate address of Mrs. Dashwood could penetrate; and at last, without
saying a word, left the room, and walked out towards the village.
[…] (chap 49) in what manner he expressed himself, and how he was received, need not be particularly told. This only
need be said;- that when they all sat down to table at four o'clock, about three hours after his arrival, he had
secured his lady, engaged her mother's consent, and was not only in the rapturous profession of the lover, but, in
the reality of reason and truth, one of the happiest of men.