James M. Cain s Mildred Pierce And The Movie Version ``

There is a common belief, in modern and traditional film industry, that almost every adaptation (loose, faithful and strict) from novel to film is considered a backslide or a disloyalty to the original author and readers. However, in 1945 Warner Bros. produced the movie Mildred Pierce based on the same name novel written by James M. Cain. This film not only became an exception in this general view, but also amazed the audience and even Cain himself by extraordinary performances and unique edit technique and literary point of view. There are a few distinctions between Cain’s Mildred Pierce and the movie version, mostly with the ingenious use of different point of views in several specific film scenes. In this paper, I want to discuss more about on that subject which are listed as follows. Literary point of view is the perspective through which a story is communicated to our audience in order to influence the way we interpret, examine and analysis the film. In the novel version, Cane generally takes a 3rd person point of view to objectively present the struggle life Mildred experiences in order to reflect the bigger picture of contemporary American social and domestic conflicts after World War I. Also a few 1st person (inside) point of view was added in the form of Mildred’s emotional status and moral activity to emphasize her resolution to give Veda a more elegant live. On the other hand, the movie takes a completely different approach to narrate the story by partlyShow MoreRelated Themes in the Novel and Movie Adaptation of James Cain’s Mildred Pierce1573 Words   |  7 PagesThemes in the Novel and Movie Adaptation of James Cain’s Mildred Pierce In contemporary film making, â€Å"Hollywood-ization† generally refers to the re-creation of a classic work in a form more vulgar and sexually explicit than the original in an effort to boost movie attendance. After all, sex and violence sell. However, from the mid-1930’s to the 1950’s, â€Å"Hollywood-ization† referred to the opposite case where controversial books had to be purified to abide by the Production Code of 1934.[1]Read More James M. Cains Novel Mildred Pierce: Comparing the Book and Movie Version869 Words   |  4 PagesJames M. Cains Novel Mildred Pierce: Comparing the Book and Movie Version Mildred Pierce is one of the greatest novels written by James M. Cain. After the success of the novel, the Hollywood film came out, produced by Jerry Wald. The novel and the movie are very different from each other. â€Å"James M. Cain sent several letters of complaint to producer Jerry Wald, objecting to the changes Wald wanted to make, especially the dramatic idea of making Veda a washout musically and putting her inRead MoreJames M. Cain s Mildred Pierce765 Words   |  4 Pagesalteration of the content to fit the form and standards of the new medium. Adapted from 300-page novel to a 2-hour movie, Michael Curtiz’s Mildred Pierce is a prime example of a loose Hollywood adaption that makes drastic changes in characters, narrative configurations, and framing structure to conform to the standards and expectations of American cinema. Most ostensibly, the movie employs murder as a framing device and a hook to draw the audience’s attention to Mildred’s story, th erefore transformingRead MoreThe Studio System Essay14396 Words   |  58 Pages1920, Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount Pictures, over the decade of the 1920s helped to fashion Hollywood into a vertically integrated system, a set of economic innovations which was firmly in place by 1930. For the next three decades, the movie industry in the United States and the rest of the world operated by according to these principles. Cultural, social and economic changes ensured the demise of this system after the Second World War. A new way to run Hollywood was