Adaptations - From Short Story To Big Screen

Film feeds off literature as sharks off a marlin’, film theorist George Bluestone once said. Stanley Kubrick was a compulsive reader, sometimes tearing through a book a day in his constant search for new material. Alfred Hitchcock told of imagining the shape of a film, then having to search for a story to fit his visualization. Howard Hawks claimed that the hardest part of making a movie was finding a good story and then figuring out how to tell it.” [From the introduction of our short story anthology.]

Did you know that many of your favorite movies are adaptations from short stories? Each week we will read a short story (from 10 to 40 pages) and then watch the film adaptation. From noir, to sci-fi, to horror, to westerns. Was the story faithfully translated, or did the director seek to convey a feeling, rather than plot details? Did an “auteur” director make the story their own, leaving the original author “in the dust” so to speak? Perhaps the author wrote the screenplay. What changed in the adaptation from story to screen?

Join us for this 14 week SDG, where we will explore these questions and more. The source anthology includes 35 short stories that have been adapted to film. We covered 14 of these films in Part I of this SDG. Join us for 14 more stories and 14 more films!

The final list of films, discussion leaders, and presentation dates will be determined at the pre-meeting.

Golden Age of Japanese Cinema

Samurais, courtesans, actors, ghosts! In the 1950s into the early 1960s four magnificent Japanese filmmakers made some of cinema's crowning achievements: Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujiro Ozo and Masai Kobayashi. Their films are set in Japan's historical past or in a fast-changing contemporary society. The films question power, hierarchy and the glorification of war, sometimes employing the supernatural and uncanny. They also look at the meaning and continuance of traditional Japanese culture in post-war society and the family's role in that world. Mizoguchi and Ozu's films, especially, explore the situation of women, past and present, in patriarchal society. Five of our films were named as the greatest ever made in Sight and Sound's latest 100 Best Films. 

In this Film Studies SDG, we'll cover historical background, cultural context , and, importantly, how the art of film--narrative, mise-en-scene, cinematography, music, sound, editing, acting--expresses meaning and a director's unique vision. We will do scene analyses that illustrate this artistry.  

Edith Wharton's Best Novels

Edith Wharton is rivaled only by Henry James in her ability to represent the repressed emotional undercurrents swirling through the upper classes during America's Gilded Age. In this SDG we will read her two finest novels, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (1905) and THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1920). Both these novels explore in penetrating detail the constraints placed not only on the lives of women, but also on those of men living in a society dominated by "good manners" and "respectability." We will also watch the two excellent film adaptations of these novels, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, directed by Terence Davies, starring Gillian Anderson and Eric Stoltz (2000), and THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Winona Ryder, Jeremy Irons and Michelle Pfeifer (1993).

The Magonistas and the Birth of the Mexican-American Population - A Revolutionary History

In her revolutionary new history of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, "Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire and Revolution in the Borderlands" (Norton, 2022), Kelly Lytle Hernandez reframes our understanding of U.S. history.

Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magón, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers—and American dissidents—to their cause. Determined to oust Mexico’s dictator, Porfirio Díaz, who encouraged the plunder of his country by U.S. imperialists such as Guggenheim and Rockefeller, the rebels had to outrun and outsmart the swarm of U. S. authorities vested in protecting the Diaz regime. The U.S. Departments of War, State, Treasury, and Justice as well as police, sheriffs, and spies, hunted the magonistas across the country. Capturing Ricardo Flores Magón was one of the FBI’s first cases.

But the magonistas persevered. They lived in hiding, wrote in secret code, and launched armed raids into Mexico until they ignited the world’s first social revolution of the twentieth century. Taking readers to the frontlines of the magonista uprising and the counterinsurgency campaign that failed to stop them, Kelly Lytle Hernández puts the magonista revolt at the heart of U.S. history. Long ignored by textbooks, the magonistas threatened to undo the rise of Anglo-American power, on both sides of the border, and inspired a revolution that gave birth to the Mexican-American population, making the magonistas’ story integral to modern American life.

Kelly Lytle Hernandez is a MacArthur ("Genius") Fellow. Bad Mexicans has received the following awards: Winner of the Bancroft Prize (2022) • One of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2022 • A Kirkus Best World History Book of 2022

One of Smithsonian's 10 Best History Books of 2022 • Longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction • Shortlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction • Shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize • Longlisted for the Cundill History Prize

Florentines from Dante to Galileo--The Transformation of Western Civilization

The 400 years between the birth of Dante and the death of Galileo are among the most dazzling in history. As said in the title of our Core Book, it led the “Transformation of Western Civilization.” Florentine humanism promoted the ideas of common humanity and reason, rather than faith alone. These ideas began and flourished in Florence. It argued the importance of this world, as opposed to complete concentration on the next world. Its artists are regarded to this day as among the greatest ever, as travelers to Italy can attest. Its businessmen and bankers pioneered trade and banking. Its leaders were sometimes ruthless, but fostered the progress of Florence all these fields. In literature, it produced Dante, Petrarch, Bocaccio and Machiavelli. In science, it produced Galileo and that led to the debate (still going on) between religion and science. In politics, the Medici family were the political leaders for much of our period—they were uniquely talented and produced four important popes--and the Borgias exercised ruthless leadership.

This SDG will focus on the people who made Florence into the transformative place that it was, including the works they produced and the lasting results. They are among the giants in each of their fields. They are shown in the list of weekly topics. In the course of discussing each of them, we will necessarily deal with the history of Florence and the political, social and religious context in which each of them lived and worked. To understand Florence is to understand the Renaissance and the Core Book emphasizes how the lives of the individuals contributed to this transformation of society.

The Core Book, Paul Strathern’s “The Florentines—from Dante to Galileo—The Transformation of Western Civilization,” is well written and reads easily. There are, of course, many books dealing with the history of Florence, some of which are listed in the Bibliography, and many books and on-line articles dealing with the individuals. It is anticipated that Presenters will include art works and literary excepts.

Beethoven: An Introduction to His Life and Music

Every once in a while there comes a person who castes a shadow so large that we can’t help but feel its shade, and Ludwig van Beethoven was one of them. 

It's impossible to over-emphasize Beethoven’s impact on Western culture. He single-handedly moved classical music into the modern age with works that today still sound new. And what’s even more astonishing is that his achievements were in spite of huge adversities throughout his life from the debilitating deafness that plagued him from early adulthood to unrequited love and the critics and audiences who simply weren’t able to understand his work. But by the time of his death Beethoven had defined a new cultural age and inspired such extraordinary fervor that his funeral was attended by more than 20,000 people. His music and personality have captured the imagination of successive generations of composers and listeners to an extent unmatched by any other composer.

Over 252 years since his birth, his music still speaks from his heart to our hearts. His 9th Symphony was played during the fall of the Berlin Wall. It has been sung by a chorus of 10,000 in Japan. It is the anthem of the European Union. And Beethoven’s 9th Symphony is the most requested piece in the annual poll taken of listeners of local radio station KUSC. There is even a statue of him in Pershing Square in downtown Los Angeles.

The year 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. Sadly many celebrations had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the publication of several important new books on his life and works moved forward. Among them was our core book by Oxford University professor Laura Tunbridge. Meant for a general readership, the book takes the novel approach of exploring his adult life by a different topic in each chapter which the author associates with a non-technical analysis of one of his compositions, using a different genre in which he composed in each chapter. Since the book does not address the first 30 years of Beethoven’s life, there will be a second core book, a biography by music critic John Suchet along with several of Beethoven’s early compositions.

This sdg is meant to be an introduction to Beethoven and only a sampling of his many works can be included. Participants will be provided with YouTube links to each of the compositions that we will study so that they can listen to them at home. Excerpts may be played in class to enhance the discussions.

Both Tunbridge and Suchet only briefly touch upon the magnificent 9th Symphony in their books, but we will be spending a whole session on this masterpiece using mostly online references as a guide. The Wikipedia article alone is 30 pages. Written while he was profoundly deaf, the message of hope for worldwide friendship that is contained in the choral 4th movement, the Ode to Joy, is emotionally uplifting to all who understand its message.

The Chancellor - The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel

This SDG will be a human more than a political exploration of Angela Merkel, and is based on the highly readable core book, The Chancellor, by Kati Marton. Marton is a perfect author for a deep dive into the complicated background that shaped this enigmatic German Chancellor, whom Harvard called “a pivotal Democratic figure widely regarded as the most respected woman leader in the world.”

Trained as a Quantum Chemist, this East German raised daughter of a Pastor in an atheist leaning environment was sorely underestimated and even called “Mädchen” or “my girl” by German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Kohl’s miscalculation of Merkel’s abilities led to the loss of his political career.

Angela Merkel learned how to assert power by observing powerful men. This woman, with “unshakeable confidence” does not think that the “arc of history bends towards justice” -- "instead she is an action-driven optimist with a sharp awareness of human frailty.” -- “Hubris, is a male weakness, as Merkel’s attitude toward Putin and Trump suggests.” -- “As a woman in power she has more urgent things to attend to than ego,” states Marton.

Kati Marton’s own story, whose childhood was spent in communist controlled Hungary, adds enormous depth and understanding to the environment so crucial to the formation of Merkel’s complex character. Marton’s career as an award-winning NPR correspondent and ABC News Bureau Chief in Germany gave her a close-up study as she explains how Merkel isn’t who we think she is.

This SDG will look at how Merkel’s near photographic memory, ravenous appetite for work, unique physical stamina and unusual scientific approach to solutions contributed to the chance to serve and do good as Germany’s first ever woman Chancellor, successfully reelected for 16 years and the second longest serving leader of the western world.

Our core book is a compelling read. We hope you will join us for a deep dive into this fascinating, powerful, and truly unique woman.

Southern Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s was a pivotal era in American history, marked by significant social and political change. It led to landmark legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights acts of 1965. It inspired a generation of artists, musicians and writers and helped to create a new sense of identity and pride among Black and other marginalized groups. The struggle for equality, justice and human rights continues today and by studying the historical events we can perhaps better understand some of the issues of today such as voting rights, racial justice and police reform.

Julian Bond (1940-2015) was a civil rights activist and leader, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, veteran Georgia state Representative and Senator, and, for over two decades, taught a master class at the University of Virginia on the history of the Civil Rights Movement. His teaching assistants gathered his lectures and, in 2021, published Julian Bond's Time to Teach, A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement.

For this SDG, we, too, will take Bond’s class by reading and discussing his lectures in Time to Teach. In these 22 chapters we will learn what Bond wanted his students to learn: “to see the movement in its full complexity, to understand what it took – the strategy and the organizing, the many many people who pushed it forward and the many, many people who stood in its way – was necessary to understanding our one way forward.” The class begins with the founding of the NAACP, the impacts of World War II and the Supreme Court’s landmark Brown decision. It continues with boycotts, marches, freedom rides and carries us through the anti-Vietnam War and Black Power Movements. To teach about the Southern civil rights movement was a way to carry it forward to a new generation and [Bond] thrilled to this. It was a way to disrupt the stultifying, politically convenient myths – the master narrative – that had grown around the movement. That narrative, Bond quipped, reduced the movement to “Rosa sat down, Martin stood up, then the white folks saw the light and saved the day.”

In addition to Time to Teach, we will use Taylor Branch’s The King Years, Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement which is a compact edition of his historical trilogy on America in the King Years. We will also supplement our reading with articles and videos such as the outstanding 14 part documentary Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement, narrated by Julian Bond.

These Truths: A Fresh Look at American History from 1492-2018

Our country started with promise and promises. Not all of those promises of equality, sovereignty, and consent, were achieved or were even achievable.

In our core book, the Harvard historian Jill Lepore, in one volume, encapsulates the history of this country from the 1600s through 2018. It articulates the confusion of facts and fiction that have always been with us, as well as the deep and contradictory currents of our society continually swirling. It is not just another history book, although it is a pleasure to read, and seems painfully honest and without excessive political bias, although some reviewers have expressed concern. Based on recent history it seems conservative in its prognostications post 1916 and omissions not material to the underlying theme. It was the basis for a successful SD/G in Winter of 2020.

The question which it raises is if America has, and ever could have lived up to its stated ideals or whether a nation conceived in revolution must always be chaotic, questioning whether the simplistic view of democracy ever worked. It leads us through U.S. history from Columbus up to and through the 2016 election. Its answer is in many ways disturbing, as it shines a light on the American experiment. She says:

“The American experiment has not ended A nation born in revolution will forever struggle against chaos. A nation founded on universal rights will wrestle against the forces of particularism. A nation that toppled hierarchy of birth only to erect a hierarchy of wealth will never know tranquility. A nation of immigrants cannot close its borders. And a nation born in contradiction, liberty in a land of slavery, sovereignty in a land of conquest, will fight, forever, over the meaning of its history.”

The story told contains much information that is new and fresh, and insights which need to be considered, even if rejected. Almost every page, while introducing us to new historical figures and clarifying others, is readily applicable to our present political, social and foreign policy situation. Its focus is pointing out the counterbalancing ideas and movements during this period, highlighting people and events including some that we either do not learn about or fail to understand in context.

It’s a big sweeping book. It covers the history of political thought, the fabric of American social life over the centuries, classic “great man” accounts of contingencies, surprises, decisions, ironies and character, and the vivid experiences of those previously marginalized: women, African-Americans, Native Americans, homosexuals. It encompasses interesting takes on democracy and technology, shifts in demographics, revolutions in economics and the very nature of modernity.

It includes the relationship of the races from the early days, the impact on the secular polity of religious revivals, the ongoing and pernicious response of the South to the Civil War and thereafter, , the role of media, including the sometimes interchangeable connection of polling and advertising to political discourse, the important role of women and how moral issues were the key to their admission into politics and the franchise, our history of authoritarianism and attention to important and interesting people that appear in other histories only in footnotes.

This is a great and fresh way of viewing the entire panorama of our history from well before the 18th century through 2016 and its aftermath in one well written and thoughtful volume.

Jefferson said that the American experiment rests on three “self-evident” truths: political equality, natural rights and the sovereignty of the people. Her question is the extent to which the United states has lived up to its ideals. In history, many had the idea that in America, there existed the Lockean “state of nature,” a place for new beginnings. They weren’t looking hard enough at its past.