Page and Screen

The Telegraph looks at what a good film can add to a classic book.

On the other hand, a film can show us in an instant, with a light touch, what it takes a novel two or three pages laboriously to describe. The collaborative nature of filmmaking means that more intensive creative work often goes into a film than into the original book, so a greater clarity can be achieved. Clumsy plot implausibilities can be elegantly sidestepped. And literal "fidelity" may not be the point: a film that stays true to the spirit of a book but finds its own ideal form is more likely to be a success than one slavishly adhering to the letter of the original's law.