There have been great film versions of plays, and disappointing adaptations too. What is required to make a good transition from stage to screen?
After seeing Carnage,
I emerged having been entertained but with one nagging criticism on my mind: it
was stagey. Yasmina Reza’s play “The God of Carnage” arrived on the big screen
as a funny, well-acted, good piece of entertainment, but one that just isn’t
very cinematic.
There have been some great films based on plays, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Casablanca and various screen adaptations of Shakespeare. There have also been some adaptations which just don’t
feel at home on the big screen. Doubt
and The History Boys were two prime
examples of films which still felt constrained by the limitations of a
Proscenium Arch.
