Since the earliest days of the cinema, books have been adapted for the big screen. Even George Méliès borrowed his fantastic universe from writer Jules Verne for the short film A Trip to the Moon (“Le Voyage dans la lune”) (1902). Other examples include The Mystery of the Yellow Room (“Le Mystère de la chambre jaune”) and the Perfume of the Lady in Black (“Le Parfum de la dame en noir”), adapted from the work of Gaston Leroux by Emile Chautard and Maurice Tourneur in 1913, or The Three Must-Get-Theres (“L’Etroit mousquetaire”) by Max Linder (1922), a magnificent adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s novel, or even Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – of which the first adaptation was made in 1925.
Film adaptation of literary works poses technical and aesthetic challenges. But it is also an process which, due to the various successes and failures of the genre, is sometimes thought of as problematic. Adaptations can sometimes be seen as theft or misappropriation of a work, as a betrayal, or as a crutch for the filmmaker’ imagination, and also sometimes as very faithful to the original work.