C2DialogueSéries3 min
From Page to Screen
Une romancière et un scénariste se disputent sur ce qui peut rester de son roman dans la série.
Une conversation sur l’adaptation et la fidélité à l’original. Observe les nuances fines entre accord et désaccord, et qui cède à qui à la fin — et pourquoi.
Before you say anything, I know the first ten pages of the script are not in your book.
That is one way of putting it. The first ten pages of your script are not in any book I have ever written. My novel begins with a woman sitting alone in a kitchen for twelve pages. Yours begins with a car crash.
Your kitchen is the best opening I have read in years. It is also twelve pages of a woman thinking, and a camera cannot film thought. On the page, the reader is inside her head. On screen, we are outside her head, looking at a woman not moving.
So you replaced her thoughts with a crash.
I replaced them with the thing she is thinking about. The crash is in your book; it is simply on page two hundred, as a memory. I moved it to the start so that the audience carries it into the kitchen with them. When we finally see her sitting there, they know what she knows.
Which removes the whole point of the kitchen. The reader is supposed not to know. The novel works because the reader spends two hundred pages getting her wrong.
That is a fair objection, and I do not have a perfect answer. Television audiences are less patient than readers, and the people paying for this want them to still be watching after fifteen minutes.
I understand that very well. I simply would rather the series be honest about what it is changing than claim to be faithful and quietly be something else.
Then here is a compromise. We keep the crash out of the opening. We start in the kitchen, but we keep it to three minutes, and we let the audience see one detail that does not make sense yet: the car keys she cannot stop turning in her hand.
Three minutes and a detail. That I can live with. And the crash?
Stays where you put it. End of the fourth part.
You realise you have just agreed with me.
I realise I have just found a better scene. Whether that counts as agreement is a question for your next novel.
Before you say anything: I know the first ten pages of the script are not in your book.
They are not in any book I have written. My novel begins with a woman sitting alone in a kitchen for twelve pages. Your script begins with a car crash.
Your kitchen is a wonderful beginning. But it is twelve pages of a woman thinking, and a camera cannot film thoughts. In the book, the reader is inside her head. On screen, we only see a woman who does not move.
So you replaced her thoughts with a crash.
The crash is in your book, on page two hundred, as a memory. I moved it to the beginning, so that the audience knows what she knows when they see her in the kitchen.
But then the kitchen has no point. The reader should not know. The novel works because the reader has the wrong idea about her for two hundred pages.
That is fair, and I do not have a perfect answer. But television audiences are less patient than readers. The people who pay want them to keep watching.
I understand that. But I want the series to be honest about what it changes.
Then here is a compromise. No crash at the beginning. We start in the kitchen, but only for three minutes, and we show one strange detail: she keeps turning the car keys in her hand.
Three minutes and a detail. I can accept that. And the crash?
It stays where you put it. End of the fourth part.
So you agree with me.
I have found a better scene. Maybe that means I agree with you.
Un clic sur un mot le cherche dans le vocabulaire de ce site.
D’autres phrases sur ce thème dans « La langue en situation » : L’anglais des séries et des films
- Mots
- 364
- Phrases
- 32
- Mots par phrase
- 11,4
- dans le vocabulaire
- 100 %
- niveau mesuré
- B1
- Temps de lecture
- 3 min
La grammaire dans ce texte
Ces formes figurent dans le texte en situation réelle. Avec « Afficher la grammaire », au-dessus du texte, elles sont surlignées.
would rather the series be honest
Après would rather + sujet, on trouve ici la base verbale (subjonctif) : I would rather the series be honest. Le subjonctif anglais →
we let the audience see
let + complément + base verbale : we let the audience see one detail. Faire et laisser : make, let, have, get →
That I can live with
Mise en relief par antéposition : That I can live with. au lieu de I can live with that. L'insistance : I do believe →
Les mots à partir de C2 dans ce texte
Pas les mots difficiles en général, mais ceux de ton niveau : les 2 des 170 mots de ce texte sont au niveau C2 ou au-dessus. Le reste, tu le connais en arrivant ici.
objection
la réclamation préalable
C2series
la série documentaire
C2
Les listes de mots de ce texte
Les mots de ce texte figurent dans 33 listes de ce site ; le nombre qui suit indique combien viennent de chaque liste. Après la lecture, ce sont précisément ces mots dont on a eu besoin — et on peut réviser exactement ceux-là.
Questions de compréhension
5 questions sur le texte. À chaque réponse s’affiche la phrase où elle se trouve — une question dont on ne retrouve pas la réponse dans le texte ne vérifie rien.
1. Comment commence le roman de Clare ?
La première réplique de Clare.
Fais attention au mot « kitchen ».
My novel begins with a woman sitting alone in a kitchen
2. Pourquoi Owen trouve-t-il la scène de la cuisine difficile à filmer ?
Lis la première longue réplique d’Owen.
Fais attention au mot « camera ».
a camera cannot film thought
3. Pourquoi est-il important pour Clare que le lecteur ignore d’abord l’accident ?
Lis la réplique de Clare qui commence par « Which ».
Fais attention à « getting her wrong ».
the reader spends two hundred pages getting her wrong
4. Que propose Owen comme compromis ?
Lis la réplique d’Owen avec « compromise ».
Fais attention aux clés de voiture.
we keep it to three minutes
5. Où l’accident apparaît-il maintenant ?
La réponse d’Owen à « And the crash? ».
Fais attention au mot « fourth ».
End of the fourth part