Filming Forster: The Challenges of Adapting E.M. Forster's Novels for the Screen

283 Pages·2012·2.607 MB·English

by  Earl G. Ingersoll

F I L M I N G
F O R S T E R
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F I L M I N G
F O R S T E R
The Challenges in Adapting
E. M. Forster’s Novels for the Screen
Earl G. Ingersoll
FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Madison (cid:129) Teaneck
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Published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Co-published with The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowmanlittlefield.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2012 by Earl G. Ingersoll
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and
retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ingersoll, Earl G., 1938–
Filming Forster : the challenges in adapting E. M. Forster’s novels for the
screen / Earl G. Ingersoll.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61147-517-3 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-1-61147-518-0
(ebook)
1. Forster, E. M. (Edward Morgan), 1879-1970—Film adaptations. 2.
English fiction—film adaptations. 3. Film adaptations—History and criticism.
I. Title.
PR6011.O58Z6875 2012
791.43'6—dc23 2011049552
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 The Last Epic: David Lean’s A Passage to India 25
2 A Surprising Success: Merchant Ivory’s A Room with a View 79
3 Breaking Ground: Merchant Ivory’s Maurice 115
4 Another Tuscany: Charles Sturridge’s Where Angels
Fear to Tread 163
5 Handling an Icon: Merchant Ivory’s Howards End 195
Bibliography 251
Index 263
About the Author 273
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I
t goes without saying that no book is produced without the assistance
and support of many individuals who deserve to be gratefully acknowl-
edged for their contributions.
At the risk of omitting some colleagues and friends, I would like
to thank several who come immediately to mind. These include Vir-
ginia Crosswhite Hyde, with whom I edited two collections of essays
on D. H. Lawrence for Fairleigh Dickinson University Press; Gerald
Doherty, whose letters encouraged me to fare forward with the project;
the late George Bahlke, with whom I had the pleasure of discussing E.
M. Forster’s novels and their adaptations; and above all, Louis Greiff,
who generously supported the manuscript of Filming Forster.
I want to thank Photofest for granting permission to reproduce movie
stills from the five Forster films, but especially Todd Ifft for his assis-
tance in expediting what could have otherwise been a long and trouble-
some process of gaining permissions. I have worked on so many projects
with Harry Keyishian, the director of Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, that he seems like “family,” and I would be terribly remiss if I
failed to acknowledge his long and generous support for my efforts. In
its last stages, Filming Forster benefited from the expertise and patience
vii
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viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
of my editors at Rowman & Littlefield, Brooke Bascietto and Lindsey
Schauer, who expedited the appearance of Filming Forster.
Most of all, I need to thank my patient wife, Mary, who put up with
me through years of work on this project, and what’s more, proofread
the galleys with me.
Earl G. Ingersoll
December 2011
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INTRODUCTION
O
nly the naive could approach the subject of film adaptations without
a clear sense of walking into a minefield. Most of those who begin stud-
ies of film adaptations in the twenty-first century are well aware of the
long, and troubled, tradition of adaptation studies, reaching back into
the middle of the past century with the publication of George Blue-
stone’s book Novels into Film (1957).1 Although some adaptation studies
were conducted by film specialists such as Bluestone, most have been
undertaken by specialists in literature, who have often ended by indict-
ing adaptations for failing to be “faithful” to the novels on which they
were based. Over the decades many film specialists would undoubtedly
have preferred it if film adaptations simply went away—and for good
reason. For many in film studies, adaptations represent the lingering
traces of a debilitating dependence on an older medium—the novel—
generally considered more prestigious and specifically supported by its
proponents who denigrate film in general and adaptations in particular.
For decades since Bluestone legitimized the study of film adaptation as
an academic sub-discipline, literature specialists have been endlessly at-
tracted to comparative studies, in large part because traditional culture
has seen film as a threat to “literature” and to reading as a cultivated
activity. Comparative analysis of films and the novels on which they are
1
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