Title: African Writing Projected onto the Screen: Sambizanga, Xala, and Kongi's Harvest
Abstract: Three films serve to explore the metamorphosis involved in translating written fiction onto the screen. Text and screen have different requirements, but there is often also a change in intended audience between written fiction and film-as demonstrated here in the cases of Xala and Kongi's Harvest. Neither such change in intended audience nor the level of funding bears a relationship to the striking difference in the quality and the success of the three films examined in this essay. The comparison among these films instead raises issues that affect all film making: the director's training and experience, and the relationship between the director and the producers. The comparison furthermore suggests two issues that are specific to the transformation of a novel or play to the screen. There is first of all the relative ease or difficulty of transforming very different texts. And there is the risk that the text may come to dominate the picture because of its stature or because of the relationship between author and director. R6sume: Trois films servent ici ' examiner l'adaptation t l'acran d'un texte de fic- tion. Le texte et l'cran ont des exigences diff6rentes, mais il y a aussi souvent un changement de public vise par le texte &crit et le film, comme c'est le cas ici de Xala et de Kongi's Harvest. Ni un tel changement de public, ni le niveau de financement n'ont de rapport avec la grande diff6rence de qualit6 et de succes entre ces trois films. Par contre la comparaison entre ces films renvoie a des contraintes com- munes au cinema: la formation et l'experience du metteur en scene et aussi le rap- port entre le metteur en scene et les producteurs. En outre elle soulkve deux prob- lmes specifiques t l'adaptation d'un roman ou d'une piece de thettre l'6cran. Notons d'abord que la transformation de textes si divers est plus ou moins aisle. Et
Publication Year: 1999
Publication Date: 1999-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot