Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created and hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new ‘top ten’ challenge is posted – anyone can join in. This week’s topic is a freebie so I’ve picked my top ten book to movie adaptations.
I’m the person that won’t see the film unless I’ve read the book. And most often I prefer the book (or perhaps I simply prefer the experience of reading rather than watching a film?!). But in some cases, films are PERFECT translations of the book, the characters and scenes unfolding just as you imagined. And sometimes a film not only does a book justice but makes it better. Yes, really. My top ten book to movie adaptations are the books that I think rocketed into awesomeness thanks to a fabulous film…
1. A Room with a View – a Merchant Ivory masterpiece.
2. Gone with the Wind – Vivien Leigh IS Scarlett.
3. Anne of Green Gables – perfection.
4. Twilight – honestly, the book isn’t the greatest thing ever written… but that first kiss… wowsers.
5. Red Dog – despite the saying ‘never work with kids or animals’, this book/film about a dog is brilliant.
6. Puberty Blues – an Australian classic. Still as relevant today as it was then. The film makes the book all the more scary.
7. Alice in Wonderland – I loved this movie simply because it was mostly from my preferred Alice story – Through the Looking Glass.
8. Bridget Jones’s Diary – don’t you love it when casting is spot on?!
9. The Hotel New Hampshire – the eighties Brat Pack… I miss you! And of course a list is not complete without John Irving (it was really a tie between Hotel and Cider House Rules).
10. And although not released yet, I have GREAT hopes for Baz Lurhman’s The Great Gatsby and the upcoming movie of Les Misérables.
Honourable mentions to The Outsiders, White Mischief, The Joy Luck Club, The Reader, Atonement, All the Rivers Run, Less Than Zero, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Romeo & Juliet, The Devil Wears Prada, Pride & Prejudice (BBC series), About a Boy, Les Liaisons Dangereuses (The Dangerous Liaisons) and The Lovely Bones.