A collaborative cinematic project?
Adapting Hein’s Willenbrock
In discussing
his first literary adaptation, Andreas Dresen, arguably one of Germany’s top
film directors, alludes to tensions underlying the process of adapting literary
work for the screen which have characterised adaptation studies since its
inception; in
Leitch’s words, “the field is still haunted by the notion that adaptations
ought to be faithful to their ostensible sourcetexts.”
Yet when the film in question, Willenbrock,
is produced within four years of the novel of the same name, the book’s author,
Christoph Hein, is one of the leading figures of contemporary literature and
proves sufficiently interested to be present on set, and the leading actor,
Axel Prahl, is a household name, not least through regular appearances in Tatort, the pressure to compare film and
novel, on author, director and actor, let alone critic, is perhaps never
greater.
Modern
adaptation studies, however, lie intrinsically on the edge, resisting simplistic
approaches which pit one version against the other or seek to prove which
version is better, more authentic, aesthetically superior. In this act of
resisting, they seek instead to highlight approaches which unlock the
complementary and mutually challenging nature of different tellings of related,
yet different, stories, to lay bare the unique techniques upon which
alternative media can draw, and to reveal the complex network of genre and
cultural tradition within which producers of both literary and cinematic works
act.
Against
this background, this paper explores to what extent key players (director,
writer and actor) bring the experience of their individual crafts to a dynamic,
collaborative process which may enable a new telling of the Willenbrock tale to
emerge.
Katharina Dockhorn, ‚Verdrängung
ist lebenserhaltend‘‚ Interview
mit Andreas Dresen, 12.03.05 filmecho-filmwoche
Nr 10
Thomas
Leitch, 2008. ‘Adaptation Studies at a Crossroads’, Adaptation, 1/1, pp. 63-77, p. 64.