October 31, 2003

'Human Stain' From Page to Screen: Self-Invention to Self-Revelation

By JULIA M. KLEIN

The art of film adaptation involves purposeful distortion. Even the most faithful adaptations of the most cinematic novels require compression and concision -- which lead, in turn, to restructuring, new scenes, changed characters. Like translators of poetry, adapters face a dilemma: Should one opt for literal meaning, or for what the film director Robert Benton calls "the perfume" of the original? Either way, some nuances will be lost, some themes subtly -- or not so subtly --