Patricia Highsmith on Screen

by Wieland Schwanebeck (Editor), Douglas McFarland (Editor)

Overview

This book is the first full-length study to focus on the various film adaptations of Patricia Highsmith’s novels, which have been a popular source for adaptation since Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1952). The collection of essays examines films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Two Faces of January, and Carol, includes interviews with Highsmith adaptors and provides a comprehensive filmography of all existing Highsmith adaptations. Particular attention is paid to queer subtexts, mythological underpinnings, philosophical questioning, contrasting media environments and formal conventions in diverse generic contexts. Produced over the space of seventy years, these adaptations reflect broad cultural and material shifts in film production and critical approaches to film studies. The book is thus not only of interest to Highsmith admirers but to anyone interested in adaptation and transatlantic film history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783319960494
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	10/09/2018
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture
Edition description:	1st ed. 2018
Pages:	294
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Wieland Schwanebeck is Assistant Lecturer at the Institute of English and American Studies at Dresden University of Technology, Germany. He has recently edited Reassessing the Hitchcock Touch (2017).

Douglas McFarland is Retired Professor of English and Classical Studies at Flagler College, USA. He is the co-editor of John Huston as Adaptor (2017).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Patricia Highsmith on Screen, Douglas McFarland and Wieland Schwanebeck.- 2. The Dark Side of Adaptation, Thomas Leitch.- Section I: Doubles, Copies, and Strangers.- 3. “I Meet a Lot of Guys—But Not Many Like You”: Strangers and Types in Highsmith’s and Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, Bran Nicol.- 4. Strangers on a Park Bench: From Highsmith to Alfred Hitchcock to Woody Allen, Klara Stephanie Szlezák.- 5. Tom Ripley’s Talent, Murray Pomerance.- 6. Ripley Under Ground and Its Illegitimate Heirs, Wieland Schwanebeck.- Section II: Queer Encounters.- 7. Queer Ripley: Minghella, Highsmith, and the Anti-Social.- David Greven.- 8. The Price of Salt, Carol, and Queer Narrative Desire(s), Alison L. McKee.- 9. “Easy Living”: From The Price of Salt (78) to Carol (EP), Robert Miklitsch.- Section III: Aesthetic, Mythic, and Cultural Transaction.- 10. Adapting Irony: Claude Chabrol’s The Cry of the Owl, Douglas McFarland.- 11. With Friends Like These: Wim Wenders’ The American Friend as Noir Allegory, Christopher Breu.- 12. Hans Geissendörfer’s Psychological Noir: West-German Adaptations of Patricia Highsmith Novels, Erin Altman and William Mahan.- 13. Authorship and Scales of Adaptation in Chillers, Kristopher Mecholsky.- 14. The Two Faces of January: Theseus and the Minotaur, Catherine McFarland.- Section IV: Adapters in Conversation.- 15. Memories of The American Friend, Wim Wenders.- 16. "Highsmith really writes films", Hans W. Geißendörfer.- 17. “An interesting lack of sentimentality", Hossein Amini.- 18. “Highsmith was the queen of guilt", Phyllis Nagy.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This outstanding essay collection ranges over Highsmith’s entire oeuvre, examining adaptations by directors as different as Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, and Wim Wenders. In addition to illuminating essays by distinguished film scholars, it presents insightful interviews with several filmmakers about their philosophies and methods. Highsmith fans and scholars of film adaptation will learn a great deal and find much to appreciate and discuss in this excellent volume.” (Mark Osteen, Loyola University Maryland, USA)