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You Can Please Some of the People Some of the Time… None of the People All of the Time: A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More!
Dr. Rosanne Welch speaks on A History of the Art of Adaptation in Movies like Dune, The Godfather, Harry Potter and More! at the California State University, Fullerton Library
Part of the program series for Dune by Frank Herbert: A 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Watch this entire presentation
Transcript:
…and that’s the story that people remember if they saw the movies. When this book came out, it was compared to “The Catcher in the Rye.” It was considered that kind of novel for girls. It was a “coming of the age.” She decides whether or not to have sex with a couple of the guys. it’s entirely up to her. There’s really nothing wrong with it. It’s a fascinating story that has been totally destroyed by the way it was turned into a film and it became a bubble gum film about a cute girl on the beach with cute boys. Totally, totally, cut the knees off of that book. Right? And she wen’t Hawaiian. She went to Rome. I mean it just became this cutesy-pie girl trying to find a boyfriend. Not the point of the novel at all. So the movies completely destroyed it to the point that we don’t teach Gidget in school. But you all probably had to read “The Catcher in the Rye.” Everybody. Right? we read the boy’s coming of age story. We don’t read the girl’s coming of age story. And I think that’s a huge mistake. I didn’t read Gidget until I was in my 40’s. And I went “Oh, it’s a cool book. I don’t know why anyone didn’t give this to me.”
Read a story about the “real” Gidget in Hollywood Digs
About this talk
Dr. Rosanne Welch (RTVF) speaks on the craft of history of film adaptations from the controversy of the silent film Birth of a Nation (protested by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1915) to Breakfast at Tiffany’s (to which author Truman Capote famously said, “The only thing left from the book is the title”) to The Godfather . Naturally, the behemoth in adaptation – Harry Potter (which depended on the relationship created by adapter Steve Kloves and author J.K. Rowling) will be discussed, as will the subject of this month’s celebration: Dune.
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2015 Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
About Dr. Rosanne Welch
Dr. Rosanne Welch is a professor in the Low Residency MFA in Screenwriting Program from Stephens College, California State University, Fullerton, Mount San Antonio Community College and Cal Poly Pomona. In 2007, she graduated with her Ph.D. in 20th Century U.S./Film History from Claremont Graduate University. She graduated with her M.A. in 20th Century United States History from California State University, Northridge in 2004.
Welch is also a television writer/producer with credits for Beverly Hills 90210 , CBS’s Emmy winning Picket Fences and Touched By An Angel . She also writes and hosts her own podcasts on 3rdPass.media, her first one titled “Mindful(I) Media with Dr. Rosanne Welch.”
Her upcoming book, “Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture” will be published in Fall 2016
Three Ring Circus: How Real Couples Balance Marriage, Work and Kids and The Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space are two books she has written. Los Angeles Times and the Journal of Screenwriting hold some of her published articles.
