A film review, published in NZ press today:
Oh dear.
Two things emerge from this fixture. First, a public service: Knox might have saved you a couple of hours. Second, feel free to suggest other authors who have reacted in similar fashion - or maybe, should have.
The author Elizabeth Knox lay in bed and cried for days after watching Niki Caro's film adaptation of her acclaimed book The Vintner's Luck.
Knox, who got to see the film only days before its first public showing, says she was shocked and upset by how much it departed from her story.
"She took out what the book was actually about, and I was deeply surprised and deeply puzzled by it, because I don't know why she did it."
The film did have virtues, including its visual beauty and the actors' performances, Knox said.
"But I kept expecting the story that I'd written to happen."
The movie opened in New Zealand last week. It has received a critical drubbing both here and overseas, but Knox has kept her reaction quiet until now because she wanted viewers to decide for themselves.
The book centres on a 19th-century gay romance between an angel, Xas, and a French peasant winemaker, Sobran Jodeau.
But the film reduced that relationship to little more than the angel giving advice about wine, Knox said.
"The film doesn't do the gay romance. It has a vague gay flirtation that amounts to nothing and it has quite a lot of heterosexual sex in it."
Immediately after seeing it, Knox wrote an email to Caro praising much of the movie but also calling it a "betrayal" for its treatment of the relationship. She received a response that was polite, but a "great big cop-out", she said.
Knox, who got to see the film only days before its first public showing, says she was shocked and upset by how much it departed from her story.
"She took out what the book was actually about, and I was deeply surprised and deeply puzzled by it, because I don't know why she did it."
The film did have virtues, including its visual beauty and the actors' performances, Knox said.
"But I kept expecting the story that I'd written to happen."
The movie opened in New Zealand last week. It has received a critical drubbing both here and overseas, but Knox has kept her reaction quiet until now because she wanted viewers to decide for themselves.
The book centres on a 19th-century gay romance between an angel, Xas, and a French peasant winemaker, Sobran Jodeau.
But the film reduced that relationship to little more than the angel giving advice about wine, Knox said.
"The film doesn't do the gay romance. It has a vague gay flirtation that amounts to nothing and it has quite a lot of heterosexual sex in it."
Immediately after seeing it, Knox wrote an email to Caro praising much of the movie but also calling it a "betrayal" for its treatment of the relationship. She received a response that was polite, but a "great big cop-out", she said.
Two things emerge from this fixture. First, a public service: Knox might have saved you a couple of hours. Second, feel free to suggest other authors who have reacted in similar fashion - or maybe, should have.
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