Writer/director Tony Gilroy's take on Stephen King's Dolores Claiborne is one of the most underappreciated achievements in King adaptations and screenwriting. The 1995 film, directed by Taylor Hackford and starring Kathy Bates (who won a Best Actress Oscar for Misery a few years before), is a serious, adult drama rendered mostly in cool hues perfect for the beginning of fall. So I threw it on to watch today.Bates is the titular Dolores, suspected of a murder we seem to witness in the opening scene, as well as the murder of her husband decades before. When her daughter Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh) returns to the family home, past and present blend together, sometimes in the same moment, as Dolores faces encroaching memories. The fact that it became one of King's favorite adaptations suggests Gilroy found something essential in the material.Here are a few takeaways for writers from the film. - YouTube www.youtube.com Transform Structure, Not StoryGilroy's first major lesson comes from recognizing when source material demands radical restructuring. King's novel was essentially a monologue—one woman giving a confession, with Dolores questioned about the death of her employer. It wasn't very cinematic.Referring to the novel, Gilroy told Salon, "It had some really fascinating angles, but the whole narrative was one long slog of a monologue from Dolores, which made it feel one-dimensional, and to be honest, raw and unrevised." It probably seemed like an impossible challenge. But his version transformed that work into a complex, non-linear narrative that captures the essence of...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday