Watched The Women last night (went with parents 241) and even tho i thought it wasnt bad as it was gonna be - thought it was more like a stage play than having any cinematic qualities..mamma mia too suffered from the same effect...any other film you can think of that are less in the medium of cinema more stuck in theatre....

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Glengarry Glenross

Sleuth

 

But these were adapted from stage plays anyway and there are many more.

 

Norma

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

Glengarry Glenross

Sleuth

 

But these were adapted from stage plays anyway and there are many more.

 

Norma

 

but the point is not just a list of films that are adapted from stage plays...more about films thats are too much like stage plays that they could be seen to be totally redundant (i suppose the Sleuth remake counts as this)

 

and Glengarry Glen Ross is supposed to be a good film isnt it.

and Glengarry Glen Ross is supposed to be a good film isnt it.

 

Glengarry Glen Ross is a superb film, and an even better stage play... In the film you get a collision of quite superb screen acting talent - Al Pacino (who's at his very best indeed, as opposed to just going through the motions in utter cr@p like "Righteous Kill" or "88 Minutes" which does nothing but damage his reputation..), Jack Lemmon, Ed Harris, Alec Baldwin, Alan Arkin and Johnathan Pryce....

 

Most of Playwright David Mamet's actual film scripts ("Homicide", "Red Belt", etc) do come across as being quite 'stagey', especially in relation to structure and the actual "mise en scene", but of course, Mamet's origins are in the theatre..

 

I would say that also "Hard Candy" very much comes across like a Play (and I would argue that the stage is where this would've worked better).. You have two characters and basically one main setting... "Swimming With Sharks" is another (Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley), again, two main characters.. You could even make an argument for "The Mist" as being quite stagey too....

Im still quite young so my knowledge in film is quite basic but i think there are very few Shakespeare adaptations that are actually good and are done brilliantly and doesnt look like its just been recorded at the back of the Globe Theater. I think the "modern" version of Romeo and Juliette from not too long ago was absolutely brilliant. Apart from the fact its set in modern times, its still very different from the Romeo and Juliette that i studied.