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African Writing Projected onto the Screen: Sambizanga, Xala, and Kongi's Harvest

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Josef Gugler
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Abstract:

Three films serve to explore the metamorphosis involved in translating written fiction onto the screen. Text and screen have different requirements, but there is often also a change in intended audience between written fiction and film—as demonstrated here in the cases of Xala and Kongi's Harvest. Neither such change in intended audience nor the level of funding bears a relationship to the striking difference in the quality and the success of the three films examined in this essay. The comparison among these films instead raises issues that affect all film making: the director's training and experience, and the relationship between the director and the producers. The comparison furthermore suggests two issues that are specific to the transformation of a novel or play to the screen. There is first of all the relative ease or difficulty of transforming very different texts. And there is the risk that the text may come to dominate the picture because of its stature or because of the relationship between author and director.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Trois films servent ici à examiner l'adaptation à l'écran d'un texte de fiction. Le texte et l'écran ont des exigences différentes, mais il y a aussi souvent un changement de public visé par le texte écrit et le film, comme c'est le cas ici de Xala et de Kongi's Harvest. Ni un tel changement de public, ni le niveau de financement n'ont de rapport avec la grande différence de qualité et de succès entre ces trois films. Par contre la comparaison entre ces films renvoie à des contraintes communes au cinéma: la formation et l'expérience du metteur en scène et aussi le rapport entre le metteur en scène et les producteurs. En outre elle soulève deux problèmes spécifiques à l'adaptation d'un roman ou d'une pièce de théâtre à l'écran. Notons d'abord que la transformation de textes si divers est plus ou moins aisée. Et il existe aussi le risque que le texte finisse par dominer l'image, soit à cause du prestige de l'auteur, soit à cause des rapports entre celui-ci et le metteur en scène.

Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , April 1999 , pp. 79 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999

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