✓ ConversationCulture & Curiosity
Why adapting Bret Easton Ellis is so hard
His characters describe violence and sex with the same cold precision they use for designer labels. That tone is hard to film.
Ellis' characters discuss violence with the same detached precision they use for designer labels. Show too little feeling and characters feel empty.
Show too much and the satire vanishes. Filmmakers must decide what graphic content to show.
Some see satire. Others see only surfaces.
The Informers, co-written by Ellis, shows this problem. It dropped his detached style for a preachy drama.
Why it mattersIt shows why adapting Ellis' novels for the screen is so hard.
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