Explain why literary flexibility is important in judging the merits of a screenplay using the films Pride & Prejudice, adapted from Jane Austen’s book and directed by Joe Wright, and Chasing Amy, directed by Kevin Smith

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. Judging the merits of these two excellent screenplays requires a certain literary flexibility because each is skillful in its own way.
2. Deborah Moggach’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice preserves much of the book’s 1813 literary style. To modern ears, the dialogue sounds rather formal and polite. Stylized period dialogue requires first-rate performers like these—actors who can infuse the language with a sense of suppressed passions.
3. The screenplay of Chasing Amy is profuse with slang, jive, and four-letter words galore. These people love to talk and talk and talk. The dialogue is funny, sexy, filled with surprises.
4. Critic Stephen Farber noted: “The scene in which Alyssa explains to Holden that she fell in love with him not because she was programmed by society but because she chose him as an individual is one of the most stirring testaments to the mystery of love that the movies have ever offered.”
5. Both screenplays are strongly “literary” in the sense that there is a genuine sense of pleasure in demonstrating the intellectual precision, wit, and emotional richness of the English language. One is stylistically complex, feminine, and imbued with idealism; the other is raunchy, quicksilver funny, and emotionally powerful.