In my adult life, I've not been much of a film viewer. Having only determined one or two films worth the time, I was never independently sure what was good for me -- and I'd rather not waste the time it takes to find out.
I'd been without cable from age 19 to only recently, at 32 -- a capitulation rather than an independent thought of my own. It's been okay, though. I like watching Power and Politics on the CBC.
In any case, I've always filled more of my downtime with reading and crafts.
Our 3U course has an assignment where students read texts in small groups and then compare them, individually, to their subsequent movie versions.
I have really enjoyed cultivating lists of novels and memoirs I love with film versions, watching those film versions - largely in disappointment - and then reading very validating essays about how the film version of Silver Linings Playbook was an offensive depiction of mental health in comparison to the beautiful sensitivity of the novel version, for instance.
However, I get bored easily. It's why I'm the oddball teacher to request three preps, and it's why I teach myself new skills constantly. Life is too fascinating to just coast comfortably until I die.
Ergo, I need new book choices for this assignment. I decided to do something different here - instead of my usual route of having read the book and THEN watching the film, I did the opposite. I picked a film I somehow enjoyed previously (despite the presence of Hugh Grant) and read the book.
The film I encountered because a former colleague years back used it as a pairing to discuss the topic of bullying in a novel our classes were reading.
As a general rule that I can say with confidence now having done this narrative reversal of film before text: owing to narration, depth, directorial choices and cut scenes, the text is always better.
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