New Exhibit Honors Virginia Film Festival

October 30, 2008 — In honor of the 21st annual Virginia Film Festival (Oct. 30- Nov. 2), the University of Virginia Library announces the opening of a new exhibition, "Adaptation: Translating the Novel into Film," curated by Margaret Hrabe.

The development of the motion picture as an entertainment form produced a lucrative collaboration between the arts of literature and film.  Once film emerged as a means of telling a story, it was inevitable that the novel would become a prime source for motion picture adaptation. Early 20th-century film director D. W. Griffith once said: "The task I'm trying to achieve is above all to make you see."  Film makers have pursued the challenge to make us see by attempting to transform the visual image in the reader's mind into the sights and sounds of the silver screen. Titles featured in the exhibition include The Red Badge of Courage, Ben-Hur, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Sun Also Rises, and Of Mice and Men.

The exhibition is on display until February 2009 in the barrel-vaulted hallway on the first floor of the Albert & Shirley Small Special Collections Library and the Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture.

Film Festival Fellow Hamid Naficy will give the Virginia Film Festival's keynote speech, "From Accented Cinema towards Multiplex Cinema," in the Auditorium of the Harrison Institute/Small Special Collections Library tomorrow, Thursday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

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