In order to play fair I've only included films where I have also read or seen the original source material.
1. The Company of Wolves - Neil Jordan
Neil Jordan worked with Angela Cater to produce a wonderful adaptation of two of her short stories from The Bloody Chamber that is brilliantly evocative of the Hammer Horror films that used to be on late night TV at the weekend.
2. The Remains of the Day - James Ivory
I'd read and enjoyed the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro and was slightly apprehensive about how anyone could adapt such a complex novel. But James Ivory had cornered the market in up-market literary adaptations, the screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is brilliant and both Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson give the performances of their lives.
3. The French Lieutenant's Woman - Karel Reisz
Another superb film from a novel which many people considered unfilmable. Harold Pinter's adaptation solves the problem brilliantly, although the final section is far more Pinter than Fowles. Meryl Streep captures the character of Sarah brilliantly and there is an early cameo from Penelope Wilton in the final section
4. The Lord of the Rings - Peter Jackson
I'd loved the books from the moment I read them and had sat though both the Ralph Backshi part adaptation that was partly animated plus (honest) a one man version on the Edinburgh Fringe. But from the first moments of The Fellowship of the Ring I knew that this was the real thing.
I've even been to a screening where a live orchestra performed Howard Shore's magnificent soundtrack live.
5. Atonement - Joe Wright
Another potentially unfilmable novel which David Hare adapted brilliantly and which was one of the high spots in the first season of our Film Society:
Honourable mentions:
I've read the book and cannot wait to see Cloud Atlas: from what I've read about the film it is magnificent.
I'd read about Adaptation and finally managed to track down and enjoy a copy. this is a film about the writing of a film, with a superb late period performance by Meryl Streep in what must have been a gift of a role.
