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Girl with a Pearl Earring: The screenwriter's point of view
What was the motivation behind changing the ending ever so slightly?
The end of the book is a 'ten years later' jump. You can do that in a book because you can go back and you can reflect. But in a film you are strictly in the linear experience. Having a 'ten years later' at the end of this very intense story between two people would ostensibly let the tension out. And there was also a practical consideration, which is that you've got a 17 year-old girl and you're gonna suddenly make her look 30. It's a bit creaky. So I had both an aesthetic and a very practical consideration in mind.
I wanted to convey the sense of openness and possibility about the ending. I think what the book does, and what I didn't wan t the film to do, is to tie everything up completely so that you know what's happened and where everybody's gone. I liked the fact that this was the beginning of Griet's life and that she had potential to do things with it.
What kind of books do you like reading?
I read a lot and pretty widely. I read a lot of biography now, which I think is one of those things you grow into somehow. I remember hearing other people saying they read biography and finding it so dull in my twenties, and now I've begun to find it more interesting myself. Partly because what's thrilling about fiction is that it's organisation, and biography is obviously lacking in organisation. Fiction-wise, I love Coetze, I love Henry James, and I'm just reading The Life of Pi, which is great fun.
Is it hard for you to read for pleasure? Do you find that you're constantly coming up with ways books can be adapted for the screen?
Yes and no. If a book is good enough you then forget you are a screenwriter. If I'm really enjoying the book, although I might have that thought process going on somewhere, it's not bothering me. Whereas, if I'm reading something that someone sent me and I'm not really enjoying it, then I start to wonder, 'well they must have thought there's a movie in here somewhere. Why am I not seeing it, and what could it be?' And then I become obsessed with that, rather than just getting on with the book. There are some books that I read and it's a pleasure for me to see that they are 'unfilmable'. It's a personal predilection to look at a book and think, 'nah, you couldn't do that one,' but they're not necessarily my favourite books.
Girl With A Pearl Earring is out on January 16th
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Created: 13/01/2004 Updated: 15/01/2004
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