Taking its bearings from Franz K. Stanzel's theory of typical narrative situations, this study examines the narrative structuring of literary works and the way this is transposed into the medium of film. The first section prepares the theoretical ground for the development of a model allowing objective comparison and artistic evaluation of literary works and the film versions made of them, taking full account of the differences between the two media. The second part tests the practical applicability of the theoretical criteria thus established, looking in detail at texts by Thomas Mann, Erich Kästner, Frisch and Döblin, and films by Visconti, Schlöndorff, Jutzi, Fassbinder etc.