Zusatztext "Writing a novel is like swimming in the sea; writing a film is like swimming in the bath. . . . This short! amiable book is John Irving's personal history of seeing--or not seeing--his novels made into movies. . . . The book digresses charmingly and effortlessly into related subjects. There is a beguiling memoir of his grandfather! an eminent surgeon; a brilliant and passionate argument for the freedom of women to choose abortion . . . observations on the origins of his novels! and so on. . . . Irving remains cooly objective! and it is clear why: he is a novelist! first and foremost! and his attitude toward the movie business is informed by this security and certainty. . . . Irving has done us [writers] proud." --The New York Times Book Review Informationen zum Autor John Winslow Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. He is the author of nine novels, among them A Prayer for Owen Meany and A Widow for One Year. Mr Irving is married and has three sons; he lives in Toronto and in southern Vermont. Klappentext After two producers, four directors, thirteen years, and uncounted rewrites, the movie version of John Irving's acclaimed novel, The Cider House Rules , at last made it to the big screen. Here is the author's account of the novel-to-film process. Anecdotal, affectionate, and delightfully candid, My Movie Business dazzles with Irving's incomparable wit and style.The Ether Addict The plot of The Cider House Rules is far more complicated than the compressed version of the story and its characters that I adapted as a screenplay (over a thirteen-year period, and for four different directors). In the novel, I began with the four failed adoptions of the orphan Homer Wells. By the end of the first chapter, when Homer returns for the fourth time to the orphanage in St. Cloudís, Maine, the orphanage physician, Dr. Wilbur Larch, decides heíll have to keep him. Dr. Larch, an obstetrician and (in the 1930s and í40s) an illegal abortionist, trains Homer Wells to be a doctor. This is illegal, too, of courseóHomer never goes to high school or to college, not to mention medical school. But with Dr. Larchís training and the assistance of Larchís faithful nurses, Angela and Edna, Homer becomes an experienced obstetrician and gynecologist. He refuses to perform abortions, however. The second chapter of the novel describes Larchís childhood and medical-school years, his first internship in Boston, and the experiences that have made him ìa patron saint of orphansî and an abortionist. The history of Homerís failed adoptions and Larchís background are not developed in the screenplay. Larchís ether addiction is developed in both the book and the film, but his sexual abstemiousness, a feature of his eccentricity in the novel, was never in any draft of the script; instead, in the movie, I strongly imply that Dr. Larch may have had (or still has) a sexual relationship with Nurse Angela. I wanted to make Larch more normal. There is less time for character development in a film than in a novel; a characterís eccentricities can too easily become the character. In the movie, I thought Larchís addiction to ether was eccentric enough. In the screenplay, as in the novel, it is both Homerís conflict with Larch over the abortion issue and Homerís desire to see something of the world outside St. Cloudís that make him leave the orphanage with Wally Worthington and Candy Kendallóan attractive couple who come to St. Cloudís for an abortion. But in the book, Homer spends fifteen years away from the orphanageóin that time, Wally and Homer become best friends, Homer falls in love with Candy, and Wally and Candy get married. The passage of time, which is so important in all my novels, is not easily captured in a film. In the screenplay, Homer stays away from St. Cloudís for only fifteen months, Wally isnít Homerís best friend, and Candy is the sexual aggressor in her relationship with Homer....

Autorentext

John Winslow Irving was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, in 1942. He is the author of nine novels, among them A Prayer for Owen Meany and A Widow for One Year. Mr Irving is married and has three sons; he lives in Toronto and in southern Vermont.

Klappentext

After two producers, four directors, thirteen years, and uncounted rewrites, the movie version of John Irving's acclaimed novel, The Cider House Rules, at last made it to the big screen. Here is the author's account of the novel-to-film process. Anecdotal, affectionate, and delightfully candid, My Movie Business dazzles with Irving's incomparable wit and style.

Leseprobe
The Ether Addict The plot of The Cider House Rules is far more complicated than the compressed version of the story and its characters that I adapted as a screenplay (over a thirteen-year period, and for four different directors). In the novel, I began with the four failed adoptions of the orphan Homer Wells. By the end of the first chapter, when Homer returns for the fourth time to the orphanage in St. Cloudís, Maine, the orphanage physician, Dr. Wilbur Larch, decides heíll have to keep him. Dr. Larch, an obstetrician and (in the 1930s and í40s) an illegal abortionist, trains Homer Wells to be a doctor. This is illegal, too, of courseóHomer never goes to high school or to college, not to mention medical school. But with Dr. Larchís training and the assistance of Larchís faithful nurses, Angela and Edna, Homer becomes an experienced obstetrician and gynecologist. He refuses to perform abortions, however. The second chapter of the novel describes Larchís childhood and medical-school years, his first internship in Boston, and the experiences that have made him ìa patron saint of orphansî and an abortionist. The history of Homerís failed adoptions and Larchís background are not developed in the screenplay. Larchís ether addiction is developed in both the book and the film, but his sexual abstemiousness, a feature of his eccentricity in the novel, was never in any draft of the script; instead, in the movie, I strongly imply that Dr. Larch may have had (or still has) a sexual relationship with Nurse Angela. I wanted to make Larch more normal. There is less time for character development in a film than in a novel; a characterís eccentricities can too easily become the character. In the movie, I thought Larchís addiction to ether was eccentric enough. In the screenplay, as in the novel, it is both Homerís conflict with Larch over the abortion issue and Homerís desire to see something of the world outside St. Cloudís that make him leave the orphanage with Wally Worthington and Candy Kendallóan attractive couple who come to St. Cloudís for an abortion. But in the book, Homer spends fifteen years away from the orphanageóin that time, Wally and Homer become best friends, Homer falls in love with Candy, and Wally and Candy get married. The passage of time, which is so important in all my novels, is not easily captured in a film. In the screenplay, Homer stays away from St. Cloudís for only fifteen months, Wally isnít Homerís best friend, and Candy is the sexual aggressor in her relationship with Homer. And in the novel, Homer and Candy have a son, Angel, who they pretend is adopted. Wally, out of love for all of them, tolerates this obvious fiction and his wifeís infidelity. In the screenplay, there is no child and Wally never knows about Candyís transgressions. Developing sympathy, not unlike developing character, takes time; in the movie, I tried to make Homer more sympathetic by making him less responsible for the affair with Candy. I made less of the affair, too. But in both the novel and the screenplay, what precipitates Homerís return to the orphanage, where he replaces Dr. Larch as the obstetrician and the abortionist in St. Cloudís, is his discovery of the relationship between …