Films based on Graphic Novels

Yep, well deserving of a vote. I liked Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence too. Did you see the recent live action one with Scarlett Johansson? I wasn't expecting much from the film, but was still left a little disappointed. For a Scarlett Johansson film, Under the Skin was haunting.

I already voted for Oldboy (more people should see this, but watch the original Korean version and not the US remake), and now I will add a vote for Persepolis. It's a beautiful animated film based on a graphic autobiography, which makes it all the more poignant to me, and the story remains very relevant to our world.

I'll also give a vote to Snowpiercer because maybe no else would. It's one of my favourite modern speculative fiction films (features the venerable John Hurt, Tilda Swinton and Ed Harris amongst others). I think The Host, which has become a cult film, by Bong Joon-ho is my favourite of his.

And because no else would vote for the 20th Century Boys trilogy, I will (the title references the T.Rex song).

By the way, Jean, I withdraw my recommendation of Blue is the Warmest Colour (which frankly, I didn't like that much). The fact that it's too straight girls pretending to be lesbians and it has the most ridiculous ten minute sex scene, and that the trailer wasn't enough to pique your interest, does not, in my opinion, make it worth recommending. I had hoped that Persepolis might be of some interest (but if not, that's cool). And sorry if I came across like you're not keeping enough of an open mind when it comes to Graphic Novel adaptations (I also think that your topic is more interesting).

From rottentomatoes:

Marjane is precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl who was nine years old during the Islamic Revolution when the fundamentalists first take power--forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. She cleverly outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden, while living with the terror of government persecution and the Iran/Iraq war. Then Marjane's journey moves on to Austria where, as a teenager, her parents send her to school in fear for her safety and, she has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Marjane eventually gains acceptance in Europe, but finds herself alone and horribly homesick, and returns to Iran to be with her family, although it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.

You mentioned some voluntary work with refugees as I recall, so I thought the subject matter might interest you (I could very well be wrong). It resonates more with me since I have so many Persian friends whose families left because of the Ayatollah Khomeini's rise to power.

Edited by Logan - July 31 2018 at 13:01

Edited by BaldJean - July 30 2018 at 12:28

the thread about "very little known movies that deserve more interest" interests me much more, but apparently hardly anyone else but Friede and me


Edited by BaldJean - July 30 2018 at 11:53

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: Logan wrote: Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: Can't believe someone voted for A League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, that movies was a steaming pile.   It's no "The League of Gentlemen" -- available on BritBox for those that have the service https://www.britbox.com/ca/season/The_League_of_Gentlemen_S1_8466 Now that is a fantastic show!

It's one of my favourites. I was so happy to see the the three part special in December of last year. Would have loved to see the stage shows too. The radio show was fun too. For those looking to listen to some comedy, if people here can drag themselves away from listening to albums (I regularly listen to radio comedies on BBC iPlayer, the On the Town with the League of Gentlemen radio series is available at https://archive.org/details/TheLeagueOfGentlemenBBCRadioRip
I don't think that Reece Shearmsith or Steve Pemberton would mind me mentioning that it's been archived, but BBC might. Mea culpa. I listen to more podcasts and radio programs than I do music, which might be considered heretical here by some (maybe I'll tweet Reece, he's surprisingly responsive).

I also love other Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton shows such as Inside No. 9 and Psychoville, and of course Mark Gatiss has had huge success.

Edited by Logan - July 30 2018 at 11:42

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: Can't believe someone voted for A League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, that movies was a steaming pile.

It's no "The League of Gentlemen" -- available on BritBox for those that have the service https://www.britbox.com/ca/season/The_League_of_Gentlemen_S1_8466

BaldJean wrote: I am actually not really interested to see a movie based on a graphic novel. the result will in my opinion very rarely turn out to be satisfying. there is one graphic novel series that I might be interested in to watch, but it would have to be a movie or movies with a lot of CGI. and that's the "Canardo" series by SOKAL

Rarely should be the operative word. I'm generally not really interested to see a film because it is based on a graphic novel, but that doesn't mean that I won't be really interested in seeing films that happen to be based on graphic novels. Tale some time to explore these titles, and I do think you'd find something that might interest you or you would enjoy. I will talk about it more later, but Blue is the Warmest Colour is one that you might find some appreciation for.

There's actually considerable variety in the list, and there is another that I forgot to include when I lost the original which is a traditionally shot, low budget live action film which does not rely on special effects. Some are big budget action films with CGI, some use traditional cell animation, some are more art house films, some are superpower-type films etc. The variety of storytelling and styles in these types of films can be as endless as other films. I'm not much of a reader of graphic novels, preferring traditional novels, but I do believe that they can inspire great films. I don't discriminate.

Take Blue is the Warmest Colour, which is a French bold and beautiful film of Sapphic Love (erotic and not one, by my standards, for kids) which, surprisingly to me, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes when Steven Spielberg was head of the jury. It's win did surprise me because I think it is, in part, softcore porn. I mean, many great artistic French films often are -- my wife and I loved Betty Blue for instance, and another blue in more ways than one film. Now I want to redundantly talk about Kieslowski's Blue.



A film like American Splendor is different from, say, Watchmen (there I remembered to omit the "The"). Akira is different from V for Vendetta in execution. Persepolis is a beautiful film and faithful, and is very different from Sin City. A History of Violence is very different from Ghost in the Shell. One I missed in this hastily redone list after I lost my first (which took a long time to prepare as I was writing something about each of these films) is The Diary of a Teenage Girl, which again is so different from, say, Snowpiercer. Oldboy is very different to Edge of Tomorrow etc. 20th Century Boys is very different to Wanted. The Mask (one I'm not keen on, though I love some later Carrey films such as Eternal Sunshine..., Truman Show, Man in the Moon...), is very different Road to Perdition etc.

Again, I'm relatively confident that it you were to explore these films in the list, you would find something to like and, perhaps, would then find that you might be interested in seeing other films based on graphic novels in the future (oftentimes one wouldn't guess that they were, or might be, based on graphic novels any more than one might guess that a film was based on a novel that one wasn't aware of). Me, I tend not to discriminate based on the source medium. One can make enjoyable films based on great literature, Graphic Novels, radio plays, news stories and so on. Inspiration comes from many sources.

Edited by BaldJean - July 30 2018 at 08:55

I've seen a few of these and Watchmen is the best I've seen (It's not "The" Watchmen btw).

Blue is a warm colour edges Persepolis (that an anime, which is IMHO not a movie proper)