We brought Jonathan Coe (Guest Director 2011) and Francine Stock (Guest Director 2012) together in order to discuss From Page to Screen, and the ideas behind the UK’s only festival of what founder Nic Jeune calls “the art of adaptation”. Their conversation ranged over all the elements that make From Page to Screen what it is, from the festival itself and their very different approaches to programming, to why the film industry is still so dependent on literary sources for material, how film can actually bring something to a book in order to improve upon it, and the different approaches to adaptation itself. As Francine says “if you can get a discussion with the writers as well, especially when there are books where people feel they have some kind of ownership on because they’ve already read them then it’s just like 3D book club isn’t it?”

 At last year’s festival, we were thrilled to have novelist Jonathan Coe as Guest Director of From Page to Screen. On his appointment, he said “I’ve always been fascinated by the relationship between film and the written word, and was delighted to discover that there is now an entire festival devoted to this very subject. The opportunity to play a role in shaping the festival was simply too interesting to pass up.”  FPTS 2011 as all who were there will remember, was a triumph, with highlights from Kazuo Ishiguro on Never Let Me Go, Bill Forsyth on Housekeeping, Nicholas Mosely on Accident and screenings of some of Jonathan’s favourite adaptations including They Were Sisters, The Innocents and The Dead. It was a brilliant week, and Jonathan’s dedication to the programme and the spirit of the festival has gone a long way in establishing From Page to Screen as among the UK’s unmissable film festivals. Not only this, but his enthusiasm for the role the festival plays in Bridport itself was also infectious; ”What’s nice about the festival is for those four or five or six days in Bridport it has such a buzz around it and it becomes kind of the focal point of the town” he said “you have a sense that that discussion is going on all the time all around you… the festival does become a very living thing in the days in which it is taking place.”

This year, we are absolutely thrilled to have Francine Stock taking over from Jonathan. As a novelist, critic, presenter of Radio 4’s The Film Programme  and author of this years In Glorious Technicolor: A Century of Film and How it has Shaped Us, Francine’s enthusiasm, passion and film knowledge promises great things for this year’s festival.

 On her appointment, Francine said….“I’m thrilled to be taking this Bridport journey from page to screen. Literature continues to be the treasure chest for filmmakers; fiction and non-fiction adaptations still dominate the release schedules. Yet a faithful treatment of a beloved book is not enough to create screen excitement. As readers, we might feel that we absorb the characters and plots of books but the relationship to film is more volatile – by turns visceral or haunting – and it makes particular demands. Adaptations that are free and bold, sideways or tangential may capture best the spirit of the words. I look forward to sharing with you some outstanding examples.’

Everyone involved in the festival is thrilled to have Francine onboard; her tireless enthusiasm so far has made the programming up to this point very fun… juggling what looks at the moment like 22 films over five days is not always easy, and our problem so far has been fitting all the ideas into what seems an increasingly restrictive schedule! So thank you Francine, for everything.

 As Francine says “if you can get a discussion with the writers as well, especially when there are books where people feel they have some kind of ownership on because they’ve already read them then it’s just like 3d book club isn’t it?” Maybe that is what it should say on our t-shirts this year.

Tomorrow, the full length conversation between Jonathan Coe and Francine Stock!

…. With cinemas all over celebrating Valentine’s Day with special screenings, not least the BFI screening Casablanca, and the magnificent Future Cinema’s new venture The Other Cinema launching with Brief Encounter at The Troxy, there’s no denying the role that romance plays in our relationship with film. As a special treat, I asked our Guest Director Francine Stock which are her favourite romantic adaptations. And here’s what she said… 

“It’s a heartbreaker but Max Ophul’s Letter from an Unknown Woman evokes yearning with more power and beauty than almost any other film I can think of. It’s a hopeless Valentine in itself… By contrast, who can resist Sailor singing to Lula in David Lynch’s Wild at Heart . There’s passion”.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Today marks the bicentennary of Charles Dickens. This snapshot of  a few of the many hundreds of films from his books marks the BFI’s Dickens season through January and February. Enjoy!

Go to the BFI website to see the other ways they are marking the bicentennary

And we too will be marking this at From Page to Screen 2012…..

One grey day in January, Jonathan Coe, guest director and hero of the 2011 festival, met Francine Stock to hand over the reins of power and the mantle of responsibility to her as Guest Director 2012. Their conversation flowed over the festival itself, the nature of adaptation and what Francine hopes to achieve with the festival this year. The complete and unmissable conversation will be on the blog next week, but here as a little tease, are The Best Bits.

With many thanks to Adrien Munden for the beautiful filming, editing and music.