October Novels to Films
by muffy
Winner of Best Film at the 2008 Boston Film Festival and an official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival, Appaloosa is adapted from a western by Robert B. Parker . Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch are lawmen for hire, imposing the rule of the gun on 1883 Appaloosa, a chaotic frontier town in the New Mexico territory, in the grip of a ruthless rancher named Randall Bragg. Their progress, as well as their long-standing partnership is threathened when Allison French, a young widow comes to town. The New York Times film review called this a "cunning, understated sex comedy".
Blindness is based on Nobel-laureate Jose Saramago's novel - a compelling story of humanity in the grip of an epidemic of mysterious blindness. The National Federation of the Blind is protesting that the film "would do substantial harm to the blind of America and the world", portraying them as "incompetent, filthy, vicious and depraved". This film was selected to open the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival.
In Choke, based on Chuck Palahniuk's novel, sex-addict and colonial theme-park worker, Victor Mancini, has devised a complicated scam to pay for his mom's hospital bills. He pretends to choke on food in a restaurant and the person who "saves" him will feel responsible for Victor for the rest of their lives. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Check out The New York Times review.
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