Department of Cultural Affairs

By Psyche Cho
Staff Reporter

Ten films adapted from written works on diverse themes will screen at Spot Taipei Film House from April 20 to 27 as part of the Taipei Literature Festival (TLF), in a bid to create a favorable climate for reading in the city.

The films include The Big Picture, a production adapted from US author Douglas Kennedy's same name work, and shot in a new setting in France, and The Skin I Live In, a work by well-known Spanish director Pedro Almodóva based on French novelist
Thierry Jonquet's novel Mygale.
 
The Japanese film My S.O. Has Depression highlights its creative origin in graphic works. "Graphic works are a new form of creation, and the contrast will bring forth new energy," said local documentary film director Mickey Chen in a press conference April 11 in Taipei.

There are also several classics among the selection such as Goethe! and The Merchant of Venice. Other films include The Rum Diary, Diner Escargot, Small World, The Help, and My Back Page. 

Some of the selected films from Taiwan, the US, Japan, France, Germany and Spain were shot in a county other than that where the original text was written, ample evidence that influential literature works are essentially borderless.

"Literature often serves as the material base for film text," said Lin Hui-fen, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government. She went on to say that "audiences will be provoked to refer to the books after they experience the beauty through visual images, therefore initiating another life circle for literary works."

Chen agreed and added that "movies reach a wider audience and help bring them back to books." A filmmaker and keen observer of homosexual issues, Chen was granted a funding by the 8th TLF for his biographical work Taipei Dad, New York Mom, which he plans to take to the big screen in the TLF next year.

A total of 20 venues are planned for the eight-day session. More information is available on http://2012tlf.culture.gov.tw/2012TLF_movie.html (in Chinese).