Patricia Highsmith on Screen [Hardcover]

This book is the first full-length study to focus on the various film adaptations of Patricia Highsmiths novels, which have been a popular source for adaptation since Alfred Hitchcocks Strangers on a Train (1952). The collection of essays examines films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Two Faces of January, and Carol, includes interviews with Highsmith adaptors and provides a comprehensive filmography of all existing Highsmith adaptations. Particular attention is paid to queer subtexts, mythological underpinnings, philosophical questioning, contrasting media environments and formal conventions in diverse generic contexts. Produced over the space of seventy years, these adaptations reflect broad cultural and material shifts in film production and critical approaches to film studies. The book is thus not only of interest to Highsmith admirers but to anyone interested in adaptation and transatlantic film history.

1. Introduction: Patricia Highsmith on Screen, Douglas McFarland and Wieland Schwanebeck.- 2. The Dark Side of Adaptation, Thomas Leitch.- Section I: Doubles, Copies, and Strangers.- 3. I Meet a Lot of Guys--But Not Many Like You: Strangers and Types in Highsmiths and Hitchcocks Strangers on a Train, Bran Nicol.- 4. Strangers on a Park Bench: From Highsmith to Alfred Hitchcock to Woody Allen, Klara Stephanie Szlez?k.- 5. Tom Ripleys Talent, Murray Pomerance.- 6. Ripley Under Ground and Its Illegitimate Heirs, Wieland Schwanebeck.- Section II: Queer Encounters.- 7. Queer Ripley: Minghella, Highsmith, and the Anti-Social.- David Greven.- 8. The Price of Salt, Carol, and Queer Narrative Desire(s), Alison L. McKee.- 9. Easy Living: From The Price of Salt (78) to Caroll“‘