This Post is Not Original

I’m not usually one for the editorials, but I’ve been ruminating over something for the past few weeks. Incidentally, it started with chatter over Christopher Nolan’s upcoming Inception - a film I’m anticipating fairly much, but not as much as everyone else. Nolan’s not my favourite director, but I’m digressing as usual. The write-up on Inception went something along these lines (paraphrased) Thank God for Christopher Nolan, the only director making a movie about a completely original film not inspired by another movie, a book, or comic. I can’t recall the author, but it irritated me a little – but not for the reasons you’d think. After reading more and more articles bemoaning the state of film one think stuck out, and it got me thinking even more – why is everyone so consumed with a desire for originality?

 You probably know that I consider Martin Scorsese to be the supreme filmmaker. I consider his The Age of Innocence as one his greatest films, but even if I were to move away from him and think about some other greats I’d think of people like Anthony Minghella, David Lean and particularly James Ivory. Each of these men, Ivory in particularly, crafted a career on auspicious adaptations of literary pieces. I guess we wouldn’t exactly call them “original” directors, but since when has the opposite of original been poor? Does it mean that if James Ivory was a prevailing director in this time he’d be relegated to an unoriginal hack? Perhaps it’s just my propensity for the literary, but even if we don’t like Howards End, or The Talented Mr. Ripley or Dr. Zhivago can we deny that Ivory, Minghella and Lean are talented men?

It’s not that I can’t sympathise with the movie lovers craving originality. When every moderately successful film gets a sequel, and when perfectly functioning franchises become rebooted, I suppose the yearning for something new is only natural. But is Woody Allen better than Francis Ford Coppola because he writes his work from scratch. Truth be told, I do prefer Allen – but not for that reason. Originality isn’t a prerequisite to brilliance. In a way, I should note James for precipitating this article a little. He’s always throwing out interesting questions, and his reflections on Tim Burton’s career were thought provoking. The man has his issues, I’d be the first to admit, but does the fact that his films over the last decade have been adapted from other source materials mean he is a deplorable director? Maybe, just maybe, I have a kneejerk reaction to people already lapping up Inception…but with Leonardo Dicaprio and Marion Cotillard – trust me – I don’t want this movie to fail. But can we praise Nolan without doing it at the expense of the entire film world? There’s a line between adaptation and unoriginality…a fine line, perhaps, but still a line…