As The Curious Case of Benjamin Button finally comes to a Norwegian theater near you, this article titled “F. Scott Fitzgerald on Film” from The San Francisco Chronicle seems timely:
But during his life, and in the years since his death in 1940, Hollywood has pretty much remained the unreachable green light across the water. Before “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” based on an early story and opening this week, there have been other adaptations of Fitzgerald works, and a couple have done moderately well at the box office. But with one all-but-forgotten exception – Joan Micklin Silver’s 1976 TV adaptation of “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” – Hollywood has yet to figure out how to make the words of one of America’s greatest writers work onscreen.
I especially like the authors synopsis of the disastrous 1974 Robert Redford adaptation of The Great Gatsby:
“Gatsby” should be the easier of the two Fitzgerald masterpieces to adapt, but no one ever gets it right, especially in this big, expensive production. Redford looked the part but never captured the haunted, hollow soul of the former Jay Gatz, Farrow wasn’t Daisy even if you’d never read the book, and Lois Chiles as Jordan Baker was just sinful.
