Films by Federico Fellini, David Lynch and Lars von Trier turned into plays | Culture

As far back as the fifties of the twentieth century, it was suggested that the narrative of the operetta would be easier to adapt to the cinema due to its light, humorous story. However, if we look at modern cinema, we can see adaptations of operas, operettas, ballets, and even musicals. Darren Aronofsky’s triumphant 2010 film Black Swan, based on the famous ballet “Swan Lake” by Pyotr Tchaikovsky from a slightly different perspective, alone had a huge influence. But the direction of adaptation from cinema to opera or ballet is perhaps less heard by the general public.

Vida Press photo/Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”

Those interested in cinema cannot ignore the names of Federico Fellini, David Lynch and Lars von Trier.

The Italian cinema master became famous for his distinctive style, which even acquired the specific name of feline cinema. It is hard to forget Federico Fellini’s masterpieces such as “La Dolce Vita” or “Eight and a Half”, from which the famous dance scene was “borrowed” by Quentin Tarantino for his “Pulp Fiction”.

David Lynch’s name is inseparable not only from his films, but at the same time from the legendary series “Twin Peaks”, the third season of which appeared after the first two, 25 years after the end of the second.

Lars von Trier is a representative of Scandinavian cinema, a Dane who likes to shock and bravely explores the dark side of man. From religion to animality, the moral boundaries of man are crossed and descend into the subconscious in such films as “NYMPH()MANIAC” or “Antichrist”.

Photo by Christian Geisnaes/Charlotte Gainsbourg in Nymphomaniac

Why are these three representatives of the art of cinema mentioned in this text? All of their films were adapted into operas and ballets.

Perhaps it is worth starting with the case of Federico Fellini, whose film “The Road” (La Strada) did indeed travel some distance to become a ballet. This project was presented to the general public back in 1954. Federico Fellini himself said in one of his interviews about his masterpiece: This film is a complete catalog of my inner mythological world, a dangerous and unprecedented representation of my identity. The process of making the film itself was extremely difficult due to the director’s meticulous attention to detail. After the premiere of The Road, Federico Fellini was hospitalized for depression.

The Italian composer Nino Rota contributed to the process of making this film. The famous director started working with him a little earlier, on another film project – “The White Sheik” (Italian: Lo sceicco bianco). Nino Rota has been mentioned many times as Fellini’s composer, and he also composed the music tracks for the aforementioned films such as The Sweet Life and Eight and a Half. However, the composer gained world recognition later when he created the music for Francis Ford Coppola’s film “The Godfather”. The composer won an Oscar for the music of “The Godfather II”. After creating the musical track “The Road”, which tells the sad story of Gelsomina, who was sold to a wandering artist, in 1966 he also created music for a ballet that was performed at the famous Italian theater La Scala.

Already in September, the premiere of the dance performance “La Strados” based on Federico Fellini’s film is also presented at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater, choreographed by Marco Goecke.

During his creative career, the American director David Lynch managed to create a large number of films in which he also plays between consciousness, fantasy and dreams.

This director often concentrates not on the narrative, but on the experience, emerging, changing images and the creation of the atmosphere itself. In 1997, he saw the screens film noir style surrealist thriller “Lost Highway”. It is a hard-to-tell story about a musician who lives with his wife and suspects her of infidelity. One day, strange tapes with recordings that were filmed at his house appear at the door. Later, the main character ends up in prison and is replaced by another person – a young mechanic who falls in love with a mysterious mistress of a gangster.

Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth and German writer, Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek resurrected this film in opera format back in 2003. In 2007, the opera was presented in New York. More recently, in 2018, this opera was also staged in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2019, the British newspaper “The Guardian” ranked it 13th as one of the best pieces of music since 2000.

In one of the interviews, when asked why the composer chose to musically adapt this particular film, Olga Neuwirth answered that it touched her not only personally. Above all, I was most impressed by David Lynch’s radicalism in conveying the film’s narrative. The characters are trapped in the situation and time, which became the biggest compositional challenge. This work, which is difficult to express in words, became the essential incentive to create something that is extremely difficult to describe, but is possible with the inclusion of music in the process. Using Lynch’s sound language, this is exactly how the composer envisioned a piece of music: without a beginning, middle and end, with countless interior and exterior rooms, raising questions about what is real and what is just a shadow, the interweaving of reality and mysticism, and all human expression from crying to screaming, from laughter to desperation.

Director Lars von Trier’s films became supporting stories for even two opera productions. The first performance saw the light of day in 2016 at the Philadelphia Opera House and was based on the 1996 film Breaking the Waves. Composer Missy Mazzoli and libretto author Royce Vavrek decided to adapt the film. The action of the film takes place in the Scottish islands in the early 1970s. Bess McNeill is the main character of the film and opera, a religious, recently married woman. An accident leaves her husband paralyzed, prompting his wife to seek out a one-night stand and tell him about it. He claims that the stories will make him feel alive.

A few years later, the same libretto author Royce Vavrek started a new project together with composer Mikael Karlsson at the Royal Swedish Opera, who saw the stage last year. This time, the director’s other film of 2011 was chosen – the famous “Melancholia”, after which von Trier was not allowed to attend the press conference at the Cannes Film Festival for seven years.

The film itself is a journey to the inside of a person through the outside. The viewer observes not only the inner drama of the two sisters, but also the approaching planet that will cause the end of the Earth. This film, like the opera, examines the questions of being and the inner world, which are relevant for modern man. This was particularly emphasized by both the composer and the author of the libretto, who stated in one of the interviews that the play deals not only with universal problems, which are analyzed from year to year, but also with modern, existential questions. New hints of ecocriticism, war and pandemic emerge.

Throughout its existence, cinema has always been characterized by dynamism and meeting the needs of a wide spectrum of society. It took quite a while before cinema was generally recognized as a branch of art that was no worse than others. This dynamic and adaptation possibilities are revealed even now, when we see not only opera, ballet, various classical adaptations in the cinema, but also film adaptations on the stage.