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Movies about books

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I wanted to share this with you before it gets stale. One of the more interesting items I ran across during Book Expo America in New York at the beginning of the month was not a book, but a movie. Specifically, it was a movie made by Powell's Books of Portland, OR, about Ian McEwan's new novel, On Chesil Beach. I imagine some of you are scratching your head right now and thinking, 'Why is a bookstore making a film about a book?' That's what I was thinking as I dropped round a showing of the film and a brief talk by David Weich of Powell's and Ian McEwan. Weich had me with his opening comments, when he talked about how insular literature has become. "Sometimes it seems that we in the book industry are a bunch of lit majors sitting around talking about what we know really well and intimidating everybody else."

Weich, a Powell's employee, watched how books broke out on the national scene. They did it through appearances on Oprah, through word of mouth. But rarely were those books novels. Novelists could hope to appear on Charlie Rose's show or Fresh Air with Terri Gross, but that was about it. "An author photo on the back of the flap is about as close as most readers get to a writer," Weich said. He wanted to try and make "compelling entertainment that energizes the conversations" about books, and thus he turned to film.

Weich must be a helluva salesman to persuade the owners of Powell's to plunk down the change to make a 28-minute movie (he wouldn't divulge the budget). But what I really like about this development, besides the high quality of the movie (check it out — it's entertaining and even very funny toward the end), is the collective sense Powell's brings to it. The movie is being made available, along with posters and other promotional material, to any bookstore that asks. Thus, if a bookstore in Santa Fe or Ann Arbor wants to screen the movie and promote McEwan's novel, they can. Several bookstore owners in the audience seemed very grateful for this service, since McEwan wasn't planning a book tour.

But will Powell's films kill author readings?

"I think that's a very urban New York-centric train of thought," says Weich. "Authors don't go to many towns to begin with. I actually think of it as a way to save the book tour."

And what does McEwan think about all this? "For me the litmus would be ways in which (the film) generates conversation."

Weich and Co. did a great job on the film. It gives you hints of the themes in the book without giving away too much and it introduces you to McEwan in an interesting way. In the wrong hands, a film about a book could be disastrous, but Powell's is definitely the right group to try to launch something like this.

The film is scheduled for 54 screenings around the country this summer. Check your local bookstore, or better yet, tell them about it and have them contact Powell's. I recommend viewing the film on a larger screen than Youtube offers to enjoy the craftsmanship (there's even an original score) that these book lovers brought to the film.

Bruce Rutledge >> June 14, 2007

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