Bloom (2003) and Ulysses (Cedar Flynn)
Bloom (2003)
Poster for the film
Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283096/mediaviewer/rm762832896/?ref_=tt_ov_i
The Object:
For this course’s project, I have selected Bloom the 2003 Irish film adaptation of Ulysses. Bloom is directed by Sean Walsh and stars Stephen Rea as Leopold Bloom, Angeline Ball as Molly Bloom, and Hugh O’Conor as Stephen Dedalus; it is the second and at the time of writing, the most recent attempt at making an adaption of Joyce’s novel. The film closely follows the same story as the original novel, focusing on the characters of Stephen Dedalus, Molly Bloom, and Leopold Bloom. To deliver its story to the audience, the film makes use of the actor's performances as well as voiceovers to capture the character's internal thoughts. The film’s tone and style are dramatic, with moments of high levity period piece shot on location in Dublin and its surrounding areas. The dialogue presented in the film is quite faithful to the original novel, with the film mainly using quotes directly from the pages for its words on the screen.
Reasoning:
Naturally, as the work is an adaptation of Ulysses it would inherently have a lot to say about the text, what I would like to strictly focus on is the process of adaptation in relation to the text of Ulysses. The question that I find myself asking about the challenge of adapting Ulysses to the screen is what should an adaption of Ulysses seek to achieve? Should an adaptation of the novel stay true to the thematic relevance of the novel? I wonder If we were to take Ulysses as a critical reflection on what it means for a work to be considered an epic, should its adaption criticize Joyce’s own approach? Is it possible that the perfect adaptation of Ulysses would only have shadows of the original text? Or should an adaptation of the novel be true to its central text, focusing on transferring Joyce's words to the screen rather than their meaning? Will an adaptation of Ulysses ever be seen as successful? While these questions on adapting Ulysses have their validity, this exploration into the process of adapting Ulysses is focused on whether the book itself comments on what it means to take part in adaptation. I believe that the book itself does comment on the role of adaptation in storytelling mainly with its allusions and critical responses to Homer’s Odyssey.
As Bloom is the second completed film attempt to adapt the novel, there will have to be research to discuss the first attempts to further my understanding of Bloom and adaption in relation to the novel. For Example, the 1967 Joseph Strick-directed film Ulysses and its reception will be looked at in this assignment not as a point of comparison to Bloom but rather as an exploration of the process of adaptation. Using Bloom as an adaptation and as a work of its own, I would lay a framework for a discussion on what it means to adapt Ulysses. An aspect of the object that would need to be brought to attention is whether the film itself works on its own or can only be viewed as an attempt at adaptation. Most importantly does Bloom succeed in adapting the original novel or is it possible proof that an adaption of Ulysses is impossible? However, Rather than strictly reviewing the film, it would act as a guiding force for this discussion. Using the features in the film such as the differences from the novel, and its approach to adapting Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness style to the screen, to bring attention to how one should or should not approach when trying to adapt Ulysses. By discussing adaption theory in relation to Bloom, would bring upon the idea of adaption theory in relation to strictly Ulysses.
Lit Review
As Bloom is not the first attempt at adapting Ulysses or Joyce’s other work, I was interested to see the history of the attempts made to adapt the novel. I was also curious if Joyce himself was at all involved in any of the attempts. Regarding Joyce's own interest in attempts to adapt his work, Joyce in Hollywood in the 1930s: A Biographical Essay by Joseph Kelly explores how James Joyce reacted to the film industry and propositions to adapt his work. The essay opens with Joyce’s interest in a proposition by Warner Brothers to adapt Joyce’s novel, Ulysses. Kelly suggests that Joyce was “eager” to see Ulysses make it into a film (522). Kelly explores the many attempts that Joyce and surrounding figures made to sell the rights of Ulysses to different film studios and Joyce's desire to maintain artistic control in these attempts. The essay also provides insights into how Joyce reacted to those who attempted to adapt in his lifetime, such as his reaction to reading screenplays of an adaption of his work. Overall, Kelly's essay provides an excellent analysis of Joyce’s interest in seeing an adaption of Ulysses as well as some of the concerns in adapting a novel such as Ulysses. Furthermore, from this article we gleam that the interest in adapting the novel from the studio side was purely monetary while Joyce seemed have some creative interest in the process of adaptation.
While I'm focusing on film adaptation, I was interested to see how film could have impacted the work of Ulysses and to an extent Joyce. More so if there was any possibility that Joyce was aware that his novel could be adapted, and if parts of the novel were written with that in mind. Film and Modernist Literature by Laura Marcus explores the impact of film on the work of modernists such as Joyce, Woolf, and Becket. Marcus suggests that film in the modernist period had an immense impact on written modernist works. For Joyce, Marcus argues that the visual aspect of film when it came to capturing the everyday life of cities, specifically Dublin as Marcus’s example impacted Joyce and suggests we see confirmation of this in the Ulysses chapter Wandering Rocks. Marcus brings attention to the “ludic dimensions of early film” and how that possibly shaped the writing of Ulysses. Marcus also slightly explores how Joyce’s writing impacted early cinema. While from this article it would be ill-advised to suggest that Joyce wrote the novel to be adapted, the use of cinematic qualities in the novel suggest that Joyce intentional or not was impacted by the growing presence of film.
When it comes to critical response to the adaptions of modernist works, Carlos Augusto Viana da Silva’s 2013 article, Modern narratives and film adaptation as translation discusses and analyzes the process of adaptation of modernist narratives, focusing on Woolf, Joyce, and respective adaptations. The article is based on the idea of adaption being a translation of the original work, meaning a way to study the texts in a different medium. Augusto Viana da Silva suggests that adaptations are interpretations of the original work. His article discusses how film adaptations of modernist work focus on the narrative aspects of the original work leading them to fail to successfully capture the essence of the original. As my goal is to discuss the adaptation and its relation to the novel the critical response of other attempts to adapt modernist works provides a general overview on their reception. With Augusto Viana da Silva bringing attention to these adaptations being interpretations of their original work it brings forward the idea that an adaption can be viewed as a critical response to the original.
To discuss how an adaption of Joyce’s work fails or succeeds, an understanding of what it means to be an adaption is required. In her 2006 book, A Theory of Adaption, Linda Hutcheon explores the ramifications of adapting a work. She spends a fair amount of the book defining what it means to be an adaption and the difference between adaption and appropriation (for example sampling in songs). Hutcheon brings forward arguments around the critical analysis of adaptions. Hutcheon discusses the idea of an adaption being viewed as supplemental to the original material as something inherently flawed. Hutcheon supposes throughout the book that an adaptation cannot solely be a copy of the original material but instead should aim to keep the original material’s thematic statements. Asides from being an adaption Hutcheon also argues that adaption should serve to provide insights into the original text. As I view Ulysses commenting on the role of adaptation being a critical response, Hutcheon’s book provides more insight to that belief.
In relation to the adaption that I have selected as my object, Bringing Bloom to the Screen: Challenges and Possibilities of Adapting James Joyce's "Ulysses" by Maximilian Feldner is an essay reviewing the two major adaptions of Joyce’s Ulysses. The article discusses the challenges of adapting Joyce's work and uses each adaption as a framework to suggest what an ideal adaption of Ulysses should seek to do. Feldner discusses the impossibility of fully capturing Ulysses in a film and explores how each film chooses to focus on certain thematic qualities of the original novel. The article goes on to mention possibilities on how you could adapt certain aspects of Joyce’s work. Feldner also brings attention to how even if the films could be viewed as successful in honoring the original novel, they are not good adaptations as they do not adapt the novel in a “cinematic way” (Feldner 215). Feldner’s article makes stride to providing an explanation to why these films are flawed. I find Felder’s article interesting as it seems to suggest that the approach to adapting Ulysses is to focus on making the films enjoyable in a film setting rather than staying faithful fully to the original text. What I feel that Felder is pointing with this approach is the matter of the text in relation to the film. Not to say that a film must be faithful to the physical texts on the page, but rather what the text is arguing. However, when your switching mediums I feel that there has to be an a adaption of the themes as well, with viewing Ulysses as a book about the nature of books, the film should be about the nature of storytelling within film.
Ulysses and Adaption Theory
Commonly when works are discussed as being unadaptable Joyce’s Ulysses is thrown out there as an example of a work being averse to an adaptation. While as many adaptions of and attempts to adapt the novel exist to suggest it is unadaptable would be unequivocally false, however, there is an argument on if any of those adaptations are successful. Maximilian Feldner’s article, Bringing Bloom to the Screen: Challenges and Possibilities of Adapting James Joyce's "Ulysses" looks at the two completed adaptations and discusses if they are enjoyable to watch. Feldner’s article summarizes the main issues with the films and suggests while they are faithful to the novel, they are not entering films to view. While from my viewing of Bloom I am inclined to agree with Felder, there still is the argument about whether the films entertaining or not on if they are successful in adapting the novel. Linda Hutcheon’s book A Theory of Adaptation discusses the possible ways to declare that an adaption is successful, Hutcheon focuses on how an adaption needs to present changes while maintaining the story's central theme, as well she states that an adaption should provide analysis of the original.
What's interesting about Ulysses and Hutcheon’s idea of adaption as a way of critical response, is that I believe that Ulysses itself contains this approach as well. While it would be remiss to refer to Ulysses as solely an adaption of Homer’s Odyssey, it is evident, especially within the Gabler edition that we are studying in class, that elements of the story are alluded to within Ulysses. Joyce by using these elements of Homer’s story situates his argument toward what it means for a work to be considered an epic. By doing this, Joyce is responding to the original work and “adapting” what it means to be considered heroic.
With the qualifications that Hutcheon puts forward in mind does Sean Walsh’s Bloom provide a successful adaption of the original novel? Since Bloom is an adaption that changes mediums from novel to film there must be specific changes, the film must assert specifications that the novel does not, characters have set appearances, or it is decided when someone is speaking out loud or to themselves. While there are changes most of Joyce’s specific dialogue remains intact. With the changes in mind, it could be stated that Bloom is a successful adaption in terms of remaining faithful to the physical text of the original work. That leads us to ask what Bloom an adaption that changes mediums from novel to film tells us about or responds to the original work.
While Bloom is faithful to the original words written by Joyce, this faithfulness also tends to reveal that the decisions in Joyce’s stylistic approach in the novel only work because it is a novel. Throughout the novel, there are shifts in presentation from swapping who we are focalized around to the more evident shifts in style of form. As the film must be specific with what’s happening on screen this shift in style and delivery is lost. For example, Molly’s Soliloquy, chapter 18 in the book and about the last 15 minutes of the film, while maintained in its words it is no longer presented to us as a block of text, instead we are made aware of what she’s thinking of as the words are read to us. While this decision is made for clarity in the film, it strips away its stylistic relevance that it has in the novel, the block of text without punctuation is to capture the stream of thoughts going through Molly’s mind. While the images presented on film attempt to capture this it still is centering Molly’s thoughts, in its own way it is providing a form of punctuation to the thoughts in her brain.
What's brought to the forefront about Ulysses because of Walsh’s Bloom are the film’s shortcomings. With Bloom being centered on maintaining the prose of the original to a fault, it brings attention to how the novel adapts and challenges what it means to be a novel. Along the lines of how Joyce is responding to the idea of what makes a work considered an epic with the novel’s allusions to Homer’s Odyssey, Joyce is also playing with the idea of the form of the novel. Joyce himself is adapting his story within the novel, and directly challenging the reader's understanding of what the form of a novel should be.
Alt Cover Image for Bloom (2003)
DVD cover for the film
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_%282003_film%29
References
Feldner, Maximilian. “Bringing Bloom to the Screen: Challenges and Possibilities of Adapting James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses.’” Arbeiten Aus Anglistik Und Amerikanistik, vol. 40, no. 1/2, 2015, pp. 197–217.
Hutcheon, L. (2006). A Theory of Adaptation. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203957721
Joyce, James, and Gabler Hans Walter Gabler. Ulysses. Random House UK, 2022.
Kelly, Joseph. “Joyce in Hollywood in the 1930s: A Biographical Essay.” James Joyce Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 3/4, 2008, pp. 521–36, https://doi.org/10.1353/jjq.0.0089
Marcus, Laura. “Film and Modernist Literature.” Etudes Britanniques Contemporaines: Revue de La Société d’Etudes Anglaises Contemporaines, vol. 50, no. 50, 2016, p. 20–, https://doi.org/10.4000/ebc.3050.
Silva, Carlos Augusto Viana da. “Modern Narratives and Film Adaptation as Translation.” Acta Scientiarum. Language and Culture, vol. 35, no. 3, 2013, pp. 269–74, https://doi.org/10.4025/actascilangcult.v35i3.17238.
Walsh, Sean, director. Bloom. Stoney Road Films, 2003.