ulysses Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• Claus Nissen (1938-2008) - Actor. Played "The Perfect Man" in Jørgen Leth's The Perfect Human, which was featured in and updated for Leth and Lars von Trier's documentary The Five Obstructions. He also played the character "Jensen" in von Trier's miniseries The Kingdom and The Kingdom II and appears in Susanne Bier's Family Matters, Bernard Girard's The Happiness Cage, Erik Balling's Olsen Gang series and Leth's Notes on Love and Good and Evil. He died April 29. (Danske Film)

• Carl Belfour (1952-2008) - Chief projectionist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He died of a brain aneurysm April 23, in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• Nino Candido (1942-2008) - Property master and actor. Worked on Bull Durham, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Smile, Timescape, Night Game and TV's My Name is Earl. He appears in Hud and I Come in Peace. He died April 26, in Laughlin, Nevada. (IATSE Local 44)

Even if you're a huge fan of the movies as I am, occasionally you might also want to take a little time and read a good book now and then. Like movies, books are a great way to escape the mundane of "normal" life and explore other worlds, cultures and have a little adventure. Of course, books are often the inspiration or basis from which movies are made. Some of the most notable of these being adaptations such as Gone with the Wind, The Silence of the Lambs and the recent Children of Men -- Alfonso Curon's fantastic adaptation of the novel by P.D. James.

Even though books are used frequently as the basis for films, there are also several books thought to be ones which, for whatever reason, can not or should not, be made into films. And, as is often the case, someone on the internet has enthusiastically compiled a list of these books and posted it over at Screenhead. Some of the books the author of the article thinks are unfilmable include James Joyce's Ulysses, Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces and one of my personal favorites, J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. Looking over the list and reading the author's commentary I admit that I agree with almost all of his comments.

These books represent classics of literature and because of their complex nature, subject matter or massiveness of scope, would probably not make very good candidates for adaptation. Still, in the back of my mind I've always wondered what I would do if given the chance to make Catcher in the Rye into a movie. Who would I get to write, direct and most importantly, star in the film as Holden Caulfield? In the article, the author offers up Wes Anderson or Noah Baumbauch as potential directors. However, for my money I would hire Charlie Kaufman to write the script, Michel Gondry to direct, and for Holden I would cast either Jason Schwartzman or Jake Gyllenhaal. I think these guys could make the film work. Thoughts?