Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha Screenwriting
The thirty-seventh annual Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Convention recently concluded at the University of Mississippi. This year’s theme was “Faulkner and Film.” I’m excited that there is interest and a concerted focus on the film writings of this American writer. Perhaps it will assist in ushering a renewed interest in the films produced in the past based on scripts by Faulkner.
Faulkner spent many years working in and with Hollywood during the age of the studio system. He was beginning to be recognized as literary master and decided to write scripts for Hollywood due income needed to support his family.
He created scripts for director Howard Hawks, and for Warner Brothers and other studios. Faulkner began working in Hollywood in 1932 and finished his last film script in the 1950s. He also wrote for the emerging television industry.
The screenplays that Faulkner penned for Hawks were: Today We Live (1933), The Road to Glory (1936), Slave Ship (1937), To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), Land of the Pharaohs (1955). He helped write other scripts, but received no official credit. Additionally, Hollywood has produced numerous film and television adaptations of his original work.
I have hoped for many years for a published collection of Faulkner’s screenplays. Here’s my ultimate dream: a complete collection of William Faulkner’s screenplays published by the prestigious Library of America to accompany the five volumes of Faulkner’s novels which they currently maintain in print. It would be a great way to (nearly) complete Faulkner’s oeuvre in a beautiful Library of America volume. I say nearly because the LOA does not have a collection of all of Faulkner’s short stories in print. (hint)
Sam Thomas, in the introduction to volume one in his three volume collection of “Best American Screenplays” stated that he believes the screenplay is just as important as a novel, short story or a poem. He sees the day when literature classes will study scripts as an art form on equal grounds with the recognized works of in the Canon of world literature. I completely agree.
A screenplay is just as important as the blueprints and architectural models created by an architect. The public is interested in exhibitions that display architectural drawings, concepts and models just as much as we are in the final structures themselves.
One of my favorite books on Frank Lloyd Wright is only about his drawings. A similar book I enjoy in the same vein is “Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters” by Robert Hale. In these two books the reader is presented with the sketches, notes, and unfinished drafts of master artists, architects, and designers. To me, the insight gained by looking at “blueprints” is, in a sense, more important than the final work. We are able to see the modifications, the erasing, the considerations and mistakes that the artist made while working out the details of the final product. It’s a rare glimpse into the thought process going through the artist’s mind as they worked out the final work of art (or building, in the case of architects). It’s simply fascinating stuff to behold.
A few years ago the High Museum of Art hosted an exhibition of the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Already enthralled by the art and engineering creations of da Vinci, I was thrilled to see actual drawings by the master. It was a chance to peer into the mind of the Renaissance genius, and to say I was enthusiastic was to say the least. I was mesmerized and ultimately enriched by the original drafts, sketches and blueprints on display. It was an enlightening experience and granted me newfound appreciation for his work.
I hold the same stance about screenplays. A screenplay allows us an opportunity to peer into the mind of the screenwriter that grants newfound appreciation for the final product, the film. It’s an opportunity that no writer should turn down, whether you are writing for film, television, theater, novels, or poetry.
Perhaps the Faulkner and Film theme of the annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha conference will encourage scholars, publishers or other interested parties to publish a collection of the Nobel Laureate’s screenplays for us to examine, consume and study. We’ll all be richer because of it.
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This post originally appeared at Walterhisownself.com
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