Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Bret Easton Ellis Adaptations: Novels vs. Films

Bret Easton Ellis is my favorite author. I’ve learned so much from the mechanics of his writing, and am continually inspired by his often disregard of conventional storytelling. And while I have enjoyed all of his novels (yes, all of them, even “Lunar Park”), the adaptations of his films vary from masterful to disastrous. Here’s a look at Ellis’ novels and the film’s they inspired, with some potential future projects mixed in for good measure.


Less Than Zero


The Novel (1985)
“Less Than Zero” is, perhaps, the finest novel I’ve ever read about the decay of youth. It’s “Catcher in the Rye” for the drug-ravaged era of ‘80s America – a lacerating and unflinching examination of entitlement, wealth and the corruptibility of a fuck-it-all generation.

The novel focuses on Clay, a despondent college student returning home to L.A. for winter break. Through Clay’s first person, steam of consciousness narration, we’re privy to many a night hazed by alcohol and drugs, failed encounters with ex girlfriends, and, most significantly, a tumultuous relationship with his best friend, Julian. While Clay has been away at school, Julian has fallen ill to a debilitating heroin addiction. Julian’s story arc is one of the most intensely dramatic Ellis has ever written. He’s the character highlight of the text, no question.

At only 208 pages long, “Less Than Zero” is compulsively readable, confidently penned by a college kid (Ellis was only 21 when the book was published), who, we assume, knows his characters and their circumstances all too well. “Disappear Here,” indeed. A

The Film (1987)
Unfortunately, my praises for Ellis’ source material do not extend to Marek Kanievska’s muddled and misguided adaptation.  Although the people responsible for the film have claimed that it is a very loose version of Ellis’ novel, that doesn’t excuse the film for being boring and aimless. If there is a saving grace, it is Robert Downey Jr.’s rather excellent performance as Julian. And even though the film’s Julian is unlike Ellis’ character, Downey Jr. sells it with convincing desperation. D+

What Ellis Said
“‘Less Than Zero’ was a weird case because there isn’t a single line of dialogue or a scene from the book in the movie. Yet, the movie has this reputation as the dark age brat pack movie. It’s become this weird kind of classic, but it’s not that great of a movie. I myself, I’m now nostalgic for that film.”

“It’s gotten better as it’s gotten older. It’s aged well. I suppose that if there was no novel, we’d probably be even fonder of it, but there’s that novel that keeps messing everything up. I think that movie is gorgeous, and the performances that I thought were shaky seem much better now. It’s something I can watch.”

The Rules of Attraction

The Novel (1987)
If “Less Than Zero” is perhaps the best novel I’ve ever read about the decay of youth, then “The Rules of Attraction” is certainly the best. It’s as dangerous, challenging and entertaining a book as I’ve come across, and the novel I’ve re-read the most in my life. In his protagonist, the ruthlessly vile Sean Bateman, Ellis latched onto a family tree that has defined his writing career. Sean is young, vapid and utterly confused; the kind of book character I so love to hate. And his dealings with several other students at the fictional Camden College never fail to amuse me.

I remember being a young kid reading “The Rules of Attraction” for the first time. I never knew novels could do what it did. I didn’t know you could get away with whole chapters in French (which are never translated). I didn’t know you could write pages and pages with complete disregard for punctuation. I didn’t know you could end a chapter mid sentence, just because. “The Rules of Attraction,” more so than any other Ellis novel, proved to me that if the writing is good enough, the rules can be ignored. And really, what better lesson is there to teach a young writer? A+ 

The Film (2002)
Whenever I watch Roger Avary’s film adaptation, I’m reminded of how ahead of its time it was. The film is a huge risk, imploring essentially every film school flourish via editing and photography. It’s overly showy, maddeningly impatient, and an all around mind fuck that never ceases to give in. I completely love it, but am very understanding to why many people do not.

One of the core strengths of Ellis’ writing is his uncanny ability to not judge his own characters. He let’s them be who they are, and never sways the reader’s opinion to how we should feel about them. That’s a difficult feat to pull off in print, and an even harder one to capture on screen. So let me put it this way, if the core actors involved in this film (including James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Jessica Biel, Ian Somerhalder and Kip Pardue) have given better performances elsewhere, then I haven’t seen them. A-

What Ellis Said
“There are a whole host of problems with adapting [my] works into movies, and I think Roger solved it visually. The way he set the movie up on a visual level is a nice counterpart to the novel, and I also thought it was kind of outrageous. He didn’t try to push the likability, he didn’t try to give these people sympathetic backstories.”

“My favorite movie out of the four was The Rules of Attraction. I thought it was the only one that captured the sensibility of the novel in a cinematic way. I know I’m sounding like a film critic on that, but I’m talking about that in an emotional — as the writer of the novel. I watched that movie and thought they got it in a way that American Psycho didn’t and Less Than Zero didn’t.”

American Psycho

The Novel (1991)
Bret Easton Ellis’ “American Psycho” will always be a cultural phenomenon. After two novels of modest size and scope, Ellis erased any and all inhibitions and penned one of the most gruesome satires ever written. In Patrick Bateman, Ellis created an impossibly repulsive man that will forever haunt (and bring fortune to) his personal career. So much can be said for the humorous complexity that is Patrick Bateman, but most of us have heard them before. In fact, “American Psycho” is so much more than its title character, or, really, its characters in general. It’s a rule breaking, genre bending exposé of uninhibited wealth and white collar entitlement. Even though it consistently makes me squirm, there is nothing about it that I don’t value.

Whenever I attempt to sing praises of Ellis’ writing to detractors of his work, I always end with a simple notion: you may not appreciate what he’s saying, but it’s impossible to deny that it’s well written. A 

The Film (2000)
I’d argue that Mary Harron’s American Psycho is the most significant thing to ever happen to Ellis’ career. Sure, the man has always had a steady fan base from his novels, but this movie changed things for him. It paved way for a massive, new, young audience to explore his work.

But beyond this, Harron’s film is a perfect cinematic satire. It launched the career of Christian Bale, who has arguably never been better. And although many would disagree with me, including Ellis, I think Harron captured the tone of the challenging source material with utter precision. No, not every crime Patrick Bateman commits is in the movie (because, really, how could they be?) but the overall unique essence of the book is beautifully stated on the screen. American Psycho is a damn good movie on its own, but for ecstatic fans of the novel, it’s a fucking priceless piece of art. A

What Ellis Said
“If you’re going to take the material from one medium to another, you’re just going to have to make some decisions about it. The book itself doesn’t really answer a lot of the questions it poses, but by the very nature of the medium of a movie, you kind of have to answer those questions. And a movie automatically says, ‘It’s real.’ Then, at the end, it tries to have it both ways by suggesting that it wasn’t. Which you could argue is interesting, but I think it basically confused a lot of people, and I think even Mary would admit that.”

The Informers

The Novel (1994)
“The Informers” is by long and far my favorite Bret Easton Ellis novel. Although it was marketed as a collection of short stories assembled under one jacket, the tone, narrative and character structure remain universal throughout. The book is split into 13 distinct chapters, all containing different first person narrators. Some of our guides may seem familiar, given that they’re (maybe) supporting characters from various Ellis’ novels, while others are wholly unique to the book itself. “The Informers” isn’t as cohesive as Ellis’ first three books, but it’s a flawless experiment all the same. To highlight just one chapter in particular would be an exercise in futility. They’re meant to be taken in together, as quickly as possible, without turning back. A+

The Film (2009)
The first and only time I saw Gregor Jordan’s The Informers was when the film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Not only was it my first time at Sundance, it was my first festival, period. And The Informers was my very first film at that festival. I sat down, impossibly eager to get the festival underway, pumped that I was about to see the first film adaptation of my favorite author in seven years. And, if you’ve seen the film, you know where I’m going.

A fucking disaster. That’s what I thought roughly 20 minutes into the film. I sat perplexed, wondering what the hell I was watching. This certainly couldn’t be based on one of my favorite books. And there’s no way its screenplay is actually co-written by Ellis himself.

Not surprising, no one from the film was there to give a Q&A following that screening, and since then, most have denounced it as a massive misfire, Ellis most prominently. So, in short, don’t ever bother with The Informers. It isn’t so bad it’s good, it isn’t a film that might contain some potential somewhere, it’s simply a disaster from scene one. Goddamn shame. D-

What Ellis Said
“You need [a director] who grew up around here. You also need someone with an Altman-esque sense of humor, because the script is really funny. The movie is not funny at all, and there are scenes in the movie that should be funny that we wrote as funny, and they’re played as we wrote them, but they’re directed in a way that they're not funny. It was very distressing to see the cuts of this movie and realize that all the laughs were gone. I think Gregor was looking at it as something else. I think we had this miscommunication during pre-production that it’s not supposed to be played like an Australian soap opera.”

Other Possible Film Adaptations
Glitterati (Novel: 1987... sort of, Film: 2002… sort of)

Smack in the middle of The Rules of Attraction (both in novel and film form) is a brilliant introduction of one of its characters, Victor Ward. For the movie, Roger Avary and actor Kip Pardue spent 15 days in Europe, where Avary documented Pardue staying in character for the duration of their trip. They shot 70 hours of debauchery, and edited it to a four-minute segment for Avary’s film. Glitterati is the feature length film of Pardue’s time in Europe as Victor. And while I would give anything to see, it appears the only real way to view a copy of Glitterati is to become Avary’s personal friend. He has called the film “ethically questionable” and said he will never show it outside of random private screenings. While I understand the reluctance to release it, I can’t imagine that Glitterati is anything short of pure gold.

Glamorama (Novel: 1998, Film: ????)

“Glamorama” is, in essence, an “American Psycho”-type expansion of “The Rules of Attraction.” It centers on Victor Ward getting into all sorts of shit all over the world during the early ‘90s. And although it gets a little too bonkers toward the end, I’m still a fan of the novel, and think it could make for a great film.

It was once rumored that Ellis, Avary and Pardue planned to make “Glamorama” together, but Ellis has since denied that the film is happening. However, in late 2011, Ellis tweeted that he, “Just finished reading Roger Avary’s adaptation of ‘Glamorama’ which he will direct next year. Hilarious, horrific, sad. He’s a mad genius.”

But we all know reliable Ellis’ Twitter feed is.

Imperial Bedrooms (Novel: 2010, Film: ????)

“Imperial Bedrooms” is Ellis’ 25-year follow up to “Less Than Zero,” which finds Clay and Co. all grown up and attempting to tackle the L.A. film scene. It’s Ellis’ weakest novel yet, but, as always, I’d be open to seeing it play out on screen.

When the book was published, Ellis said it would be great for the original cast of the first movie to reprise their roles for the sequel, but noted that was highly unlikely. If Robert Downey Jr. decided tomorrow that “Imperial Bedrooms” was going to be his next film, the movie would be green lit by the end of the day. But I think it’s safe to say that will never happen. One can dream.


36 comments:

  1. Very interesting article, I would be interested in seeing several of these films, since the only one I've seen has been American Psycho. Even though it's not from one of his books, I hope the script he's writing for Gaspar Noe and Ryan Gosling (The Golden Suicides) comes to fruition because it sounds like it could be amazing. I will say that you've piqued my interest in seeing Rules of Attraction though, a film I never thought I would want to see.

    I would be one of those people who would argue that Patrick Bateman is not Christian Bale's greatest performance (I would say that honor belongs to his work in The Prestige) it is a close second and an absolutely brilliant film. Gets funnier every time I watch it.

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    1. He's been trying to get The Golden Suicides made for a while now, hasn't he? I think it'd be great if that came to be as well. Noe, Gosing and Ellis - that's a great combination.

      Bale is such a good actor, it's so damn tough to pick a "best" performance. American Psycho and Rescue Dawn would be probably be tied for number 1, for me.

      I highly recommend The Rules of Attraction. It is warped and wonderful.

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    2. I know The Golden Suicides has been on the table for both of them for a few years at this point, I've just assumed that Gosling is going to do it once he finishes his film as a director. Given the material and who's involved, it could result in the finest work all of them have put on screen to date. (fingers crossed) I'll check out The Rules of Attraction as soon as I can!

      I agree with your statement about Bale, damn hard to pick just one favorite since he's great in almost everything. Rescue Dawn is a great, and very underrated pic as well.

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    3. I think Ellis tried to make The Golden Suicides with Gus Van Sant a few years ago but it didn't work out. But man, if these three guys actually get to make it, that could be remarkable.

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  2. I haven't read any novels by Bret Easton Ellis though I've seen a few of his adaptations. Less Than Zero is OK only because of Robert Downey Jr. and James Spader. American Psycho is my favorite adaptation of Ellis' work so far while The Rules of Attraction I have mixed feelings on though it's been a very long time since I've seen it. The Informers is just horrible. Wasting some great actors like Billy Bob Thornton, Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, and Winona Ryder in very bad material while I could care less about the younger actors in that film including Lou Taylor Pucci who I like as he's given nothing to do. The only thing in that film is worth seeing is Amber Heard's nude scenes. That's pretty much it.

    I heard about Gaspar Noe trying to make The Golden Suicides for a while, I really want to see that because it's fucking Gaspar Noe.

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    1. Glad to hear you're not a fan of The Informers either. That flick is a total waste. But yeah, Heard has some... inspired scenes, no doubt.

      Really hoping The Golden Suicides works out.

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  3. Great list and everything, as usual. Honestly though, I'm right there with you on Glitterati. The 4-minute sequence in The Rules of Attraction is still clear in my mind, and to know that it's actually a real movie, with the shit he talks about doing, actually being real, makes me go even crazier. I feel like though, that one day, like most "lost films", it'll wash up on shore. Until that day comes, I'll be moving back-and-forth in my seat.

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    1. You know, I was wondering today... do you think that movie could actually sustain for 90 minutes? Part of what makes that 4 minutes segment in Rules of Attraction so great is the speed in which it's cut and the frantic music. But surely they wouldn't do that for 90 full minutes.

      Would they?

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  4. Bret Easton Ellis novels are indeed difficult to translate to film, but I think Christian Bale did an extraordinary job with American Psycho(one of my all-time favorite performances), a film which deservedly has gained more respect over the years, after the lukewarm initial reaction from some critics.

    Yeah, Less Than Zero, has good acting, (and a beautiful score by Thomas Newman), but I found the story didn't quite work as a movie, prefer the book.

    Didn't know "The Informers" is your favorite Bret Easton Ellis novel, and I really need to rewatch Rules of Attraction, don't remember it much.

    On a side note, did you see Five Favorite Films with Bret Easton Ellis at rotten tomatoes?
    http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_canyons_2013/news/1928117/five_favorite_films_with_bret_easton_ellis/

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    1. I LOVE The Informers. In a way, it feels like this most vapid novel yet, and I totally dig it.

      Dude, thank you so much for that RT link. I didn't know that column even existed. Been reading them all morning!

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  5. I actually thought American Psycho was extremely tedious to read. Normally, I like lots of descriptions in books, but that one went a little overboard. I think I enjoyed the movie more.

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    1. I think American Psycho is by far his most tedious book. Whenever I read that, I always find myself skimming over the extended descriptions in the final 120 pages or so. Still though, I love it.

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  6. Great post and love the inclusion of Bret Easton Ellis' views on the films that he made. I've been in a massive Ellis phase this year and was actually intending to do a month focused on all his films over at my blog, but you have swept me out the water with your awesome approach for this, so scraping that idea!

    Good to know that someone else is in the fold that digs his writing. He gets a lot of slack, which I think is totally undeserved. It's more hard to write about characters who you find completely repulsive yet you identify with them on some kind of sick, warped level, than the other way round.

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    1. Oh yeah, I love Ellis' writing. His old twitter personalty didn't really bother me, because honestly, if you've read Lunar Park, you'd be safe in assuming that the twitter Bret Easton Ellis is probably not too much like the real Bret Easton Ellis. Just my opinion thought.

      Can't wait to read your Ellis post. Be sure to stop by and let me know when you've posted it!

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  7. Wow, such an informative post Alex. I've only seen “Less Than Zero” and "American Psycho" films, but never read any of his books. I'd be curious to check out “Less Than Zero” at some point, such a fascinating but heartbreaking picture about decay of youth. Interesting to hear Ellis' comment about the film adaptation of AP, I did read that he wasn't too fond of it. Bale was in a career-making turn in that one for sure, glad it didn't go to Leo DiCaprio. I honestly can't imagine him topping Bale.

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    1. Thanks Ruth! The Less Than Zero novel is drastically different from the movie, all for the better. Highly recommend it. I agree that Bale did things in AP that I don't think Leo (at that age) could've dreamed of doing.

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    2. Ah I see, well hopefully I get around to it one day :D As for Leo, he did try to branch out of his elements in his younger years by starring as a gay poet in Total Eclipse.

      Btw, great article here, I reddited: http://www.reddit.com/r/moviecritic/comments/1kf1vu/bret_easton_ellis_adaptations_novels_vs_films/ Pls upvote it before it disappears to oblivion, ahah.

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    3. Thanks for posting it on Reddit! I've never actually used that site, only casually observed a few articles. Maybe it's about time I signed up!

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  8. I've not read any of his novels, but I dig the film version of American Psycho. I might give the book a try some time.

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    1. AP is a very dense, very entertaining and very, very gruesome book. I definitely recommend it, but it isn't for the faint of heart.

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  9. I'd forgotten that BEE is your favorite author. Not very familiar with his work, but he sticks in my mind as someone who did a good job of capturing the general "vibe" of the 80's. (Hopping over to Wikipedia) Yup, he and I are close to the same age, so we both came of age during those years. Makes sense.

    I've only read American Psycho, and while I didn't love it, I remember thinking "there's a lot going on here" and admiring Ellis's prowess as a writer. Oddly, the gruesomeness didn't faze me much.

    Bookmarking this post so I can give it a proper read when I have a bit more time. ;-)

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    1. He really did nail the essence of the '80s in his first three books. I just love it. American Psycho, like the rest of his books, certainly aren't easy reads, but like I said, you can't deny that he knows what he's doing.

      Hope you have a chance to read some of his stuff soon!

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    2. If I were to pick one of his novels, other than AP, which would you recommend?

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    3. If I had to order my preference of his novels, from best to weakest:

      The Informers, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, Less Than Zero, Glamorama, Lunar Park, Imperial Bedrooms.

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    4. Thanks! Copying your ordered list for future reference. :)

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    5. No problem! But I should clear something up. If you're interested in reading most of his novels, it makes far more sense to read them in the order they were released. Every novel contains characters from his other novels, and Ellis often advances story lines from previous novels in current ones, albeit very subtly. (For example, the lead in Rules of Attraction is Sean Bateman, whose brother, Patrick, makes a cameo. American Psycho is about Patrick, and his brother, Sean, makes a cameo in that book. Stuff like that.)

      Just a thought!

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  10. Couldn't agree more with what you wrote about American Psycho the movie. It really captures the essence of the novel, so it's weird that Ellis said what he said, especially that so many people were confused by real/imagined nature of the film Harron actually had to step in and make a comment about that.

    I think this is Bale's greatest performance - he played Bateman as if they shot the entire novel. As if he was living that sick life and we are only seeing the glimpse of it. He really became Patrick and as enjoyable as movie was, he really carried it.

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    1. I thought Ellis' comments about American Psycho were odd as well, because it isn't exactly clear if Bateman did actually do it. (In her director's commentary, Harron says it was her intention to show that Bateman DID kill all of the people.)

      I love what you said about Bale shooting the whole movie. It really does feel like that. My favorite Bale performance, for sure.

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  11. I've read American Psycho and seen the film versions of it and Rules of Attraction, but I'd really like to dig into some more of his books. He certainly is an excellent writer.

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    1. Glad you're a fan of his work. I love all of his books. You could start and finish Rules of Attraction in an afternoon, easy.

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  12. Guess I've got some reading to get through, I think 'American Psycho' is just ok. It's the narration by Bale that makes me cringe every time I hear it. Furthermore I liken it to 'Clockwork Orange' in trying to get into the mindset of sadism, although I find Alex much more compelling than Bateman. I think it stems from DeLarge just having an absolute blast with all his debauchery, while Bateman by definition of the decade of excess can never be satisfied. He keeps going because it's a need that can never be met. Thus he isn't a child with a sadistic mindset like DeLarge, he's just an asshole with money. However, both represent their respective decades wholly, Alex with the 70's and Bateman with the 80's. I just find the 70's version far better done, in getting us into this disturbing psyche.

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    1. If you don't like the narration in the American Psycho movie, I really doubt you'd enjoy the book. Every word of Bale's narration is taken directly from the text, and the movie has maybe a third of the amount of narration in the book.

      I would definitely agree that A Clockwork Orange is a better film than AP. No question. But I would argue that AP is more entertaining, for whatever that's worth.

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  13. This was great essay! I've always teetered on the edge of Ellis' work. I loved Less Than Zero, effortlessly brilliant. I was put off by the film after searching a few trailers and clips, for it would ruin the book. My sister is big fan and her favourite is Rules of Attraction - which has been on my reading list for 3 years. I saw the Informers and was interested. I thought about reading the book but the film put me right off. But Imperial Bedrooms looks like something I need to read and you're a film would be brilliant too.

    I can't say I liked American Psycho but I thought it was brilliantly twisted but I cant see it again.

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    1. So glad you're a fan! Less Than Zero is not a good film, but Robert Downey Jr. is great in it. The Informers is a crap film but arguably my favorite Ellis prose. The characters are detached, in the best possible way. Classic Ellis.

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  14. All the people who love books shout all the time "BOOK IS MUCH BETTER", but what if i told you that books can be worse than movies. Fight club? Peaceful warrior

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    1. Books can definitely be worse than movies. Totally agree.

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