Literary films at the New Zealand International Film Festival 2011

The New Zealand International Film Festival in Christchurch is showing some films with a literary pedigree.

Here is a listing of movies based on books, or on the subject of writers. It has been kindly supplied by the film festival organisers:

Norwegian wood

Exquisite adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s best-selling novel of tortured first loves from the director of The Scent of Green Papayas Tran Anh Hung.
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Guilty pleasures

A fond, good-humoured doco about Mills and Boon romance novels and how they bear on the love lives of a handful of writers and readers.

The solitude of prime numbers

Best-selling Italian novel The Solitude of prime numbers (about two bright, fiercely lonely misfits caught in a strange, life-long pas de deux) is now a strange, fiercely unconventional love story.
Search BiblioCommons for The Solitude of prime numbers

Submarine

Submarine is set, with an excruciating eye for period tack, in 80s Swansea. An adaptation of Welsh poet Joe Dunthorne’s novel.
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Daytime tiger

New Zealand writer Michael Morrissey was diagnosed with manic depression in 1999, but long rejected available medication. This biographical movie explores its subject with astonishing frankness.
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Mysteries of Lisbon

A handsomely mounted adaptation of the like-titled Portuguese novel, Raul Ruiz’s 4 1/2-hour epic establishes the essential ambiguity of its chameleonic characters from the get-go and proceeds thereby, with riveting results and revelations that continue right to the end. Prostitution, murder, romance, war and spiritual malaise slot the pic firmly in the melodramatic tradition, in which it sparkles. Rob Nelson, Variety
There is no English version of this novel.
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Anton Chekhov’s The Duel

The Duel is intelligently staged and impeccably crafted … The period atmosphere is sensuous; the postcard setting feels lived-in… J. Hoberman, Village Voice
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We recommend

• Read the Book — then see the film — a list of upcoming movies that are based on books so that you can read the book before seeing the movie.
• Books into film — a list based on movies showing in Christchurch, and screening on free-to-air television.
• Our film page gives you all the best links to film resources and information.