Why are films about writers so deeply unsatisfying?

I think writer are like their stories - better left in the world of imagination. We inevitably form a picture of the writers of our favorite books but in reality they are made of the same mortal stuff as we. Their ideas will always be nobler and more beautiful than they...

i think that when dealing with any translation of a book into a film, the only real elements that can prevail are plot and story. all the imaginative and suggestive methods of expression, all the interior spaces are lost. likewise with the actual authors... it is in the words more than the drama where we glean our writers most. they exist textually for us to interpret... any film is only ever someone else's interpretation, someone else's vision. it is BOUND to conflict.

Lives aren't stories and stories aren't about lives. A story has an arc, tension and release, a theme and a culmination of that theme. A real life with all its messiness and lack of "meaning" can only be reduced by being translated into story - your life, my life, anyone's life. The "story" of Iris's life could have been about many things, her childhood, her university years, her lovers, but finally it was the (trenchant) drama of her decline they settled on, the arc from great mind to no mind at all. In my opinion, a film can never do justice to the act of writing. An author sits in a chair, picks up a pen, boots up a computer and that's it, there's no signifier in the life, no set of actions, that equates adequately with the work, nothing for the scriptwriter to hang a plot on.

regeneration was good, not all bangs and bayonets, about the relationship between wilfred owen and siegfried sassoon fictional film about a writer? the Shining...too close to the truth i think

The protagonist of Bonfire of the Vanities was originally supposed to be a novelist. In fact, a few early chapters printed in, I think Rolling Stone, were written that way. Then Tom Wolfe decided that an investment banker is a much more interesting protagonist than a novelist, at least for a story set in NYC in the 80s. Unfotunately, the film failed anyway, but that was for different reasons.

I can't think of a film about a writer, only The Trials of Oscar Wilde, with Peter Finch. That was brilliant but, then again, nothing about Oscar could be anything other than interesting. I'll go along with the concept that most writers, particully those who write exciting stuff, are usually rather dull.

I have to look at my film referance material when I get home to see...but..."Paris When it Sizzles" is a really cool, crazy 1960's film with William Holden as the aged writer, and Audrey Hepburn as the girl friday that saves him. It is a good film to watch as you can hear the script idea and then see it come alive...I also have a copy of the 1970's production of "Steppenwolf' . This is one of the most fantastic films ever made...I don't know if a copy is findable but I will do a search...Herman Hesse...Most new films are "Tricked Up" by the producers to make sure there is something to keep the dullards from leaving...I think cable is proving to be the best meduim with the WAM and BBC channel as wel as even Disney, A&E, Hallmark etc..."Emily of new moon" is a great show about a young girl writing about her life in the Canadian North..Also "little House on the Praire" was written by the one daughter and is her actual memoirs...There is a 1950's film with Kirk Douglas as a playwriter...I'll post some more..

I too watched 'Iris' over the weekend and was left with a hunger to know more about her earlier life and works (of which I know very little), which the film barely touched upon.. its a shame the story was less of a brilliant life well lived then the decline.. its just a brand of cynicism thats fashionable in media these days, unfortunately so.

I liked "Shadowlands" about CS Lewis (with Anthony Hopkins as the master Christian writer)

You've also got to distinguish between a biopic like "Iris" and a film which is fictional but has a writer as the protagonist ( That Holly something in "The Third Man", great film, or the film, can't remember its name, where a writer steals someone else's manuscript.) Did anyone ever make a film about Tolstoy? - of course he was much more than just a writer and the conflicts with his wife and family were much more the stuff of drama than the lives of Iris and John Bayley (oops - nearly said John Hegley there.) This film was probably hoping to tap the pious and devotional market and provide a showcase for Judi Dench but by all accounts it seems to have been a bit ill-advised. If even writers dont't like it I don't suppose the general public, many of whom probably only have the vaguest idea what she wrote, are going to be too excited. Still, I haven't seen it and it may be great.

This is shantar.A few more films about writers. 1st. is "The Lost Weekend", 1945, Ray Milland. He goes through a drunken weekend, survives starts to write again. Was a big film, lots of awards etc. 2nd. is "The Front", 1976, about Woody Allen as a writer "fronting" for blacklisted writers. 3rd. is "The Trials of Oscar Wilde", 1960 about his life, with Peter Finch. 4th. is "Images", 1973, about Susanna York losing her ability to percieve reality. This film was shot on Shetland island, very moody, she is writing the story as we see it. 5th. is "Sunset Boulvard", 1950, with William Holden and Gloria Swanson. He is telling the story as it happens. He is a hack writer hiding out in a old silent film star's mansion..Great film...I also again would try and find a copy of "Paris When it Sizzles" as it is very well written and seeing the screenplay come to lif as they do all these scenes is good educational fun...Hope that helps...

I think 'hunger', as Spider said, is a very appropriate word. Films about writers can be delicious but often, if they are about specific writers, it can leave us hungry for more than a film can deliver. Love The Shining...writing is enough to turn you into Jack, at times...