From Novel to Film: A Study of Memory, Illness, and Symbols in All the Bright Places in Light of Eneste’s Ecranisation Theory

Abstract

A person's psyche is composed of three distinct yet related components: memory, illness, and symbols. The American teen romance film All the Bright Places (2020b) is based on the Jennifer Niven novel of the same name and is available to stream on Netflix. The term ‘adaptation’ describes how books, stories, and comics are interpreted, reworked, and reimagined for use in movies, music, video games, and webcomics. It has an intertextual and reciprocal structure. The narrative of Theodore Finch’s and Violet Markey’s mental illness and suicidality is the focus of Jenifer Niven's young adult book All the Bright Places (2015a). As it's vital to maintain screentime, dramatic effect, and censorship, sequences are frequently altered and excluded in Adaptation. These changes are often not well received by the audience. It was also widely criticised that Brett Haley's adaptation of the book, All the Bright Places (2020b), failed to do the novel justice. The objective of the investigation is to ascertain the modifications implemented in the film and the rationale behind them. Through the lens of Eneste's Ecranisation theory, this study explores the moments that are included and excluded from the movie All the Bright Places (2020b). The three steps in the Ecranisation theory are reduction, variation, and addition. This paper delves into the memory shared by the characters, the portrayal of their illness and the use of symbolism in both the novel and the film. The researcher identifies that the ecranised contents in the film shift the focus from Finch and Violet’s struggle with suicidality to their love story. This shift portrays the film and the story in a lighter way. It also aids the director in preventing the film from being an example of the Werther effect, the phenomenon of suicide contagion.