From Novel to Film: Claude Chabrol's adaptations of Ruth Rendell's A Judgement in Stone (La Ceremonie) And The Bridesmaid (La Demoiselle d'Honneur)

Abstract

This study aims to define technicalities of filmic adaptations through two specific examples. Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone and The Bridesmaid were both adapted by French director Claude Chabrol. Based on film theory by Keith Reader and Phil Powrie, Anne Goliot-Leté and Francis
Vanoye, and Laurent Jullier, and on more specific adaptation theory by Robert Stam, this study focuses on the main issues that arise when a director decides to work with a literary text as a basis for a film-script.

From a literary angle of study, the questions of focalisation and organisation of the diegesis will be dealt with by using Genette’s criteria. Narrative tools will be compared to filmic ones and the study will evidence
differences in the range of devices each artist might use, and their different effects. The study of these two cases will lead to wider conclusions on the narrative side of the adaptation process.

The second focus of this dissertation will be the concept of film genres, as theorised by Rick Altman. The films in our corpus will be analysed through the lenses of the three film genres they belong to. This part of the study will further evidence that Chabrol based his works on Rendell’s novels but he also added elements to them, which resulted in a dense generic textile that goes even further than Rendell’s original literary genrification.

Lastly, the dissertation will try to define the two authors’ styles and lead a comparative analysis of their values and works. As that they did not produce their works at the same time and have never been working together,
questions arise on the relevance of one’s themes to the other. Works by Susan Rowland about Rendell and Guy Austin and Joel Magny about Chabrol will help define and compare the two artists’ values, and show their numerous
similarities.