From: Jim Murphy
Category: Amis
Date: 6/23/99
Time: 6:44:48 AM
Remote Name: 195.11.50.203
The idea of a ‘Night Train’ film doesn’t chill me as much as a ‘London Fields’ film - in fact, of all the Amis oeuvre, I think this may be the most suited to cinema, but you’ve still got to worry. Nic Roeg made the massively impressive Daph du Maurier adaptation ‘Don’t Look Now’, but then don’t forget this is the same guy who more recently made the rather risible adaptation of Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’. Who will play Mike? All they’ll think of is Frances McDormand in ‘Fargo’ but it’ll probably wind up being Kathy Bates rehashing that gruesomely masculine detective she played in ‘Diabolique’. No doubt they’ll get someone to play Jennifer too in tacky flashbacks. And will they change that ending? Make it a little clearer? I hope not. It brought many of us back on ‘MAD I’ so much pleasure discussing its ambiguity, but bets are on they’ll change it in the movie. They can never resist, can they. Of course, the concluding significance of Tobe’s one redeeming word will be lost once the story is ripped away from the written form. Still, should I be so precious? In a film of Night Train, we’ll get to hear ‘Night Train’, which might be a plus, might it not? This gets me thinking about something we didn’t discuss when we read it…why, I wonder, does Amis refer again and again to the actual music ‘Night Train’. What is the effect of referring to a piece of music in a book, where obviously it can’t be heard? Ramble ramble. Incidentally, is anyone else here disillusioned by the white elephant that is the London Fields Movie website? That promised to be so much, and it’s delivered so little.