Spider’s Love Game, or on Bernardo Bertolucci’s Adaptation Strategies

Alicja Helman

Abstract

Helman presents a review of Bożena Kudrycka’s book Ukryte spojrzenia w filmach Bernarda Bertolucciego [Hidden Gazes in Bernard Bertolucci’s Films] (2016), indicating that it is a monograph that captures the overall output of the director. Kudrycka focuses in her book primarily on adaptation strategies in eight, selected, films by Bertolucci, for which the starting point was literary material. Discussing the structure of this publication and the nature of film analyses themselves, Helman points out that Kudrycka’s interpretations tend to be extreme, which makes them attractive, however some of them enter the region of over-interpretation. Nevertheless, the reviewer notes that the most extreme interpretations are the most interesting, because they were written with incredible boldness and virtuosity. Helman relates some of Kudrycka’s diagnoses to her own preferences and film interpretations, and in summary notes: Reading Bożena Kudrycka’s book is an exciting intellectual adventure. The author guides us through the meanders of Bertolucci’s difficult art with an infallible sense of direction.