MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Leaf December 2019 Discussion • The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

Catlady · 12-22-2019, 11:12 AM

Last night I watched the second movie version of The End of the Affair, starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore (free on Pluto TV; the original Van Johnson-Deborah Kerr version isn't free, alas).

Can't say I liked the characters any more in the film version, but there were some interesting changes, a couple of which worked better. I'm not going to use spoiler tags, as the film hews fairly close to the book at first, but if you're a real stickler, be advised.

The Smythe character and the priest have been conflated; this made more sense to me, that Sarah would go to a priest after her vow to examine her feelings and beliefs, rather than some random anti-religion speaker she heard one day. The priest's face has no blemish; it's now Parkis's son who has a large birthmark on his cheek, which disappears after Sarah kisses it.

The huge shift comes in the last section, after Maurice has read Sarah's diary. Maurice and Sarah rekindle their affair, which for me undercuts any reading of the story as a journey of faith. They are planning a future, but then Henry (who has hired Parkis) pops up with test results from Sarah's doctor that she's dying (she'd been coughing throughout the film, a quite obvious Bad Omen), so here there wasn't an untreated bad cold from being out in the rain but some underlying disease (though it does rain in the movie--a LOT). Maurice moves in with Henry and Sarah for the last months of Sarah's life; Sarah gets to look all pale and pitiful; Maurice rages and Henry suffers. The film ends with Maurice departing the crematorium, meeting Parkis and his son, and seeing that the boy's birthmark is now gone.

So there's little real growth in Maurice, unless it comes after the end credits roll. There's less reason to see Sarah as good and holy, because of the renewed affair with Maurice; indeed, one could see her death as punishment for breaking her vow, which makes her kiss "miracle" rather inexplicable. The movie also seems to make Maurice's survival of the bombing more miraculous--here, he's lying on the staircase bleeding, and she is able to check for signs of life and finds none, he's dead; in the novel, with him being under a door, it's much easier to believe that she thought he was dead when he wasn't because she couldn't check too easily.

12-22-2019, 11:12 AM	#91
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,345 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	Last night I watched the second movie version of The End of the Affair, starring Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore (free on Pluto TV; the original Van Johnson-Deborah Kerr version isn't free, alas). Can't say I liked the characters any more in the film version, but there were some interesting changes, a couple of which worked better. I'm not going to use spoiler tags, as the film hews fairly close to the book at first, but if you're a real stickler, be advised. The Smythe character and the priest have been conflated; this made more sense to me, that Sarah would go to a priest after her vow to examine her feelings and beliefs, rather than some random anti-religion speaker she heard one day. The priest's face has no blemish; it's now Parkis's son who has a large birthmark on his cheek, which disappears after Sarah kisses it. The huge shift comes in the last section, after Maurice has read Sarah's diary. Maurice and Sarah rekindle their affair, which for me undercuts any reading of the story as a journey of faith. They are planning a future, but then Henry (who has hired Parkis) pops up with test results from Sarah's doctor that she's dying (she'd been coughing throughout the film, a quite obvious Bad Omen), so here there wasn't an untreated bad cold from being out in the rain but some underlying disease (though it does rain in the movie--a LOT). Maurice moves in with Henry and Sarah for the last months of Sarah's life; Sarah gets to look all pale and pitiful; Maurice rages and Henry suffers. The film ends with Maurice departing the crematorium, meeting Parkis and his son, and seeing that the boy's birthmark is now gone. So there's little real growth in Maurice, unless it comes after the end credits roll. There's less reason to see Sarah as good and holy, because of the renewed affair with Maurice; indeed, one could see her death as punishment for breaking her vow, which makes her kiss "miracle" rather inexplicable. The movie also seems to make Maurice's survival of the bombing more miraculous--here, he's lying on the staircase bleeding, and she is able to check for signs of life and finds none, he's dead; in the novel, with him being under a door, it's much easier to believe that she thought he was dead when he wasn't because she couldn't check too easily.