Sometimes, the film adaptation of a literary text is much better than the work from which it is based. On other occasions, the opposite happens, that the book is of higher quality than the movie. We found numerous examples for both cases and the debate is served, but the important thing here is to evaluate each work separately, taking into account the different artistic languages in which each one is handled. However, for those who have read the book before and then seen the movie, they know that they almost always come away with the feeling that literature contributed more and that its adaptation to the screen has fallen short.
And, of course, reading a book takes much more time than watching a movie or a series—unless it is The Simpson, Hospital General o Grey’s Anatomy— and for days, weeks or even months you live with the characters in the stories at the same time as you live your daily life. Therefore, affection, reflection and evolution cannot be the same. This is what happened with the movie The astronaut, a psychological science fiction drama that Netflix released this March. Critics have not been very favorable to the film – although there have been opinions for all tastes – and readers of the novel on which it is based, The Bohemian Astronaut by Jaroslav Kalfař, are not very satisfied with the adaptation.
‘El astronauta de Bohemia’ by Jaroslav Kalfař
‘El astronauta de Bohemia’ by Jaroslav Kalfař
The film directed by Swede Johan Reck—a director experienced in television commercials and series such as Bloodline (2015) o Chernobyl (2019)—and performed by well-known faces such as Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayvar and Isabella Rossellini, places the viewer before an astronaut who has been locked alone in a spaceship for more than 150 days on a mission that will take him to the unknown Chopra cloud. Like the novel it adapts, it is an existential drama that reflects on survival, loneliness or personal relationships. A space journey that serves as a metaphor for a journey into the depths of the human soul.
Netflix
The novel is the debut of the Czech writer, although a nationalized American, Jaroslav Kalfař, which was published in Spain by the Tusquets publishing house in 2017 and with the translation by Isabel Margelí Bailo. More than 300 pages where personal drama, politics, science fiction or humor have a place. Ingredients not all present in the film. In The astronaut There are plausible findings and, at times, it is very enjoyable, but it is also true that the rhythm is not entirely ideal. That is why we will always have the book, and for those who have not read it and are interested in the story of the cosmonaut played by Sandler in the work distributed by Netflix that comes close to it, it is very worth reading.
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2024-03-15 16:12:01
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