美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Little Prince' Adaptations Aren't Easy — Just Ask Orson Welles

'Little Prince' Adaptations Aren't Easy — Just Ask Orson Welles

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Pity the person who tries to adapt "The Little Prince." The classic story by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is about a pilot who meets a child from another planet. The book has sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world. Now there's a new movie adaptation of "The Little Prince" by a director whose credits include "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" and "Kung Fu Panda." NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.

ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE¹: I can hear "The Little Prince" purists now groaning² that the co-director of anything to do with SpongeBob...

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS")

TOM KENNY: (As Spongebob Squarepants) Hurray.

BLAIR: ...Would dare touch this literary classic.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LITTLE PRINCE")

RILEY OSBORNE: (As The Little Prince) What planet is this?

BENICIO DEL TORO: (As The Snake) This is Earth. This is Africa.

BLAIR: Turns out, it was Antoine de Saint-Exupery's family that asked Mark Osborne if he would direct "The Little Prince."

OLIVIER D'AGAY: The first response was no.

BLAIR: Olivier d'Agay is the great nephew of Saint-Exupery and manages the writer's estate.

D'AGAY: Mark is so honest guy (laughter) that he was really scared to think to an adaptation of this lovely book.

MARK OSBORNE: I just said there's no way that you could possibly make a movie that is everything the book is to everyone.

BLAIR: And that's a lot of things - a meditation³ on childhood, a fable⁴ about friendship, even a war story. Mark Osborne has his own history with the book. He met his future wife when he was an art student at the Pratt Institute in New York. While they were dating, he was accepted to the California Institute of the Arts to study animation⁵.

M. OSBORNE: We had a long distance relationship at some point, and it was really hard on us. And she gave me her copy of the book as a way to keep us connected, and she used the quote, you know, it is only with the heart that one can see rightly what is essential is invisible to the eye.

BLAIR: That bit of wisdom comes from a fox the Little Prince meets as he visits different planets.

M. OSBORNE: That was the quote that meant a lot to me and to us at that time because she was saying if we can't be together, we'll still be together.

BLAIR: Osborne says his own memories of the book gave him an idea.

M. OSBORNE: I couldn't stop thinking about the idea of using the book as sort of the beating heart at the center of a larger story that was about the experience that one can have with the book.

BLAIR: In Osborne's movie, we follow a 9-year-old girl's experience of reading "The Little Prince."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LITTLE PRINCE")

MACKENZIE FOY: (As The Little Girl) Once upon a time, there was a little prince who lived on a planet that was scarcely bigger than himself and who had need of a friend.

BLAIR: She's introduced to the story by its author, a former aviator⁶ who lives next door.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LITTLE PRINCE")

JEFF BRIDGES: (As The Aviator) He was very fond of sunsets. One day he saw 44 of them.

FOY: (As The Little Girl) What?

CHRISTINE NELSON: It's a book that so many people claim as their own, and so making a film of such a beloved story is a real risk.

BLAIR: Christine Nelson is with the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, the Saint-Exupery original manuscript for "The Little Prince." She says the history of trying to adapt the story is fraught⁷. The first person to buy the film rights was Orson Welles in 1943. He wanted to make a live-action film with some animation and approached Walt Disney.

NELSON: He went to this meeting with Walt Disney and told him his vision, and apparently⁸ Disney stormed out of the meeting saying, you know, there's only room in this project for one genius. And so the whole thing fell apart.

BLAIR: Grown-ups, as the Little Prince might sigh. In 1974, Stanley Donen, who co-directed "Singin' In The Rain" came out with a movie musical starring Gene⁹ Wilder as the fox wearing an orange suit and tie.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LITTLE PRINCE")

GENE WILDER: (Singing, as The Fox) We'll go a glance at a time, a small advance at a time. We'll be afraid a bit and shy a bit, avoid each other's eye a bit lest off in each day...

BLAIR: It flopped¹⁰. The Morgan Library's Christine Nelson thinks the main problem was the 6-year-old actor who played the Little Prince, a tough role.

NELSON: You know, he has to have the sweetness and the silliness of childhood. He has to show a little bit of world weariness of someone who's traveled the world and witnessed loneliness and isolation¹¹. And in the end, he has to have this great wisdom. That's a pretty tall order for a 6 year old.

BLAIR: It's also a tall order for certain audiences.

What is the audience for this movie?

D'AGAY: (Laughter) That's a good question because we we had the same question in 1943

BLAIR: When "The Little Prince" was first published. Christine Nelson says Saint-Exupery never specified¹² his intended audience. He dedicated¹³ the book to an adult friend of his, a Jew living in Nazi-occupied France. He asked children to forgive him for dedicating the book to a grown-up. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 groaning   

adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• She's always groaning on about how much she has to do. 她总抱怨自己干很多活儿。
• The wounded man lay there groaning, with no one to help him. 受伤者躺在那里呻吟着，无人救助。

3 meditation   

n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录

参考例句：

• This peaceful garden lends itself to meditation.这个恬静的花园适于冥想。
• I'm sorry to interrupt your meditation.很抱歉，我打断了你的沉思。

4 fable   

n.寓言；童话；神话

参考例句：

• The fable is given on the next page. 这篇寓言登在下一页上。
• He had some motive in telling this fable. 他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

5 animation   

n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作

参考例句：

• They are full of animation as they talked about their childhood.当他们谈及童年的往事时都非常兴奋。
• The animation of China made a great progress.中国的卡通片制作取得很大发展。

6 aviator   

n.飞行家，飞行员

参考例句：

• The young aviator bragged of his exploits in the sky.那名年轻的飞行员吹嘘他在空中飞行的英勇事迹。
• Hundreds of admirers besieged the famous aviator.数百名爱慕者围困那个著名飞行员。

7 fraught   

adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的

参考例句：

• The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions.未来数月将充满重大的决定。
• There's no need to look so fraught!用不着那么愁眉苦脸的！

8 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

9 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

10 flopped   

v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的过去式和过去分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅

参考例句：

• Exhausted, he flopped down into a chair. 他筋疲力尽，一屁股坐到椅子上。
• It was a surprise to us when his play flopped. 他那出戏一败涂地，出乎我们的预料。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

12 specified   

adj.特定的

参考例句：

• The architect specified oak for the wood trim. 那位建筑师指定用橡木做木饰条。
• It is generated by some specified means. 这是由某些未加说明的方法产生的。

13 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。