Women authors into film

Women authors have been adapted in a lot of great films, and no, I don’t mean JK Rowling or Stephenie whats-her-name. Check out some of the adaptations of these great women!



Patricia Highsmith

This suspense author seems like she is well-favored in Europe and the U.K. even though she is an American. One of her more famous works that have been adapted is The Talented Mr. Ripley. Did you know the character of Tom Ripley has appeared in five films over the years, each played by a different actor? Barry Pepper, John Malkovich, Matt Damon, Dennis Hopper and Frenchman Alain Delon have all taken on the role. The group of books is known as “The Ripliad.” Another famous work is Strangers on a Train, made into a film by Alfred Hitchcock no less.

Ruth Rendell

Another author in a similar vein is Ruth Rendell, or Barbara Vine, a pseudonym. Her works have been adapted into TV—notably the Inspector Wexford series which ran for over 12 seasons on PBS, and a series of works such as A Dark Adapted Eye (my favorite) and Gallowglass which also ran on PBS—and feature films such as Almodovar’s Live Flesh, and French films Alias Betty and The Bridesmaid.

Agatha Christie

Can’t mention female authors without mentioning Agatha Christie. Although we know her better from her mystery novels, and perhaps many small screen adaptations of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, there have been some feature films of her works. Probably best known is Murder on the Orient Express, where a bunch of people gather for an event--one of them is killed, and one of them is a killer. She’s also well-known for The Mousetrap, a very long-running play in England. There’s even a series of French graphic novels based on some of her works, and some modern day video games. Wow!

Lynda LaPlante

Although her works have been adapted for TV, I list her here for her Prime Suspect series, which introduced me, and I’m sure a lot of others, to a strong female character played by an equally dynamic actress, Helen Mirren. I wasn’t familiar with Mirren’s sexy roles of an earlier generation but found her TV cop to be something new and refreshing, a soul sister to Cagney and Lacey. Even though the PBS program series she began on Mystery! I think has sort of lost its originality, I appreciated a new, good female character.

Jane Austen

Well, how can I skip her? She’s had a really good run in modern day film, probably due to a resurgence with a few projects that came out around 1995: Sense and Sensibility, adapted by and costarring Emma Thomson and directed by Ang Lee, and the BBC’s six part miniseries Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. I know a lot of people consider this version of P&P to be the “definitive” version and it really is pretty good, the miniseries format allowing a depth that the more modern film starring Keira Knightley just doesn’t have. Another equally fine and beautiful adaptation is Persuasion, starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, which I think gets overlooked. I highly recommend these three particular adaptations. While some of the more recent ones star bigger and flashier names, you can’t beat the accomplished and mature English casts in these three.

P.D. James

Although I found P.D. James first through that old standby, PBS’ Mystery! program, she’s also had one work adapted, Children of Men. I was surprised to see this futuristic story about the collapse of human morality written by someone mostly known for mystery novels.