Creativity as the driving force of screen adaptations (based on the “Lost Symbol”)

Abstract

The article deals with the creative aspect of screen adaptations as a form of intersemiotic translation. It considers the film-makers’ creativity as a tool employed to ensure commercial appeal of the target media product while following the conventions of meaning-making in the multimodal space of cinema and preserving social and cultural features of the source. Adapters are not bound by the equivalence criterion to the same extent literary translators are. However, the choice of the work of literature is never made at random, it is determined by the value of the source text for the target audience. Consequently, its reinterpretation shall meet the expectations of those familiar with the original but also respect the affordances in force in a medium where the visual aspect prevails over language.

The current paper studies the screen adaptation of “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown, a novel filled with mystery but also focused on the broad historical and cultural perspective on the facts and myths surrounding the Order of Masons. The film-makers choose to emphasize the quest-like nature of the narrative by increasing the number of riddles in the spirit of Freemasonry in order to reinforce suspense. Their characters also evolve in terms of personalities they endowed with. Their feelings and emotions in the novel are solely restricted to what is required in order to pursue the search. The actors’ play, however, cannot be as simple as that which urges film-makers to elaborate on every facet of their individuality. A complex mixture of fear, love, curiosity, regret, inspiration and much more become the driving force of the story. Meanwhile, the ancient wisdom they seek is no longer reserved for a limited circle of the enlightened but for anyone able to see through the symbols.