Narrativity, Purpose, and Visible Adaptation in Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s American Splendor (2003)

Abstract

Beginning with Christian Metz’s observation that even supposedly non-narrative films ... are governed essentially by the same semiological mechanisms that govern the “feature films”, this article examines one specific case of this trend in Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s 2003 film adaptation of Harvey Pekar’s autobiographical comic American Splendor. Faced with the challenge of transposing the episodic nature and weak narrativity of Pekar’s comics onto the screen, Berman and Pulcini infuse their source material with a strong narrative teleology. But the filmmakers also foreground their own remediation of Pekar’s comics, making visible their adaptation and inviting viewers to unpack the ways in which their adaptation is also a reinterpretation and a repurposing of the source material.

Keywords

• film adaptation
• autobiography
• comics
• narrativity
• remediation
• reinterpretation