Adaptations: "Four Nights of a Dreamer"

The film adaptation of a well-known literary work is a deceptively complicated endeavor. While appropriating a great story might seem to ease the filmmaker’s burden, it in fact adds a degree of complexity, for the adaptation must simultaneously maintain fidelity to the source text and possess an independent cinematic vision. Satisfying this dual mandate of transposition and imitation, of being a work that is both original and copy, requires a delicate balancing act. Excessive preoccupation with textual fidelity—translating plot, period, and setting to the screen—produces a banal re-enactment that might convey appearances but not voice, feeling, or point of view. A looser interpretation, however, can be equally banal, for the thematic and spiritual identity of the text can become lost, and the adopted plot elements reduced to awkward vestiges serving little narrative purpose. Four Nights of a Dreamer, if not one of filmmaker Robert Bresson’s very best, is that uncommon thing, a compelling adaptation: a resonant reimagining of the text, an attentive refashioning by a distinct sensibility, providing a new and provocative experience of the story. Long difficult to see due to challenges with distribution rights, Bresson’s 1971 film has made a timely reappearance following its 4K restoration in 2024.