Dissolving Media Boundaries: The Interaction of Literature, Film, and Television in Tender Is the Night (1985)

Abstract

Long unavailable, the BBC’s 1985 adaptation of Tender is the Night has now reappeared generating particular interest in Dennis Potter’s role as adaptor. An expensive and prestigious production characteristic of 1980s television, it was nevertheless an unusual adaptation for the BBC: based on an American classic, co-produced with Showtime, featuring U.S. stars and shot in Europe. I argue that this neglected adaptation throws light on some of the key questions still at play in adaptation theory including: the different media practices in literature, film, and television; questions of authorship arising from Fitzgerald’s particular interest in cinema; the interaction between images and words. Looking particularly at the serial’s structure, its narrative voice and its handling of performance and drawing on insights from Executive Producer Jonathan Powell, I argue that it is the intertwining of the verbal and visual and the dissolving of boundaries between three different media which make this such a rewarding adaptation.