Literature adaptations
by andra-constantinovici | created - 21 May 2019 | updated - 30 Jan 2023 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. The Hollow Crown (2012–2016)
TV-14 | 150 min | Drama, History, War
A mini-series of adaptations of Shakespeare's history plays: Richard II, Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V.
Stars: Anton Lesser, Simon Russell Beale, Tom Georgeson, John Mackay
Votes: 7,316
2. Mrs Dalloway (1997)
PG-13 | 97 min | Drama, Romance
In 1923 London, socialite Clarissa Dalloway's (Vanessa Redgrave's) well-planned party is overshadowed by the return of an old suitor she had known thirty-three years earlier.
Director: Marleen Gorris | Stars: Vanessa Redgrave, Natascha McElhone, Michael Kitchen, Alan Cox
Votes: 4,191 | Gross: $3.26M
3. The English Patient (1996)
R | 162 min | Drama, Romance, War
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 201,000 | Gross: $78.65M
4. The Constant Gardener (2005)
R | 129 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
A widower's transcontinental quest to find answers about his wife's death leads him to explosive secrets.
Director: Fernando Meirelles | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Hubert Koundé
Votes: 148,482 | Gross: $33.58M
5. Hamlet (1996)
PG-13 | 242 min | Drama
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi, Kate Winslet
Votes: 40,057 | Gross: $4.41M
6. Henry & June (1990)
NC-17 | 136 min | Biography, Drama
Anaïs Nin meets American writer Henry Miller in Paris in 1931. She keeps a diary of her sexual awakening, which includes Henry and his wife June.
Director: Philip Kaufman | Stars: Fred Ward, Uma Thurman, Maria de Medeiros, Richard E. Grant
Votes: 14,193 | Gross: $11.57M
7. On the Road (2012)
R | 124 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Young writer Sal Paradise has his life shaken by the arrival of free-spirited Dean Moriarty and his girl, Marylou. As they travel across the country, they encounter a mix of people who each impact their journey indelibly.
Director: Walter Salles | Stars: Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams
Votes: 43,299 | Gross: $0.72M
8. Les Misérables (1998)
PG-13 | 134 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Valjean, a former criminal, has atoned for his past and now finds himself in the midst of the French Revolution, avoiding a law-obsessed policeman hell-bent on capturing him.
Director: Bille August | Stars: Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman, Christopher Adamson
Votes: 43,186 | Gross: $14.10M
9. Wuthering Heights (1992)
PG | 105 min | Drama, History, Romance
A man becomes obsessed with vengeance when his soul mate marries another man.
Director: Peter Kosminsky | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, Janet McTeer, Sophie Ward
Votes: 14,347
10. Anna Karenina (1997)
PG-13 | 108 min | Drama, Romance
Anna (Marceau) is a wife and mother who has an affair with the handsome Count Vronsky (Bean). Based on the novel by Tolstoy.
Director: Bernard Rose | Stars: Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, Alfred Molina, Mia Kirshner
Votes: 6,189 | Gross: $0.79M
11. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
TV-PG | 55 min | Drama, Romance
While the arrival of wealthy gentlemen sends her marriage-minded mother into a frenzy, willful and opinionated Elizabeth Bennet matches wits with haughty Mr. Darcy.
Stars: Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle, Susannah Harker, Julia Sawalha
Votes: 92,319
12. Sense and Sensibility (1995)
PG | 136 min | Drama, Romance
Rich Mr. Dashwood dies, leaving his second wife and her three daughters poor by the rules of inheritance. The two eldest daughters are the title opposites.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, James Fleet, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 125,750 | Gross: $43.18M
13. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
Passed | 170 min | Adventure, Drama, History
During the Spanish Civil War, an American allied with the Republicans finds romance during a desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge.
Director: Sam Wood | Stars: Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Arturo de Córdova
Votes: 10,228 | Gross: $17.80M
14. Of Mice and Men (1992)
PG-13 | 115 min | Drama, Western
A nomadic farm worker looks after his dimwitted, gentle-giant friend during the Great Depression.
Director: Gary Sinise | Stars: John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, Ray Walston, Casey Siemaszko
Votes: 47,303 | Gross: $5.10M
15. War & Peace (1972–1973)
890 min | Drama, History, War
Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of five aristocratic Russian families.
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Morag Hood, Alan Dobie, Rupert Davies
Votes: 739
16. The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
R | 124 min | Drama, Romance
Anna and Mike portray two characters in a film set in 19th century England who fall in love despite the fact that Mike's character is engaged.
Director: Karel Reisz | Stars: Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Hilton McRae, Emily Morgan
Votes: 15,088 | Gross: $22.60M
17. The Age of Innocence (1993)
PG | 139 min | Drama, Romance
A tale of nineteenth-century New York high society in which a young lawyer falls in love with a woman separated from her husband, while he is engaged to the woman's cousin.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, Linda Faye Farkas
Votes: 67,809 | Gross: $32.20M
18. Great Expectations (2011–2012)
TV-PG | 60 min | Drama
The orphan Pip becomes a gentleman when his life is transformed by a mystery benefactor.
Stars: Douglas Booth, Jack Roth, Ray Winstone, David Suchet
Votes: 8,242
19. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
PG-13 | 197 min | Drama, Romance, War
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
Director: David Lean | Stars: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger
Votes: 82,093 | Gross: $111.72M
20. 1984 (1984)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In a totalitarian future society, a man, whose daily work is re-writing history, tries to rebel by falling in love.
Director: Michael Radford | Stars: John Hurt, Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril Cusack
Votes: 79,035 | Gross: $8.40M
21. Jane Eyre (1996)
PG | 112 min | Drama, Romance
Jane Eyre is an orphan cast out as a young girl by her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and sent to be raised in a harsh charity school for girls. There she learns to become a teacher and eventually seeks ... See full summary »
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: William Hurt, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Anna Paquin, Nic Knight
Votes: 10,205 | Gross: $5.20M
22. Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
R | 128 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror
The centuries old vampire Count Dracula comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker's fiancée Mina Murray and inflict havoc in the foreign land.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves
Votes: 238,476 | Gross: $82.52M
23. Les Misérables (1998)
PG-13 | 134 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
Valjean, a former criminal, has atoned for his past and now finds himself in the midst of the French Revolution, avoiding a law-obsessed policeman hell-bent on capturing him.
Director: Bille August | Stars: Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman, Christopher Adamson
Votes: 43,186 | Gross: $14.10M
24. Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Not Rated | 112 min | Drama, Sci-Fi
In an oppressive future, a fireman whose duty is to destroy all books begins to question his task.
Director: François Truffaut | Stars: Oskar Werner, Julie Christie, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring
Votes: 45,425
25. Master i Margarita (2005)
500 min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
The devil and his attendants visit Moscow at the times of the Stalin regime. Official atheistic ideology confronts with a series of supernatural events.
Stars: Aleksandr Abdulov, Oleg Basilashvili, Vano Miranyan, Semyon Furman
Votes: 4,769
26. The Fountainhead (1949)
Approved | 114 min | Drama, Romance
An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith
Votes: 10,907
27. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
Not Rated | 147 min | Drama, Thriller
An entomologist on vacation is trapped by local villagers into living with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara | Stars: Eiji Okada, Kyôko Kishida, Kôji Mitsui, Hiroko Itô
Votes: 22,705
28. Alias Grace (2017)
TV-MA | 45 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Grace, an Irish immigrant in 19th-century Canada, is convicted of the murder of her employer. However, things take a different turn when a psychiatrist arrives to analyze her mental state.
Stars: Sarah Gadon, Edward Holcroft, Rebecca Liddiard, Zachary Levi
Votes: 37,831
29. The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019)
TV-MA | 60 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
In a dystopian America dominated by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, a young woman discovers a mysterious film that may hold the key to toppling the totalitarian regimes.
Stars: Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rufus Sewell, Rupert Evans
Votes: 110,988
30. Solaris (1972)
PG | 167 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky | Stars: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet, Vladislav Dvorzhetskiy
Votes: 98,277
31. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
R | 136 min | Crime, Sci-Fi
In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Votes: 881,439 | Gross: $6.21M
32. Quiet Days in Clichy (1990)
120 min | Drama
Expatriate Henry Miller indulges in a variety of sexual escapades while struggling to establish himself as a serious writer in Paris.
Director: Claude Chabrol | Stars: Andrew McCarthy, Nigel Havers, Barbara De Rossi, Stéphanie Tchou-Cotta
Votes: 763
33. Bitter Moon (1992)
R | 139 min | Drama, Romance, Thriller
After hearing stories of her, a passenger on a cruise ship develops an irresistible infatuation with an eccentric paraplegic's wife.
Director: Roman Polanski | Stars: Hugh Grant, Kristin Scott Thomas, Emmanuelle Seigner, Peter Coyote
Votes: 42,692 | Gross: $1.86M
34. Factotum (2005)
R | 94 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
This drama centers on Hank Chinaski, the fictional alter-ego of "Factotum" author Charles Bukowski, who wanders around Los Angeles, CA trying to live off jobs which don't interfere with his primary interest, which is writing. Along the way, he fends off the distractions offered by women, drinking and gambling.
Director: Bent Hamer | Stars: Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, Didier Flamand
Votes: 15,037 | Gross: $0.81M
35. On the Road (2012)
R | 124 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Young writer Sal Paradise has his life shaken by the arrival of free-spirited Dean Moriarty and his girl, Marylou. As they travel across the country, they encounter a mix of people who each impact their journey indelibly.
Director: Walter Salles | Stars: Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Amy Adams
Votes: 43,299 | Gross: $0.72M
36. Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A scheming widow and her manipulative ex-lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz
Votes: 75,154 | Gross: $34.70M
37. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
R | 118 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
An oddball journalist and his psychopathic lawyer travel to Las Vegas for a series of psychedelic escapades.
Director: Terry Gilliam | Stars: Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Tobey Maguire, Michael Lee Gogin
Votes: 301,567 | Gross: $10.68M
38. Howl (2010)
R | 84 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
As Allen Ginsberg talks about his life and art, his most famous poem is illustrated in animation while the obscenity trial of the work is dramatized.
Directors: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman | Stars: James Franco, Todd Rotondi, Jon Prescott, Aaron Tveit
Votes: 13,407 | Gross: $0.62M
39. Coraline (2009)
PG | 100 min | Animation, Drama, Family
Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, an 11-year-old Coraline discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life. In order to stay in the fantasy, she must make a frighteningly real sacrifice.
Director: Henry Selick | Stars: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Jennifer Saunders
Votes: 263,840 | Gross: $75.29M
40. Doctor Zhivago (2002)
TV-14 | 113 min | Drama, Romance
Young and beautiful Lara is loved by three men: a revolutionary, a mogul, and a doctor. Their lives become intertwined with the drama of Russian revolution. Doctor Zhivago is about to get ... See full summary »
Stars: Keira Knightley, Sam Neill, Hans Matheson, Alexandra Maria Lara
Votes: 5,463
41. Hamlet (1990)
PG | 135 min | Drama
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield
Votes: 23,611 | Gross: $20.71M
42. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994)
R | 123 min | Drama, Horror, Romance
When the brilliant but unorthodox scientist Dr. Victor Frankenstein rejects the artificial man that he has created, the Creature escapes and later swears revenge.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Robert De Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hulce
Votes: 59,350 | Gross: $22.01M
43. Vanity Fair (1998)
Not Rated | 50 min | Drama, Romance
An adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's classic story of parvenue Becky Sharp's rise from obscure and humble origins to her subsequent ignominious fall from Society; set against the ... See full summary »
Stars: Natasha Little, Frances Grey, Philip Glenister, David Ross
Votes: 1,732
44. Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
PG | 95 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
In a small American town, a diabolical circus and its demonic proprietor prey on the townsfolk.
Director: Jack Clayton | Stars: Mary Grace Canfield, Richard Davalos, Jake Dengel, Jack Dodson
Votes: 10,617 | Gross: $8.40M
45. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)
PG | 117 min | Comedy, Drama
Two minor characters from the play 'Hamlet' stumble around unaware of their scripted lives and unable to deviate from them.
Director: Tom Stoppard | Stars: Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss, Livio Badurina
Votes: 23,853 | Gross: $0.74M
46. The Hours (2002)
PG-13 | 110 min | Drama, Romance
The story of how the novel "Mrs. Dalloway" affects three generations of women, all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane
Votes: 138,520 | Gross: $41.68M
47. Juliet, Naked (2018)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Annie (the long-suffering girlfriend of Duncan) has an unlikely transatlantic romance with once revered, now faded, singer-songwriter, Tucker Crowe, who also happens to be the subject of Duncan's musical obsession.
Director: Jesse Peretz | Stars: Chris O'Dowd, Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke, Kitty O'Beirne
Votes: 24,704 | Gross: $3.44M
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