The Love Film of J. Alfred Prufrock

I thought for my blog on Eliot I would make some comments on the short film I’m going to be showing tonight in class. I originally developed this film back in 1999 while in undergrad. However, I revisited it this past summer while in the Media & Technology course because we had to do a project using Microsoft Moviemaker. I decided to re-edit my original film and make it better, since the original version had a lot of things I wasn’t happy with (considering how crude by comparison editing software was in 1999).

Anyway, I think it’s interesting to note some of the differences between the film and the text. To begin with, I translated the quote from Dante’s Inferno, because what’s the point if you can’t read it, right? Of course, the text gave the translation in the footnotes, but it makes me wonder if the original publication had the translation. Knowing how elite Eliot was, he may have expected his readers to be able to read the original language. One thing you will notice is that the translation in the film is from a different edition and thus reads differently from our book:

“If I thought my answer were given to anyone who would ever return to the world, this flame would stand still without moving any further. But since never from this abyss has anyone ever returned alive […] without fear of infamy I answer you.”

Which version do you prefer?

Lines 15-25 were removed from my narration because I thought the imagery was too difficult to replicate visually.

Lines 35-36 were not repeated from 13-14 because I thought it would have been visually redundant.

Line 41 is changed to say “How his body is not thin,” since, while I wasn’t losing my hair, I’m certainly not a skinny guy, so it made better sense that way. Likewise, adding the word ‘not’ in line 44 reflects the same line of thinking.

Line 82 replaces ‘bald’ with ‘large’ for the same reason already listed above.

I add an extra 2 ‘No’s’ in line 113 for dramatic effect and also because it seemed to work better that way as part of the dialogue between Prufrock and his date.

Lines 114-124 got cut probably because the action of the scene (striding intensely, almost angrily, down the street) did not go well with the rest of the monologue. Plus, you already get his point in line 113: “I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be.”

After lines 127 and 130, I added a voiceover of Prufrock’s date asking him to come back, saying that she will sing to him, that there is, in fact, hope. This new detail illuminates Prufrock’s hopelessness at this point, as he responds each time, “Nay,” continuing further out to sea, and, presumably, his death.