Adapting Katherine Mansfield’s ‘Miss Brill’ into Short Film: Similarities and Differences

Abstract

This research paper focuses on the adaptation of Katherine Mansfield’s short story ‘Miss Brill’ into a short film by Simon Lewis. Published in 1920, ‘Miss Brill’ has never gone out of print and still manages to capture people’s interests and imaginations. With the passage of time and increased advancement in technology, this short story has transitioned from paper to audio files and finally into film. As such, there are a lot of differences and deviations from the main text in the film version.  The film adaptation keeps itself true to the soul of the short story but there are alterations in the setting, point of view, technique, characterization and even the ending of the film. It is these similarities and differences that I intend to dwell upon in my study.