Venice (AFP) – Director Wes Anderson, who presented his take on a Roald Dahl story at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, came out strongly against moves to alter the author’s books for “sensitivity” reasons.
Anderson received a lifetime achievement award and presented his 40-minute “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” based on a short story by Dahl.
Anderson, responding to a question, said he was strongly opposed to recent revisions of Dahl’s books to remove descriptions of characters like “fat” and “crazy”.
“If you ask me if Renoir should be allowed to touch up one of his pictures, I’d say no.I don’t want even the artist to modify their work,” he told reporters.
“I understand the motivation for it, but I’m in the school where, when the piece is finished…the audience participates in it, we know it, so when it’s done, it’s done,” Anderson added.
“And certainly no one who is not an author should be modifying someone’s book — he’s dead.”
His 40-minute film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel and Ralph Fiennes in a very theatrical staging of Dahl’s story about a man who learns to see without his eyes.
It is the first of four short Dahl adaptations that Anderson has prepared for Netflix with the same actors.
Anderson has adapted Dahl before with 2009’s animated “Fantastic Mr Fox” and said he had been looking for a way to make “Henry Sugar” for years.
“It’s more like a little theatrical presentation that we found a way to film,” he said.
