Wort und bild: Ueberlegungen zum Verhaeltnis von Buch und Film am Beispiel von Alfred Doeblins und Rainer Werner Fassbinders "Berlin Alexanderplatz". [German text]

By examining the distinctions made by Lessing between word and picture, I present the hypothesis that cinema and literature have essentially the same range of expression possibilities. However, the ways of expression are differently organized so that there are no linear correspondences between the two artistic modes. The result is that a cinematic adaptation is less a translation of a literary work than a recreation. The examination of Doblin's and Fassbinder's texts shows that there are essential differences in the presentation of the plot. While the novel captures in a mode of citation and montage the violence of collective life in the city, the movie demonstrates in its concentration on psychological types and figures the violence within sexual, interpersonal relationships. The emergence of two different contents that is based upon differences in representation underscores the essential equality in the two modes of expression, cinema and literature