Predicated on the idea that a cinematic adaptation is not the by-product of a novel, but a new work in its own right, this book examines three related issues :
In analysing the historic path taken by film-makers in the field of adaptation in France, we fing that great writers have not been opposed to screen adaptations, or even to having their own works transformed into film. In fact, such undertakings have helped them to become aware of the actual rewriting process involved in adapting their works for the big screen.
Next, readers are presented with the reverse course : transforming films into books. In attempting to recreate through words the effect of the presence conveyed by an image, the serial films of the 1920s, Robbe-Grillet's ciné-novels and today's « novelisations » challenge us to redefine what is real and what is illusion.
Finally, by examining the relationship between Alain Resnais and his scriptwriters, the book shows us how this collaboration tends to erase the distinction between the two genres, literature and cinematography — a homogenisation which, in present-day literature, is leading to what we may categorize as « transmodal » writings.

Monique Carcaud-Macaire is a senior lecturer on film-making at Université Paul-Valéry (Montpellier III).

Jeanne-Marie Clerc teaches General and Comparative Literature at Université Paul-Valéry (Montpellier III).