ABSTRACT
Much like Garland’s novel, Louis de Bernières’ Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (1994) mesmerized international readers. The adaptation of the book into a Hollywood epic (2001) was met with brutal reactions from critics for its shortcomings and generated a controversy on the Greek island of Kefalonia, where the story was filmed. The foreground of de Bernières’ book was the love story between a mandolin-playing Italian soldier and a Greek Kefalonian woman. It was, however, set in a historical background comprised of the Axis Occupation of Greece, the operation of Greek resistance, and civil strife between the Greek communist fighters of EAM/ELAS (National Liberation Front/Greek People’s Liberation Army) and anti-communist forces. The cinematic adaptation stripped the story of most of its sociopolitical context, presenting it as an anodyne love affair, an unorthodox union of two cultures. It is telling that de Bernières refused to be associated with the movie: CNN rumours held that he was unhappy with the casting of Nicolas Cage as Corelli because he wanted ‘someone smaller and more lively’, that he hated the scriptwriter’s (Shawn Slovo) adaptation and was disappointed with Hollywood’s decision to ditch the complexity of his historical narrative (CNN 2001a). In the end the venture was not very successful and many agreed that director John Madden, known at the time as the great auteur of ‘such beloved films as Mrs Brown and Shakespeare in Love,’ could not ‘go away unscathed’ (CNN 2001a): Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (CCM) was judged even by critics to be yet another expensive Hollywood flop.
