Classic Women Authors’ Filmography
It’s truly remarkable how many adaptations have been made from the works of classic women authors. This is just a sampling.
First, movies about or inspired by the lives of real-life women authors:
The Hours (2003) – A trio of interwoven stories, one of which is about Virginia Woolf.
Miss Potter (2007) – A charming film biography of Beatrix Potter, starring Renee Zellweger as the author.
Becoming Jane (2007) – A fanciful film about Jane Austen, with the too-showy-for-the-role Anne Hathaway as the author.
Out of Africa (2000) – A fine film about Isak Dinesen’s African sojourn, with Meryl Streep as the author and Robert Redford as her love interest.
Pentimento (Julia) - (1971) – Based on an apocryphal story by Lillian Hellman, in which she herself is one of the two main characters.
Devotion (1946) – The lives and writing of Emily and Charolette Brontë and their family.
Daphne (2008) – A drama about the life and controversial affairs of Daphne Du Maurier.
Cross Creek (2009) – The life of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings on her Florida orange grove.
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Cycle (1994) – Set in the 1920’s this film follows Dorothy Parker and the members of the Algonquin Round Table; the young writers of the New York literary world at the time.
Sylvia (2004) – Gwyneth Paltrow plays Plath with Daniel Craig as her husband, Ted Hughes. The film follows Plath through her life, showing the process of her publications and the increasing depression that plagued her her entire life.
The Passion of Ayn Rand (2007) – Based on the book written by Barbara Branden, a close friend of Rand, the film tells of two fans that get to meet Rand and how all of their lives intertwine.
Portrait of a Marriage (1992) – This film explores the unconventional marriage of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson.
Beyond Prairie (2010) – The true life story of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
________________________________________________________________________
A selected list of films based upon the books of classic women authors:
Louisa May Alcott
- Little Women (1933)
- Little Women (1949)
- Little Women (1994)
- Little Men (1935)
- Little Men (1941)
- Little Men (1998)
- The Inheritance (1997)
- The Inheritance (2003)
- An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving (2008)
Jane Austen
- Emma (1996)
- Emma (1997)
- Emma (2009, BBC)
- Mansfield Park (1999)
- Mansfield Park (2007, Masterpiece Theatre)
- Northanger Abbey (1986, BBC)
- Northanger Abbey (2007, Masterpiece Theatre)
- Persuasion (1995)
- Pride and Prejudice (1940)
- Pride and Prejudice (1996, BBC miniseries)
- Pride and Prejudice (2006)
- Sense and Sensibility (1995)
- Sense and Sensibility (1981, BBC Video)
- Sense and Sensibility (1971, BBC Video)
Anne Brontë
- The Tenant at Wildfell Hall (2008)
Charolette Brontë
- Jane Eyre (1944)
- Jane Eyre (1997)
- Jane Eyre (2007, Masterpiece Theater)
- Jane Eyre (2011)
- Villette (2010)
Emily Brontë
- Wuthering Heights (2009)
- Wuthering Heights (1992)
Pearl Buck
- The Good Earth (1937)
- Pavilion of Women (2001)
Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The Secret Garden (1949)
- The Secret Garden (1975)
- The Secret Garden (1993)
- A Little Princess (1939)
- A Little Princess (1997)
- Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936)
- Little Lord Fauntleroy (1995)
Willa Cather
- O Pioneers! (1992)
- My Antonia (1995)
Agatha Christie
- Marple: The Classic Mysteries Collection (1930-1989)
- And Then There Were None (1945)
- Endless Night (1972)
- Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
- Death on the Nile (1978)
- Seven Dials Mystery (1982)
- The Mirror Crack’d (1980)
- Evil Under the Sun (1982)
- Miss Marple (1984-85)
- Poirot: The Definitive Collection (1989)
Colette
Daphne Du Maurier
- Jamaica Inn (1939)
- The Birds (1963)
- Rebecca (1940)
- Frenchman’s Creek (2006, Masterpiece Theater)
George Eliot
- Daniel Deronda (2003)
- Middlemarch (2005)
Edna Ferber
- Cimarron (1931)
- So Big (1932)
- Show Boat (1936)
- Saratoga Trunk (1945)
- Show Boat (1951)
- Giant (1956)
- Cimarron (1960)
Miles Franklin
- My Brilliant Career (1979)
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
- The Yellow Wallpaper (2012)
Rumor Godden
- In This House of Brede (1975)
Lorraine Hansberry
- A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
- A Raisin in the Sun (2008)
Lillian Hellman
- Little Foxes (1941)
- Children’s Hour (1961)
Fannie Hurst
- Imitation of Life (1934)
- Imitation of Life (1959)
Zora Neale Hurston
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (2008)
Shirley Jackson
- The Haunting (1963) (Adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House)
- The Haunting (1999) (Adaptation of The Haunting of Hill House)
- The Lottery (1996)
Madeleine L’Engle
- A Wrinkle in Time (2011)
Mary McCarthy
- The Group (1966/2009)
Carson McCullers
- Member of the Wedding (1952)
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
- Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)
Margaret Mitchell
- Gone With the Wind (1939)
L.M. Montgomery
- Anne of Green Gables (1934)
- Anne of Green Gables Trilogy (1986, 1987, 2000)
Anaïs Nin
- Delta of Venus (1995)
Flannery O’Connor
- The Displaced Person (1977)
Tillie Olson
- Tell Me a Riddle (1980)
Sylvia Plath
- The Bell Jar (1979)
Katherine Anne Porter
- Ship of Fools (1965)
Beatrix Potter
- The Beatrix Potter Collection (1992) (BBC animated series)
- The Tales of Beatrix Potter (2009)
Ayn Rand
- The Fountainhead (1949)
- We the Living (1986)
- Atlas Shrugged: Part One (2011)
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
- The Yearling (1947)
Vita Sackville-West
- All Passion Spent (2006)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
- Frankenstein (1931)
- Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)
- Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein (1994)
- Frankenstein (2004)
Betty Smith
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1927)
P.L. Travers
- Mary Poppins (1964)
Edith Wharton
- Age of Innocence (1943)
- Age of Innocence (1993)
- Ethan Frome (1993)
- The House of Mirth (2000)
Laura Ingalls Wilder
- Little House on the Prairie Complete Series (1974-82)
- Little House on the Prairie (2005)
- Little House on the Prairie – Movie Boxed Set (1983)
Virginia Woolf
- Orlando (1993)
- Mrs. Dalloway (1998)
