User:Carolinehicks21/sandbox

As I Lay Dying is a 2013 American drama film directed, co-written by and starring James Franco, based on the William Faulkner novel of the same name published in 1930. the cast of the film has often been recognized as the contributors to the success of the film; this cast consists of James Franco (Darl), Tim Blake Nelson (Anse), Danny McBride (Vernon Tull), Jim Parrack (Cash), Ahna O'Reilly (Dewey Dell), Logan Marshall-Green (Jewel), and Beth Grant (Addie). The story is based on the loss a mother and the struggles in which the family suffers by going the distance to her burial grounds in her home town

James Franco, a graduated english PhD student from Yale University decided to write a screenplay of the novel with a fellow student, Matt Rager. The novel As I Lay Dying was described as a story impossible to be transformed into a film due to the multi narrative voices within it. Franco saw this as a challenge and was able to depict the many voices, through choices of styling through camera edits. Faulkner told this story in a chorus of voices: 15 narrators in the 59 chapters. To locate an equivalent for the novel’s polyphonal scheme. Franco in relation to this decision employs the use of narrative expressed through dialogue and voice overs. James Franco also incorporates different elements such as split screen which is effective in a sense which, allowing the viewers to connect to the isolation each character experiences since they are connected by blood, duty, and desire. The film is often described as a summer project attempting to create a cinematic representation for Faulkner’s text.

The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard Section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. James Franco’s brand has received it’s most recognizable endorsement to date from the festival, his successful and much anticipated adaptation of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, has been chosen for the Un Certain Regard Section. This acknowledgement has placed him alongside other big name auteurs such as Sofia Coppola and Claire Denis.