October 4

Annabel Lee Adaptation

A Song for Annabel Lee

I chose this adaptation of Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe because not only is the song very beautiful but so is the video they made to play along with the song. The song is very soft and pretty just like how Poe wrote. He wrote it with the facade of a beautiful love story and the soft melody of this adaptation plays along with this style. The poem and the song were made with the intent to fool you into thinking “what a lovely love song/poem.” But once you listen carefully to the words you understand that maybe the story it portrays isn’t the story you think it is. Also, it leaves the story to the listener’s imagination, just like the poem does. It leaves it to an open interpretation and doesn’t tell you what to think what story is saying. You can decide, as its debatable because each person interprets it differently. It, in my opinion, stays true to the versatility of the poem which, I think, is the most important thing adaptations should follow.

October 1

‘Annabel Lee’ ~ Short Film Adaptation

This adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Annabel Lee’ by Sarah Jarosz and David Johnson represents the story of Annabel Lee in the most artistic way. What is so special about this adaptation is the fact that the singer manages to make the poem seem gloomy even though the poem is sung in a folk-styled type of music. The artist who designed the video uses detailed images to display and highlight the heartbreak of the man and the woman he loves (Annabel Lee). This adaptation gives a deep illusion of terror and signifies the aspect of death and mourning in the poem. My favorite part of the video is the ending when the man is crying in despair in the rain and then he finds himself in the tomb of Annabel Lee hugging her corpse. I feel like that ending is so powerful and chilling that it shows the amount of sadness he has gone through just to be with his beloved.

The editing of the video is also quite well done as the illustrations fit well with the text of the poem. For instance at the part when the narrator compares Annabel Lee’s eyes with the moon there is a skeleton of her in the moon. I feel like that depicts the morning of the lover as he can’t even look at the simplest of things such as the night sky without thinking of his lover Annabel Lee. in conclusion, I believe that this adaptation helps portray the poem best though I think the folk music created a haunting effect I believe if a more narrative voice recited the poem it would have stressed on that aspect of terror. Nevertheless, the illustrations explained the poem better as a visual representation and they also added to the eerie feeling of despair in the poem that the lover was experiencing.

 

September 28

Annabel Lee – Short Film Adaptation

This adaption of ‘Annabel Lee’ was posted on Youtube and was directed by Carl T. Rogers and was uploaded by Doorway films. what makes this adaption of the poem so interesting is that it took the poem and made it into a short film. This is a 12 and a half minute video which is almost 10 times the length of regular adaptions of the poem. when i really like about the short film is that they made it really easy for the audience to understand the story and made it super emotional and heartbreaking how the man lost the love of his life Annabel Lee. The short film used a lot of sad but powerful music to emphasize on the sorrow of the poem. this adaption used many actors as well who portrayed the characters and the man’s feeling towards Annabel Lee really well that when she died and he lost someone meaningful to him, it really struck the audience and the tone of the poem into a very sad and depressing feeling. the film started off with the couple really happy and two of them getting married, and the storyline and the emotions change completely after Annabel Lee. the short film also displayed the theme of the angels envying the couple as a major part of the film when in the poem the angles were present however they were not as a major part. One thing that i thought was interesting was that they made the poem more religious by having a jewish wedding when really the only bit of belief in the poem is represented in the angels, it doesn’t discuss actual religion. the adaption also included a necklace that belonged to Annabel Lee that the angel who envied them wore wore after she died which represents how the angels took her soul by taking (or in this case wearing) something of hers. there was actually a fight scene in the short film between the man and one of the angels that was wearing the necklace, which was not in the poem at all. this expresses more the envy the angel had on the man and the love the man had for the woman for fighting with the angel that took his wife.