Space in the film adaptation of Bonheur d'occasion by Gabrielle Roy

Filmic adaptation of Gabrielle Roy's novel Bonheur d'occasion, published in 1945, by Claude Fournier (Bonheur d'occasion, 1983) proceed not only to a transposition of the literary text into the film but also to its reinterpretation. Space is one of the elements this reinterpretation is concerned with. Whereas part of the modifications are inevitable in the process of adaptation, others reveal the interpretation of the novel by the film director and have consequences on the identity discourse expressed by the film. The analysis of filmic adaptation, considered as interpretation of the source text, but not in terms of fidelity to the original, try to answer the question of why some spaces are omitted and others are privileged and what consequences these decisions have on the film.

Keywords: space; city; Montreal; adaptation; interpretation