Evaluation of movie 'Clueless' by Amy Heckling
             I believe that "In any transformation, it is always the more recently composed text that will have a greater appeal." I have followed admirably Jane Austen's example by making a film that, on the surface, seems like another mindless teen flick but is actually a multi-layered social commentary. I took Austen's novel Emma, the story of a spoiled child of the 19th century English leisure class who thinks she knows everything, and turned it into the film Clueless, the story of a spoiled child of the 20th century American leisure class who thinks she knows everything. Not only did my experiment display the universal nature of Jane Austen's work, it also resulted in a charming and what I feel very funny film which will hopefully become a box office success.
             In my hands, Austen's novel proves itself to be surprisingly adaptable to the contemporary period. Some updating is only minor, photography substitutes for portraiture, convertibles for carriages, parties in the Valley for fancy dress balls. Others are less obvious, Mr. Woodhouse's preoccupation with his digestion and Emma's concerns about his health undergo a contemporary twist in Cher's imposition of a low-cholesterol diet on her father. Even Emma's mother's death receives my own 1990s treatment. Cher's mother died undergoing liposuction a 20th century procedure never contemplated in those times. More significant changes challenge the severity of time boundaries, class differences in the novel are complicated as the film adds racial and sexual diversity to the mix. (The orphaned Harriet Smith becomes a Hispanic transfer student, 'Frank Churchill' is revealed to be gay, and Emma's best friend becomes a rich African American).
             To gain insight into my main character's thinking, I employ the alternative technique of voice-over for Cher. While written in the third person, the novel is told from Emma's...