The following undergraduate thesis deals with the film adaptations of three literary works by Bohumil Hrabal, The death of Mr. Baltisberger, Closely observed trains and An Advertisement for the House I Don't Want to Live in Anymore. The thesis begins with a definition of the concept of film adaptation followed by summaries of some of the previously published theory of film adaptation studies. The second part of the work accurately presents the life and work of Bohumil Hrabal, the most important prose writer in the Czech Republic in the second half of the 20th century. The third part deals with the analysis of three film adaptations directed by Jiří Menzel. Especially the way in which the director transformed important topics and motives from the literary into the film medium. The analysis also looks into the social and political backgrounds of literary and film works, as these, although not essential, are an inevitable part of finished art products. The key is Hrabal's personal view of the world, in his works very intelligible and in the film adaptations of these works somewhat less evident, since the director has transformed it in his own way. The following thesis also explains the reasons for such a transformation.
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