hi guys!! first, happy would-be 96th birthday to anne frank! in honor of her birthday and legacy, i just wanted to share some thoughts with you all.
1. i’ve been listening to the diary audiobook a lot while i work and noticed something later on when watching film adaptations: when pfeffer/dussel moves into the annex, a “prospectus and guide to the secret annex” is read out to him, which anne claims is written by the van pels (assuming it’s mrs. van pels). however, in some movies, it’s always anne who drafts it and reads it aloud. i find it kind of frustrating because while, yes, it seems like something anne would do, but she says in the diary that she didn’t write it. i wonder if it’s a creative choice? again, maybe it’s aligned with anne’s character to do such a thing, but in reality that isn’t the case. just because she puts something down in the diary doesn’t mean she actually said those things. there was another quote in the diary which is often attributed to anne as well, but she says that she read the quote in a book somewhere. (i forgot which quote it is, though i believe it was in an entry from 1944 in which she wrote it down.)
2. if you didn’t know, there’s also a graphic adaptation of the diary by ari folman and david polonsky. there was a different graphic novel of the diary, which is more infographic than the folman/polonsky version and good nonetheless. i think it captures the likenesses of the eight really well and the scenes from the diary play out as you would imagine them to. it also captures anne’s own thoughts and fears nicely and the humor and bleak moments are well done too. it’s not entirely accurate, though i’m sure that’s because they don’t have permission to have all of anne’s word-for-word account put into the graphic novel. still, if you’re a visual person, i would take a peek at this book because it’s simply very well done!