10 Wonderful Short Films Based on Famous Short Stories

Here at Flavorpill, we’re total suckers for short stories — in any form. The idea of short stories being used as source material for films — even feature films — is nothing new (hello, Brokeback Mountain), but this week, PWxyz pointed us towards a gorgeous short film we had never seen before, based on one of our favorite short stories, Franz Kafka’s “A Country Doctor.” Inspired, we dug up a few more wonderful short films based on short stories, both professional and amateur, which could serve either to accent your understanding of a story, or, you know, let you off easy. After all, there’s nothing lower-effort than kicking back and watching videos online. Even if they’re literary. Click through to check out the films, and let us know which short story you’d love to see in short film form in the comments.

Franz Kafka’s “A Country Doctor,” adapted by Kōji Yamamura.

Filed Under:

Post comment as twitter logo facebook logo
Sort: Newest | Oldest

Tucker Capps did a beautiful short film of a story by the great Brazilian Joao Guimaraes Rosa, "The Third Bank of the River."

Another story of Etgar Keret was adapted to the wonderful "Wristcutters: al love story" Here's a liink to Ira glass's reading of one of his stories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dcmXVsJSN4

Here is an adaptation to an Etgar Keret story which I really really love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UyzD-GxNYU

There was a whole series done by PBS TV about 20 or so years ago of really great, overlooked short stories by famous authors made into films with top actors & directors - who jumped at the chance to work on these until-then unknown stories that offered plum roles.

Father Sergius or The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy, and People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water by Annie Proulx would make good features. A Clean, Well Lighted Place by Hemingway would make a great short.

Fuck, ANYTHING by Borges would be awesome.

Tobias Wolff's "Bullet in the Brain" with Tom Noonan: http://youtu.be/hlrA-0t34p4

And here's an excellent adaptation of a lesser-known Guy de Maupassant short story (Graveyard Sirens)! https://vimeo.com/42668278

Barthelme! A film! There's also a really good Lethem adaptation that I've never seen referenced anywhere, but it continues to fascinate me— https://vimeo.com/13475064

So happy to see 2081 on this list. I remember reading 'Harrison Bergeron' in junior high English class amd then trying to reference it later on, but no one seemed to have heard of it. When I saw the adaptation, I was thrilled. It's a pitch-perfect companion to my second favorite short story. Now, I just wish someone would make an as perfect adaptation of my favorite short sorru, Joyce Carol Oates' "Where are you going, Where have you been?' (and no, the terrible 80s 'Smooth Talk' with Laura Dern doesn't count since it butchered the whole point of the story).

Oh,and I'd love to see Borges's "The Writing of the God" get the celluloid treatment.

Here's an extraordinary adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Dream of a Ridiculous Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot45HZNRyzM

In 1990 twelve short stories by Patricia Highsmith were turned into hour long episodes in a series entitled, Chillers. The first one of these is called 'The Cat Brought It In'. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvgPVp5CeOU