The book
Has anyone else read it? I bought this movie on DVD and it came packed with the book, which I thought was pretty cool. The book was written by Emmanuel Carrère (in 1986) who also directed the movie (in 2005). Since the book is the original work, I decided to read it first and watch the film afterwards. I liked them both, didn't fully understand either. The story is basically the same in both, but there are some differences, biggest one being the ending.
Spoilers for the book follow, so if you wanna find out how the story differs from the movie on your own (which is to say, of course, actually reading the book itself), leave this thread now.
While both of them are very ambiguous, I think the book is more satisfactory at certain parts. For example, I read a few threads and saw people complaining about the fact that Marc never shows the photos of him with the moustache to anybody, even though they would prove that he's not going crazy. Well, in the book, he actually DOES show them to his wife, but she just says that he doesn't have a moustache in them.
The movie is, to me, the more ambiguous of the two. The reason for this is simple; the book is told entirely from the point of view of Marc (although his name is never revealed in the book, he's simply called "the man") and most of the text is his THOUGHTS. There are some conversations between the characters, but most of the time the writer is just describing the thoughts in Marc's or "the man"'s head. This kind of narrative doesn't translate well into film. I was wondering how they could tell the audience what Marc was thinking without making him talk to himself. And well, they just give out clues and let the audience make their own assumptions. This is pretty interesting, because it definitely makes the movie a lot different than the book. When he's in Hong Kong and traveling on the ferry over and over again, the book tells us in detail what he is thinking. He thinks about how long is he able to stay there and imagines a future were he'll be known as "the mad Frenchman on the ferry". He then imagines Agnés visiting him with, first alone and then with her new husband. This was one of my favorite segments in the book, because I felt I could really relate to his thoughts, even though the situation itself was pretty absurd. In the movie however, there are no clues to what he is thinking whatsoever; it's pretty much all up to the viewer.
As I said, the ending is also different. In the book, after he meets Agnés at the hotel in the end, he proceeds to shave his moustache and then kills himself. He just keeps shaving even after the moustache is gone, making cuts all over his face. Finally, he slits his throat. The book ends with the words "...everything was all right again." (I translated that from Finnish to English, since I'm a Finn and own the Finnish version of the book.) I thought this was pretty shocking and disturbing. I was pretty sure that they would tone it down in the movie, but I didn't expect them to go with a different kind of ending altogether. Oh well, it's always refreshing when you think you know the story, but then it manages to surprise you.
There are some other, although small, differences. However, in a story as ambiguous and apparently metaphorical as this, even the smalles things may have a purpose. In the book, when he is sitting in the ferry, facing the wrong direction, nobody laughs or points at him. When he realises he is the only one facing that direction, he thinks about changing his position, but ultimately decides not to. In the movie, he gets laughed at and embarrasingly turns to face same direction as everybody else. Maybe it's just a small detail, but I found this change interesting.
The book and the film are, of course, independent works. The movie exists on it own, it's not (and should not) be dependant of the original work. But I find these differences in story between the two quite interesting, especially considering that the author of the book was the same person who directed the movie. Did he want to tell a slightly different story with the movie or did he think these changes improved the story? I don't know, of course, but I decided to share this information here, seeing as nobody here had mentioned the book before, at least not in the threads I went through.
I suggest reading the book if you haven't, it's definitely worth it even if you have already seen the movie. They're different experiences.