As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying is a 2013 American drama film directed and co-written by and starring James Franco, based on William Faulkner's 1930 novel of the same name. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard Section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Premise The story is based on the loss of a mother and the struggles the family endure by going the distance to her burial ground in her home town. Cast James Franco as Darl Bundren Logan Marshall-Green as Jewel Bundren Danny McBride as Vernon Tull Tim Blake Nelson as Anse Bundren Ahna O'Reilly as Dewey Dell Bundren Beth Grant as Addie Bundren Jim Parrack as Cash Bundren Jesse Heiman as Jody Scott Haze as Skeet MacGowan Production James Franco decided to write a screenplay of the novel with a fellow Yale graduate student Matt Rager. The novel As I Lay Dying was described as a story impossible to be transformed into a film due to the multi-narrative voices within it. Franco saw this as a challenge and chose to depict the many voices through choices of styling, through camera edits. Faulkner told the story in a chorus of voices: 15 narrators in the 59 chapters. To locate an equivalent for the novel’s polyphonal scheme, Franco employed the use of narrative expressed through dialogue and voice overs.