Breath. From Book to Big Screen

The original cover design

Ten years ago I read Tim Winton’s Breath. Last Sunday I went to the movies to see Breath brought to the big screen – Simon Baker’s debut as a feature film director. I was quietly worried. I’d enjoyed reading Winton’s coming-of-age story about two young surfers, Pikelet and Loonie, and my concern was that should the film fail to reflect the spirit of the story this would somehow taint my connection with the book. A connection linked to the days of my own youth when I used to swim in the Indian Ocean on Perth’s northern beaches.

Thankfully, I can report that in the last day or so I have been drawn back to the book to re-read some of the scenes brought so beautifully to life in film.

Winton was closely involved in the making of the film, he co-wrote the screenplay with Baker and veteran screenwriter, Gerard Lee. Winton even provided some narration which gave some authenticity to the adult voice of the protagonist, Pikelet, whose reminiscence about the events of his youth forms the basis of the story.

Here’s Pikelet talking about the first time he saw men surfing:

‘How strange it was to see men do something beautiful. Something pointless and elegant, as though nobody saw or cared. In Sawyer, a town of millers and loggers and dairy famers, with one butcher and a rep from the rural bank beside the BP, men did solid, practical things, mostly with their hands.’

Breath, Tim Winton

I found an old interview with Tim Winton from 2008, when the book was first released:

‘Writing a book is a bit like surfing,’ he said. ‘Most of the time you’re waiting. And it’s quite pleasant, sitting in the water waiting. But you are expecting that the result of a storm over the horizon, in another time zone, usually, days old, will radiate out in the form of waves. And eventually, when they show up, you turn around and ride that energy to the shore. It’s a lovely thing, feeling that momentum. If you’re lucky, it’s also about grace. As a writer, you roll up to the desk every day, and then you sit there, waiting, in the hope that something will come over the horizon. And then you turn around and ride it, in the form of a story.’

One small thing, the re-release of the book features a photograph of the cast from the movie on the cover – I guess the marketers figure this overt tie-in with the movie will maximise the merchandising efforts. For me, though, I’ve always loved the original cover with its beautiful underwater scene, the curtain of tiny bubbles beneath the rippling surface and the vivid blue that reminds me so much of the Indian Ocean.