Felicia's Journey explores the 1999 film adaptation by Director, Atom Egoyan, of Irish writer William Trevor's novel of 1994.Issues addressed include Hitchcockian influences, the sense of place in the visual discourse, and the characterization of the serial killer Hilditch, as constructed initially by Trevor and interpreted by Egoyan. Eschewing a crude "fidelity" model of adaptation, the study explores Egoyan's screen version as a commentary on, or significant reworking of, the original book. In particular, Egoyan's extension of the mother figure, through his creation of Gala, opens questions about memory, representation, and cinema's capacity as a reflexive medium which is a central feature of his film art.
Stephanie McBride teaches in the School of Communications, Dublin City University. She is author of the publication, The Cinema of Place/The Place of Cinema. A member of the Board of the Irish Film Insitute, she is currently Chair of the Board of Directors of the Irish Gallery of Photography.