Filming and Unfilming "The Secret Sharer"

There is a missing element in the TV and movie adaptations of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Sharer (1910). This tale of doubles, characterized by an imposing visual quality and by the presence of multiple symbolic ele- ments, has attracted actors, screenwriters and filmmakers, in productions ranging from John Brahm’s 1952 film to Eriprando Visconti’s Italian TV adaptation, dated 1967, from Larry Yust’s 1973 version (commissioned by Encyclopaedia Britannica) to Peter Fudakowski’s more recent rendition, entitled Secret Sharer (2014). However, the various audiovisual translations of The Secret Sharer have eschewed or censored its homosexual undertones, neglecting an aspect of Conrad’s text which could offer a new perspective on the narration of a male rite of passage. The reasons for this under- playing (or worse erasure) may be due to various motivations: from the reverential respect towards a canonical writer like Conrad (which hinders provocative or challenging transpositions of his works) to a process of self-censorship by screenwriters and directors, especially in the past.