Konrad Korzeniowski came out of Poland and from Marseille began a sailor's life on merchant ships, surviving shipwreck, pirates and all the pains and glories of an adventurous seafaring life. After 15 years of this he settled in London and began writing novels. What kind of English he picked up by crews made up of Filipinos, Galicians, Greeks, Italians, Chinese, Indonesians and so on, might be anybody's guess: however, reading his novels you find his command of English is absolute, as well as his ability to paint real characters with all the fears and hates and loves and feelings in general, together with a philosophical pattern which holds his `yarns' together, such that all his novels are considered modern classics. Among them two stand out as being among the mightiest achievements in English-language literature: Lord Jim and Nostromo.
Joseph Conrad's character `Nostromo' was an Italian working as a jetty foreman in a port in South America. Throughout more than 450 pages Conrad builds up an incredible portrait of this man, interweaving all the other characters around him. Conrad's art is to tell an adventure story but with high quality literature that has never been surpassed in this genre. It is as if he had applied the art of writers like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in his work, so profound he is. The novel `Nostromo' is a cathedral in English-language literature.
Fortunately, when four European TV Film companies got together, helped by a Boston station, to turn this magnificent novel into a TV series, they were up to the mark. A huge production, beautifully made, definitely worthy of the great novel. Filmed around Cartagena de las Indias, which is more or less spot on where Conrad put it, superb cinematography, excellent acting from everyone, all directed unerringly by Alistair Reid, puts this mini-series in a special category. Not since `Marco Polo' (1982) (qv) had a European production reached such magnificence. And once again, Ennio Morricone puts the final touch with his wonderful music.
Special mention for Claudio Amendola as Nostromo, and of course Lothaire Decoud, Claudia Cardinale and Albert Finney are all excellent as is the rest of the cast. But in this great work nothing was done by halves: BBC, RAI and TVE have combined to give all the authenticity of the novel's multi-racial setting.
`Nostromo' sits in pride of place in my video collection.
Joseph Conrad's character `Nostromo' was an Italian working as a jetty foreman in a port in South America. Throughout more than 450 pages Conrad builds up an incredible portrait of this man, interweaving all the other characters around him. Conrad's art is to tell an adventure story but with high quality literature that has never been surpassed in this genre. It is as if he had applied the art of writers like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in his work, so profound he is. The novel `Nostromo' is a cathedral in English-language literature.
Fortunately, when four European TV Film companies got together, helped by a Boston station, to turn this magnificent novel into a TV series, they were up to the mark. A huge production, beautifully made, definitely worthy of the great novel. Filmed around Cartagena de las Indias, which is more or less spot on where Conrad put it, superb cinematography, excellent acting from everyone, all directed unerringly by Alistair Reid, puts this mini-series in a special category. Not since `Marco Polo' (1982) (qv) had a European production reached such magnificence. And once again, Ennio Morricone puts the final touch with his wonderful music.
Special mention for Claudio Amendola as Nostromo, and of course Lothaire Decoud, Claudia Cardinale and Albert Finney are all excellent as is the rest of the cast. But in this great work nothing was done by halves: BBC, RAI and TVE have combined to give all the authenticity of the novel's multi-racial setting.
`Nostromo' sits in pride of place in my video collection.