Change Your Image
godfreye-1
Reviews
Mansfield Park (2007)
Lackluster version, and cinematography is sickening (see comment)
This was just telecast here in the U.S. Others have commented on the faithfulness (or lack of same) to the novel; the 1983 BBC version is far superior on this and all other counts. Given the scope of the novel, it should not have been condensed to 85 minutes. Key sections have to be rushed or alluded to, or omitted; there barely enough time just to get in the chronology of events, so character development has to be sacrificed: we cannot get much of a sense of who the people are, which robs us of what makes Austen so great.
One major negative for me was the cinematography, which I thought was just awful, and quite literally sickening. The camera is constantly doing ultra-closeups, and swirling around and around in circles. Maybe on a small TV box this is OK, but on our 40" hi-def screen it was so literally dizzying that both my wife and I had to look away from the set repeatedly (my Dramamine supply had run out). Of course, this did distract from the rather lackluster I'm-just-reading-what's-in-the-script acting (isolated scenes are nicely done, but not enough to save things).
Adding up the score so far in the Complete J.A. Sweepstakes: I'd rate "Northanger Abbey" a success, because of superior direction and production values (and the story lends itself better to short treatment), "Persuasion" OK (though not the equal of other versions, with condensation again being at fault), both far ahead of this attempt. I will hope for better in the two remaining novels in this TV Reader's Digest Jane Austen; like others, I am thankful they left P & P alone!
All Passion Spent (1986)
An Absolute Gem of a Mini-Series
My wife and I simply echo the earlier comments - this is so superbly acted and filmed that we immediately wanted to watch it all again. Dame Wendy Hiller shows acting craft at its finest, commanding the camera by her force of personality and subtleness of every facial expression and movement. All the supporting roles are also outstanding. Somehow the film seems to enfold you in the life of the woman who is given so little time to grasp at a life she wished she might have had.
Good news for all admirers: this film is now indeed out on DVD (2006 release), with an interesting lengthy text biography of the novel's author (Vita Sackville-West) among the special features.
Moartea domnului Lazarescu (2005)
Pseudo-Documentary Made as a Movie That Looks Like a Documentary
Other comments cover the story well, so I'll focus on the documentary aspect of this complex film - not complex in story but complex in idea.
On the positive side: it is quite remarkable film-making to create an acted film which feels "real" most of the time and as if one is watching a cinema verite documentary on one man's trip through the health care system. The film feels closest to Frederick Wiseman's brilliant (and 6-hour long) documentary "Near Death," with a few transfusions from another medical documentary of his, "Hospital." Why not just do a straight documentary? Acting a scripted story enables the filmmaker (who says in an interview that he admires Wiseman) to make more concise points (with some stereotypical character portrayals) about the way people access an overburdened health care system, how disreputable patients are treated by medical personnel (in the US, GOMER's - "Get Out of My Emergency Room"), and about the human tragedy of dying alone in fear and pain (which happens quite often in the US - see the "SUPPORT" study of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). In its realism in depicting these features of health care with actors and a script, and somewhat unsteady hand-held camera with long takes, "Lazarescu" is quite an achievement in cinema.
On the negative side: It is not and IMHO should not be an enjoyable film to watch, though I found it absorbing in the same way that Wiseman's films are absorbing (no accident, I assume). I am utterly baffled by the quotes on the DVD box: "hilarious" . . . "acclaimed comedy" or the subtitle "a black comedy with serious side effects." Baloney. I found absolutely nothing funny about this film, unless one considers modern industrial health care systems as a whole a kind of black comedy or bad joke. Perhaps my reaction is because I'm a medical sociologist with expertise on documentary film portrayal of dying and death (really!), and have seen and analyzed the majority of actual documentaries on the subject (close to 100). This film is quite realistic about most aspects of health care that it weighs in on (whether in Romania OR the U.S.), presumably by the director's intent. I could have shown it to one of my classes as a "documentary" and few would have been the wiser, quite a compliment to the director.
Perhaps after seeing this film we might be moved to demand better health care, more medical resources, or more compassion toward sick old men dying alone in pain in the middle of the night, but a "comedy"? To see what's here as a comedy is to lose a part of our humanity.
Oliver Twist (1985)
Long version permits depth of detail, rich character development
This is an excellent version, well-acted, long enough to permit inclusion of Dickens' myriad confusing plots that keep the viewer guessing. It is broken into 12 28-minute episodes, reminiscent of the way Dickens serialized his novels. I dare anybody to watch just one - every one's a cliffhanger inviting you onwards. The acting is outstanding, though the strong dialect caused me to miss some lines. As Scott Funnell has noted in an earlier comment, the child actor who coincidentally has the same name does an outstanding job (and is rather adorable) as the young Oliver, as does the actor playing the larger (but according to Scott less important) role of the older Oliver.
This is one of a whole series of superb BBC adaptations of the major Dickens novels, every one a gem. Like some of the others, the DVD re-release of Oliver Twist includes as an extra an excellent performance by Simon Callow as Charles Dickens, reading a lengthy passage from the novel, recreating Dickens' own reading tours that played to packed houses. Don't miss it!