A superlative movie about the life and work of Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck. This is one of the finest movies about an artist I have ever seen. It captures so much of the artist's emotional inner life and her resulting work. Great script, great casting, great performances and the art direction and photography are incredible. Many sequences are filmed with each shot set up as if it were a living painting. The lighting and color are amazing. If you love art this will make you want to paint.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Notorious Woman
(1974)
Contact both BBC America and BBC (main UK site) to release on DVD
30 November 2009
I remember how wonderful this mini-series was too, and have wanted to see it again. It is a fantastic film about a great artist and personality. Rosemary Harris is perfect as George Sand and the sets and costumes were gorgeous. This is a great, inspiring biography.
I urge others who feel the same way to take a few moments now and go to the BBC America website, AND the BBC UK website and to the respective Contact Us page, and tell them you would like the series available on DVD! It amazes me that this great series is sitting in an archive deteriorating and they have not rebroadcast it or released it on video after all these years!
I urge others who feel the same way to take a few moments now and go to the BBC America website, AND the BBC UK website and to the respective Contact Us page, and tell them you would like the series available on DVD! It amazes me that this great series is sitting in an archive deteriorating and they have not rebroadcast it or released it on video after all these years!
David Copperfield
(1970 TV Movie)
A wonderfully cast literature-to-film Copperfield adaptation.
9 August 2001
Warning: Spoilers
This is my favorite David Copperfield. The reason for its success, in my mind, is how the filmmaker Delbert Mann and the writer of the screen adaptation used the medium of film to truncate this long Dickens novel.
When it opens, David is writing those first lines: "Chapter one. I am born... whether I shall turn out to the hero of my own life, or whether that station shall be held by anyone else, these pages must show..." and crumples the paper and throws it away! He walks the beach, haunted by flashes of memory in a wonderful montage sequence using superimposition of images and sound... the film uses this psychological device of Copperfield's haunting by memories of all those characters now dead, shadows of the past - to knit together the major episodes of the novel. You immediately care about David and want to know his story.
This is a colorful, wonderfully cast adaptation with Robin Phillips an earnest, youthful David, Michael Redgrave perfect as Mr. Peggotty, Ron Moody as Uriah Heep, Lawrence Olivier as the evil Mr. Creakle, Dame Edith Evans as Betsy Trotwood. All these performers bring these beloved characters to life. The music score is terrific as well.
The scene when Uncle Dan finally finds little Emily, rescuing her from a life of prostitution, is so intense and gratifying it will bring tears. But the greatest achievement is the casting of the wonderful Susan Hampshire as Agnes... who has always loved David, who belongs with David... and this version ends with an incredible aerial shot as they finally embrace and you know, at last, they will find happiness together. The success of great novels and great movies is emotional involvement and this certainly succeeds!
Pure joy.
When it opens, David is writing those first lines: "Chapter one. I am born... whether I shall turn out to the hero of my own life, or whether that station shall be held by anyone else, these pages must show..." and crumples the paper and throws it away! He walks the beach, haunted by flashes of memory in a wonderful montage sequence using superimposition of images and sound... the film uses this psychological device of Copperfield's haunting by memories of all those characters now dead, shadows of the past - to knit together the major episodes of the novel. You immediately care about David and want to know his story.
This is a colorful, wonderfully cast adaptation with Robin Phillips an earnest, youthful David, Michael Redgrave perfect as Mr. Peggotty, Ron Moody as Uriah Heep, Lawrence Olivier as the evil Mr. Creakle, Dame Edith Evans as Betsy Trotwood. All these performers bring these beloved characters to life. The music score is terrific as well.
The scene when Uncle Dan finally finds little Emily, rescuing her from a life of prostitution, is so intense and gratifying it will bring tears. But the greatest achievement is the casting of the wonderful Susan Hampshire as Agnes... who has always loved David, who belongs with David... and this version ends with an incredible aerial shot as they finally embrace and you know, at last, they will find happiness together. The success of great novels and great movies is emotional involvement and this certainly succeeds!
Pure joy.
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