No, not together, or on film together…although that might be a fun concept. I have mentioned Win Riley’s documentary on Walker Percy a few times. Despite thinking the movie thin in a few places, I highly recommend watching it when it will be shown on PBS on October 4, 2011. Here’s the link to the […]
Tag: Movies
I wanted to pass on a couple of links I found through Rogueclassicism recently. The first is a paper on the death of Philip, linked through History of the Ancient World. It’s an intriguing read by Amalia Skilton, written a few years ago when she was a student at Tempe Preparatory Academy. This paper will […]
Imagine my surprise to find that there is a marvelous movie version of Joseph Roth’s novella The Legend of the Holy Drinker (IMDb link). Rutger Hauer does a wonderful job as Andreas and director Ermanno Olmi allows the story to unfold at a natural pace, letting the viewer see the impact on Andreas of the […]
A quick post on a movie and a couple of non-fiction books which relies on the words of others… I only get to see a few movies at the theater each year that don’t involve talking animals or cars so it was a nice change of pace to see The Tree of Life yesterday. It’s […]
I had mentioned the Walker Percy documentary, directed by Win Riley, a while back. It is now available on DVD. Ordering information, as well as access to the entire site (with a preview), can be found here. From the website: In a rare television interview in 1980, Walker Percy said his concerns as writer were […]
I just finished watching the TV series of Trollope’s novel adapted by Andrew Davies and David Yates. Despite some major changes in characterization and storyline, which I’ll detail later, I enjoyed the movie very much. A detailed discussion on the adaptation and the novel can be found at Ellen And Jim Have A Blog, Two […]
In the previous post I provided a summary from the back cover of Mikhail Bulgakov’s satirical work. You can see a preview of the translation by Mirra Ginsburg at Google books. This was the perfect book I needed after finishing The Histories and I know I will return to it again—I loved it and highly […]
How do you present a multi-layered novel of over 700 pages in a 3 hour movie? This production makes an honest effort and it proves successful on some points but unfortunately falls short on many others. There are some substantial changes and additions which complicate making an evaluation. A few examples of these differences:– In […]
Movie poster for Beg to Report, SirI am still working out where I want this blog to go, but one thing I wanted to do from the beginning was view/consume/compare a book to versions of it in other media, particularly film. I think I’ve made it clear I don’t have a problem with variations from […]
Movie poster for The Good Soldier SchweikSince I just finished Book 2 and haven’t had a chance to write any thoughts about it, I’ll post a quick review of the 1956 Czech movie which is based on Book 1, “Behind the Lines”. The film faithfully follows Schweik’s misadventures in Hašek’s book, at least for the […]
… watching Greta Garbo in The Mysterious Lady… wow… ahem… OK, back to your regularly scheduled programming…
Never one to do things in a consistent order (or even an order that even makes sense), I wanted to write about this movie before discussing the book. So I apologize in advance for referring to the work without directly addressing it first. For those unfamiliar with Eugene Onegin, here is a brief synopsis shamelessly […]
Picture source at FilmPosters.com Unfortunately I had to watch the movie in fits and starts over several days, but hopefully I won’t bungle any of the facts of the movie. There is a good overview and recap of the film at American Movie Classic’s filmsite.org. Two Views of Lolita, both of which are higher on […]
“Why do we want to spend a year of our lives making this film?” ” ’cause it’s funny.” “Is that all?” “Is that not enough?” Sterne would have undoubtedly said “Yes” as that exchange captures the spirit of his book. The reviews at IMDB and at Amazon.com are mixed, but I think that is the […]
A woman throws a party, sees some old friends, and thinks of times gone by. The storyline by itself of Mrs. Dalloway makes for a challenging transition from book to screen. Factor in the novel’s use of n internal dialogue to represent consciousness and I didn’t expect much from the movie. Fortunately the film was […]
This production is a filmed stage production from the RSC’s 1998/99 season performed at the Barbican Theatre, London. The staging is mostly stark (with the pastoral scene as a notable exception), which allows the players’ performances to be the central focus. Despite the minimal sets, some uses were rather innovative (for example the draped sheets […]
The IMDB page for the movie can be found here. An adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s work is going to be a challenge. How to capture the consciousness of the characters that fills the majority of the book? Despite the massive changes to storyline, wholesale additions and omissions, and a pared down character list, the movie […]
The IMDB page for the movie found here. I didn’t know what to expect from a movie version of the book. How do you portray everything that happened internally? Internal discourse can be done as a voiceover, but there is so much more happening inside Stephen than just thoughts. Despite some large lapses and omissions, […]
I finally got a chance to see the recent adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and I wanted to add a note since I had reviewed the 1986 version. I just noticed that I had originally commented on the (then) upcoming version and hoped that it would succeed…and indeed it did. My comments have to […]
One of the best adaptations from page to screen I’ve seen. You definitely have to be in the mood for a period piece, but the acting is superb. There are a few minor changes from the story, mostly in the way of additions, but the movie stays true. In moving the story to the screen, […]