Eowyn1967
Joined Feb 2004
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Eowyn1967's rating
I've really enjoyed that adaptation. It's witty, charming and the necessary changes brought to the book narrative are clever and do not jar too much with the original. It made me reread the book, which I think should always be the effect of a good adaptation.
The actor playing Henry Tilney was charming (maybe more than the book Henry Tilney in fact) and all the others seemed to fit their roles. Carey Mulligan makes a very effective Isabella Thorpe and plays her part with subtlety while Felicity Jones looks just naive enough for the role of Catherine. I was only bothered by the choice of William Beck of Robin Hood to play John Thorpe. His physical appearance simply did not seem to fit the character. He is a very good actor but hardly attractive enough to make a valid love-interest for romantic Catherine.
The only reason I do not give it "10" is because of the absurd over-sexualisation of Catherine's dreams or the lending to her of "The Monk" by Thorpe.
This is taking incredible liberties with the historical period in order to "make it relevant" to 21st century viewers which TV film-makers must assume to be incapable of viewing anything with interest if it does not contain overtly sexual contents, though the contrary has been proved again and again.
The actor playing Henry Tilney was charming (maybe more than the book Henry Tilney in fact) and all the others seemed to fit their roles. Carey Mulligan makes a very effective Isabella Thorpe and plays her part with subtlety while Felicity Jones looks just naive enough for the role of Catherine. I was only bothered by the choice of William Beck of Robin Hood to play John Thorpe. His physical appearance simply did not seem to fit the character. He is a very good actor but hardly attractive enough to make a valid love-interest for romantic Catherine.
The only reason I do not give it "10" is because of the absurd over-sexualisation of Catherine's dreams or the lending to her of "The Monk" by Thorpe.
This is taking incredible liberties with the historical period in order to "make it relevant" to 21st century viewers which TV film-makers must assume to be incapable of viewing anything with interest if it does not contain overtly sexual contents, though the contrary has been proved again and again.
The series lack historical sense and is a typical effort of reworking 19th century themes in order to make them more palatable to 21st century taste. But why not stick to adapting contemporary fiction then?
First the short-story "Lady Ludlow" takes place much earlier than "Cranford", in fact during the French Revolution. It's one of the "historical" works of Mrs Gaskell. Besides this, the character Lady Ludlow is already old-fashioned for those times, particularly in her opposition to "lower classes" learning to read. The short-story is both full of light irony (very Austen-like) and pathos (though a long melodramatic story within the story about the French Revolution mars it a little to my mind). But Lady Ludlow becomes annoying in the TV adaptation, because she's no longer in her historical time but transported to a much later time, at least 50 years later, where her prejudices become utterly ridiculous. She and the other people related to her tale seem artificially grafted into Cranford and simply do not belong.
As for "Mr Harrison's Confessions" which as a short-story is absolutely hilarious, I find the series only produced a pale imitation of it, only mildly amusing at times. Besides, if, in tone and period, it blends more easily with "Cranford" than "Lady Ludlow", Sophie's characterisation and her father's underwent a great change to make them acceptable to 21st century prejudices. For instance, since he's a clergyman, he has to be bland and cold in the series, yet he is presented as a sort of worthy example in the short-story: a type of the upright and balanced Christian who sometimes appears in Gaskell's fiction. In the short-story, the death of Walter is very moving and depicted as the death of a Christian child with Christian hope. Why was this turned into another occasion for questioning God's mercy and will in classic 21st-century fashion? This shows a total incapacity to even begin to understand the Christian beliefs of the time (which are still held by some).
What a pity adapters cannot see that 21st-century pet theories are in no way superior (or more logical or more consistent or indeed more interesting) than those of previous times.
First the short-story "Lady Ludlow" takes place much earlier than "Cranford", in fact during the French Revolution. It's one of the "historical" works of Mrs Gaskell. Besides this, the character Lady Ludlow is already old-fashioned for those times, particularly in her opposition to "lower classes" learning to read. The short-story is both full of light irony (very Austen-like) and pathos (though a long melodramatic story within the story about the French Revolution mars it a little to my mind). But Lady Ludlow becomes annoying in the TV adaptation, because she's no longer in her historical time but transported to a much later time, at least 50 years later, where her prejudices become utterly ridiculous. She and the other people related to her tale seem artificially grafted into Cranford and simply do not belong.
As for "Mr Harrison's Confessions" which as a short-story is absolutely hilarious, I find the series only produced a pale imitation of it, only mildly amusing at times. Besides, if, in tone and period, it blends more easily with "Cranford" than "Lady Ludlow", Sophie's characterisation and her father's underwent a great change to make them acceptable to 21st century prejudices. For instance, since he's a clergyman, he has to be bland and cold in the series, yet he is presented as a sort of worthy example in the short-story: a type of the upright and balanced Christian who sometimes appears in Gaskell's fiction. In the short-story, the death of Walter is very moving and depicted as the death of a Christian child with Christian hope. Why was this turned into another occasion for questioning God's mercy and will in classic 21st-century fashion? This shows a total incapacity to even begin to understand the Christian beliefs of the time (which are still held by some).
What a pity adapters cannot see that 21st-century pet theories are in no way superior (or more logical or more consistent or indeed more interesting) than those of previous times.
I was led to buy the first two DVDs from the glowing comments I read on this site and from having really enjoyed James Herriot's books which I've read and reread over the years. Well, books do not age or hardly but films (and TV films most especially) do. So I really do not recommend buying those DVDs unless one is nostalgic of static camera work, slow pace, bad special effects and mediocre acting from all but Robert Hardy, the actor portraying Siegfried (but I never pictured him that way from reading the book - I think he's described as tall, dark and elegant, and I imagined him much, much younger...). In fact neither I nor my children have been able to finish watching the 2nd DVD. I've seldom watched something so slow-paced. I suppose in any case that much of Herriot's humour comes from exaggeration and choice of words, and that's probably next to impossible to render on screen...