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Classic books into good movies?

The waveguide

The waveguide

Member
Did anybody see recently a good movie screened after a classic book?

I saw Jane Eyre, which i found well made, and Oliver Twist, also not bad.

I also saw Pride and Prejudice which I did not like (but neither did I like the book. All those women, all those Ms. Bennet, are pitifull unemployed bunch of bored women. My friends who saw it with me [both male and female] just thanked God and Feminists that women of today are smart, independent, creative, and have other things in their heads besides marriage :))

Can anybody suggest any other good movies from classical books?
 
There have been about four versions made of Jane Eyre. The Orson Welles one was good drama, but not good Bronte - it was more about Orson and less about the heroine. A BBC version was truer to the book but rather long.

I remember a movie of Dickens Christmas Carol with affection, as well as the one of Great Expectations.
 
The version of 'Pride & Predjudice' to which the OP refers is tripe. Instead, watch the 1995 BBC televison series. It takes only minor liberties with the story, and even they are excusable on the grounds of dramatic effect. It might change your mind about Lizzie Bennet at least - she was smart and (as far as was possible for early c19th England) independent!
 
Books Are Books ... Movies Are Movies

HI
I believe that movies made from books classic or contemporary should not be compared to each other. They are two different mediums which require very different presentations.

Nevertheless we all slip on the banana and even if it's just in the back of our minds we do tend to make comparisons.


THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
WUTHERING HEIGHTS (ORIGINAL)
TURN OF THE SCREW
TESS

These IMHO were both wonderful books on their own and wonderful films on their own.

Any other suggestions?


ENJOY
GERBAM
 
The waveguide said:
... I also saw Pride and Prejudice which I did not like (but neither did I like the book. All those women, all those Ms. Bennet, are pitifull unemployed bunch of bored women. My friends who saw it with me [both male and female] just thanked God and Feminists that women of today are smart, independent, creative, and have other things in their heads besides marriage :))
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I'd suggest that that's a bad reading of the book in question. :) That was the nature of society at the time – for that class – and Austen's book is a satire of it.

And an awful lot of women don't have much on their minds these days except relationships and celebrity gossip (judging by sales of gossip rags) – despite the best efforts of feminism! :)

However – books that have been reproduced well on screen?

Thomas Mann's novella Death in Venice – there were some slight changes in Visconti's film, but they don't get in the way particularly and he manages, remarkably, to catch what this novella of ideas was about. Extraordinarily beautiful to look at; Dirk Bogarde's performance was a revelation and the use of the adagietto from Mahler's fifth symphony is perfection itself. Utterly heart-rending, yet also uplifting at the end.

Another good film version of a novel is that of Thomas Harris's Silence of the Lambs.
 
PhilW said:
The version of 'Pride & Predjudice' to which the OP refers is tripe. Instead, watch the 1995 BBC televison series.
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My thoughts exactly. The BBC version might take you a while to watch, but it will give you a new appreciation for the novel.

It's a tradition that anytime I'm under the weather I curl up on the couch with a hot bowl of soup and watch the film from start to finish.


I also enjoyed these reproductions of Gormenghast and Rebecca.
 
I thought the Isabella Huppert version of Madame Bovary was excellent, and was interesting for having a slightly more mature Emma than I expected from the book. More of a touch of Charlotte Lucas rather than Lydia Bennett.

The Big Sleep is another excellent adaptation, the best of the Chandler movies.
 
The Big Sleep (Bogart) was good - like most good film adaptations, it simplified the plot, which was somewhat of a labyrinth. The Hayes office wouldn't let them talk about some of the things going on, which renders some things a bit obscure.
 
No Country For Old Men-mark my words, that will be a classic in thirty years or so.:D
 
Great Productions

LoeMa said:
Recently I watched some episodes of "Bleak House" on BBC and I liked it very much.
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LoeMa
We had it broadcast here on public television and I thought it was wonderful.

Gillian Anderson (X-FILES) and Charles Dance were perfect in their roles.

Are you getting the complete jane austen series now?
Productions and acting good/but i don't like jane austen

ENJOY
 
Isabell said:
Hitchcock's version of Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca is amazing! It really captures the essence and feeling of the book!

Yes Yes! I love that movie.
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I am not too sure about this movie. Because it isn't in the first person, there isn't the tantilising possibility that Mrs de Winter II is an unreliable narrator. And the housekeeper (Mrs Rivers?) seemed to have more depth in the book, whereas I thought in the film she lacked a motive for her actions.

Pip
 
GERBAM said:
Gillian Anderson (X-FILES) and Charles Dance were perfect in their roles.
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Absolutely! :)
I was a little bit astonished to see Gillian Anderson in this British adaptation - but she is really great!

i don't like jane austen
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Me neither. I think she is a little bit boring (sorry everyone who likes her) but maybe I should give it a try.
 
Showing my age here, but I preferred the 1980 version of Pride and Prejudice to the 1995 one. It seemed to catch the atmosphere of the Regency era and so the story made more sense than the more modern take on it that the 1995 version provided. I haven't seen this latest version, but if it's going farther down that road, I'm not sure I want to. I really disliked the 1995 version of Persuasion - it sort of got to the point where I was thinking "what on earth are they going to screw up next?" as the movie unfolded.

I loved the 1967 Forsyte Saga but was less impressed with the recent version. When I was in London a couple of years ago I went to one of the afternoon interviews at the National Theatre, where Margaret Tyzack (who played Winifred in the 1967 Forsyte Saga) was being interviewed, and she said something which I think goes some way to explaining why I'm finding some of these modern versions of classics to be rather shallow. She said that when they were filming The Forsyte Saga, they'd cast well-known actors and actresses in the roles of the old uncles and aunts - people of the calibre of Fay Compton - and the younger actors really looked up to them as masters of their profession and wanted to learn from them; however, nowadays the older actors are ignored by the younger ones in this sort of situation, and it's all about recognition, fame, and TV exposure. She said - as have other older actors - that nowadays the young actors don't have the background in repertory theatre that the older ones did, but just want to know how to act in films and TV, so they don't have as much interest in getting deeply into a role and exploring it in the way that trained stage actors do.
 
Romeo and juliet with LEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????
aecx.images_amazon.com_images_I_511E463Q1VL._SL500_AA280_.jpg:eek::rolleyes::D


well im not sure how classic I am Legend is but the OMEGA MAN is a great remake of the book. Never saw the will smith one nor do i care to heh.
 
SFG75 said:
No Country For Old Men-mark my words, that will be a classic in thirty years or so.:D
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Help me understand this movie. I have tried twice to watch it but I give up from boredom!

I have seen Attonementwasn't crazy about it.
 
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