TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES - A PURE WOMAN, A DEVIL AND AN ANGEL

A scene from Tess of The D'Urbervilles (2008)

I've just finished rewatching BBC "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" (2008) to prepare the last  lesson of a series on this novel. I've been choosing the bits to show in my wrap up class to elicit discussion from my students after reading with them some pages and reflecting on the theme that has been our focus lately: the woman question in the Victorian Age. 

This is the reason why I played and have been rewatching this DVD tonight.
I started with the intention of looking for the right scenes to show and analyse and finished being absorbed again, touched and deeply emotional,

I'VE BEEN WATCHING POLDARK (1975)

Robin Ellis as Ross Poldark

In Italy it was broadcast in 1978 and I still remember how excited I was waiting for a new episode! And I can't forget my teenage crush on Ross Poldark in his elegant breeches and coat, but especially on young doctor Enys. How young I was myself at that time and already in love with everything English!  I usually don't like watching period series from the 70s, I find them so freak, awkward. I can't cope with the  old shooting techniques or the unnatural, melodramatic acting style they propose. But, was my nostalgic mood forgiving all the flaws or was this series quite good, instead? I think it was, it still  is a very good period drama. You must of course bear the grain quality so different from the  HD quality images we are accustomed to these days.

WHEN IN APRIL THE SWEET SHOWERS FALL ....OR WHAT I'VE BEEN WATCHING

SPRING
"... and pierce the drought of March to the root..." In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales ( yes, I'm teaching Chaucer among others these days ) spring is the time of rebirth, of the flourishing of life.
On the contrary, I feel rather exhausted and worn out and while watching the beautiful blossoming spring days out of my window I feel very little enthusiasm, it gives me  no new energy, it doesn't cheer me up at all.  After being mad busy for weeks, I feel now emptied.

I've been overwhelmed by deadlines and paperwork. The result is that I'm so stressed that I haven't been blogging, nor reading, nor doing anything special. And this has made me even sadder.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED (2008) - CONTRA MUNDUM

I'm sure it was an advantage. I've never read the book by Evelyn Waugh and only have vague memories of me bored to death by the endless 1981 ITV series  . I know this must sound rather unpopular but I like to be totally honest. I remember myself  trying to watch it in English with Italian subtitles but catching very little of the meaning of  the story and giving up watching the rest of it after a while . I apologize with all those who loved it,  I found it just terribly slow and boring. Maybe I should give it a try now that I am more experienced and ... older.  However, my almost total ignorance of what Brideshead Revisited meant in the past,  is why I could freely watch  and sincerely  enjoy the latest 2008 film adaptation written by Andrew Davies and directed by Julian Jarrold.   Without the burden of having to compare it with something else, I watched it simply  as a period movie, the latest addition to my DVD collection (thanks A.!) ,  set in a wonderful location I'd just visited in Yorkshire. I found it  good and I was definitely into it , its story, the characters and  the atmosphere. And I don't feel guilty at all!

COLIN IN COMEDY OR ... WHERE HAS MR DARCY GONE?

It's been some time since I last posted in this series dedicated to my attempt to catch up with the long successful career of Colin Firth. I'm in shameless delay but he is relentlessly overactive! I've chosen to see Mr Darcy lose his "à plomb" and perform in comedy  in two films I hadn't seen yet . I 've seen Colin Firth in two of his recent light roles, as Harry in Mamma Mia (2008) and as Richard in The Accidental Husband (2008). 

AT HOME WITH THE GEORGIANS - DISCOVERING LIFE BEYOND LITERATURE AND ARCHITECTURE

It 's been as gripping as a good period drama, as intriguing as a mystery story, as delightful as an Austen adaptation. A pleasant surprise. Living history, actually.

Watching this three-part series presented by Professor Amanda Vickery, based on her Behind Close Doors and fortunately available as a DVD, has been incredibly interesting. 

As a fond reader of historical fiction, as a student (I feel I still have so much to learn!)  and teacher of English literature, I watched it with extreme pleasure and curiosity. Professor Vickery's  descriptions of homes were mingled to the narration of real lives, through the reading of diaries and letters,  and that made everything  realistic and really involving. Professor Vickery is an entertaining, smart story - teller.
Furthermore, in my mind, the lives and experiences of real individuals found parallels in many fictional characters' lives. I  went on thinking of Jane Austen,  of course. Impossible not to think about her own real life or about the world she created in her work while watching.

WHAT I'VE BEEN WATCHING - ADAM BEDE (1992)

I've recently watched this 1992 TV movie based on a classic novel by George Eliot, Adam Bede, her first published work, actually.  It was not as good as other adaptation of Eliot's works I've seen (Daniel Deronda, Middlemarch or The Mill on the Floss) . However, it was at least rather  loyal to the book. The strangest thing was ...my feelings for the protagonist. One is supposed to sympathize with him, while I felt so ... awkward and uneasy since the supposed flawed but  naive, good-hearted, romantic lead character,  Adam Bede, had the familiar face (twenty years younger) of Iain Glen. What's wrong with him? In my mind he bears the guilt of being the trechearous and wicked Vaughn Edwards in Spooks 9, the one who started the downfall of Lucas North. I had a hard time to move from hate to love, poor Adam Bede. Think that I rather preferred the meant-to-be the villain in this story, the charming seducer Captain Donnithorne, played by James Wilby. . 

CONSPIRACY (2001) - AT THE TABLE OF DEATH

Conspiracy is a 2001 TV movie starring several  popular British actors such as Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth, Brendan Coyle, as well as  American film stars like Stanley Tucci. It dramatizes the 1942 Wannsee Conference. The film delves into the psychology of Nazi officials involved in the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" during World War II. It is also a partial remake of the German film The Wannsee Conference (1984).
On January 20, 1942, 15 men gathered in a villa on the outskirts of Berlin for a clandestine meeting that would ultimately seal the fate of the European Jewish population. Ninety minutes later, the blueprint for Hitler’s Final Solution was in place. Adolf Eichmann prepared 30 top-secret copies of the meeting’s minutes. By the fall of the Reich, all had disappeared or been destroyed—except one. The Wannsee Protocol, found in the files of the Reich’s Foreign Office, is the only document where the details of Hitler’s maniacal plan were actually codified, and serves as the basis for Conspiracy.

THE SONG OF LUNCH - POETRY ON TV WITH ALAN RICKMAN AND EMMA THOMPSON

As time passes by, I'm more and more astonished at how daring British TV is.  TV shows about literature at prime time (Faulks on Fiction) and contemporary poetry dramatized by great, talented,  world-famous actors on one of the main state channels. I'm amazed. 

A dramatised narrative poem might sound a bit dull but this one with Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson is wonderful.

The production is 50 minutes long, and is a co-production between the BBC and Masterpiece.

Screened on 9 October 2010 during National Poetry Month, now released in DVD, the production is unusual in featuring little spoken dialogue, the action instead being an enactment of incidents described by poetic monologue of the male character.

The Song of Lunch is a television adaptation of Christopher Reid's poem of the same name. It was directed by Niall MacCormick and stars Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson. Executive producer, her handsome husband, Greg Wise who peeps out from a bookcover two or three times in the 50 minutes. 

WHAT I'VE BEEN WATCHING - AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE (1995)

An Awfully Big Adventure is a coming-of-age 1995 drama film about a teenaged girl's experiences with a theatre company in Liverpool. Set in 1947, the film is based on the 1989 novel of the same namel by Beryl Bainbridge.
The reason why I wanted to see this film was its cast: Alan Rickman, Hugh Grant, Peter Firth, Alun Armstrong among others. Only, I thought it was a comedy and didn't expect all the sadness which overwhelmed me in the end. Original and well-acted, I can't deny it, but so extremely sad. More than that... as tragic as an ancient Greek tragedy.

The story  (major spoilers!!!)

In post-WWII Liverpool, England, 16-year-old aspiring actress Stella (Georgina Cates) lives with her uncle (Alun Armstrong) and aunt (Rita Tushingham), after her mother left her with them and disappeared. Something of a dreamer, Stella longs for adventure, which materializes when she becomes an apprentice for a theatre company of aging actors run by eccentric, self-absorbed director Meredith Potter (Hugh Grant). Stella develops a crush on Potter, unaware that he is a homosexual whose flirts include another teenage apprentice, Jeffrey (Alan Cox). Potter does not return Stella's attentions, but something in her  attracts O'Hara (Alan Rickman), a brilliant actor who joins the company to play Captain Hook in  the production of "Peter Pan".

BEAUTIFUL BUT SAD, SAD BUT BEAUTIFUL or WHAT I HAVE BEEN WATCHING

"Every human being is a collection of selves, we never stay one person as we go on our journey to the grave. I'm all these different people, all these different people are me"

I've finally finished watching ANY HUMAN HEART. It took me time. Each on of the four episodes was so deeply moving and full of greatly emotional moments, I preferred to wait between one another. Touching, sad, but so beautiful. Based on the bestselling novel by William Boyd, Any Human Heart,  it is a rollercoaster ride through one man's life. A trio of great actors portray the different life stages of hero Logan Mountstuart, a writer, lover, art dealer and spy living by his wits in the tumultuous 20th century. Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent stars as Mountstuart in his dotage, with Matthew Macfadyen  as the hero in his prime and Sam Claflin as the eager seducer in his impetuous youth. Hayley Atwell, Kim Cattrall and Gillian Anderson also star in this gripping tale of adventure, romance and heartbreak.The cast was excellent and the three actors who played the leading role of  Logan Mountstuart in the three different stages of life were brilliant.  

Hayley Atwell is charming as Freya, Logan's second wife. Their relationship began as an affair, but they soon married. Freya is Logan's love of a life. He would never forget her. 

Matthew Macfadyen, Sam Claflin and Hayley Atwell play together again after the three of them were in the cast of The Pillars of the Earth as Prior Philip, Richard and Aliena respectively. 
Other familiar faces are Kim Cattrall as Gloria, the wife then ex-wife of Logan's good friend Peter Scabius (played by Samuel West), Gillian Anderson as Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, Tom Hollander as Edward, Duke of Windsor, Ed Stoppard as Ben Leeping  and, finally , Holliday Granger as Tess Scabius. 

I liked it and I recommend it to all lovers of good drama. Mind you, lots of tissues at hand needed.

Episodes list - Plot

Any Human Heart on Channel 4 Official Site

Any Human Heart at PBS - Masterpiece Classic

The DVD is already available both for region 1 and region 2