Dickensblog

'Christmas' comes to Cannes

Earlier today, Robert Zemeckis showed eight minutes' worth of footage from A Christmas Carol at the Cannes Film Festival -- and now you can see a little bit of it for yourself!

First, here's a report from the AP:

Due in theaters worldwide this November and December, the film is being crafted through motion-capture technology similar to that Zemeckis used on "The Polar Express" and "Beowulf." Actors' movements and expressions are recorded by dozens of infrared cameras, with backgrounds, props, costumes and other effects filled in later through computer animation.

The result with "A Christmas Carol," for which Zemeckis previewed about eight minutes of footage, is a richly detailed re-creation of Victorian London. The footage was shown in digital 3-D, though the finished film also will be released in a standard two-dimensional version.

Along with a montage from the whole movie, the filmmakers showed two early scenes, Scrooge's "Humbug!" declaration about Christmas to his merry nephew (Colin Firth) and the old man's visitation by the specter of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley.

And here, courtesy of Collider.com, is a snippet of the footage! What do you think?

It's a fine disc

Here at last is the review of the new Oliver! cast album I've been promising for weeks -- and here, while I'm at it, is the U.S. Amazon link. For it already is available on this side of the pond, though I didn't realize that before. It's well worth buying (although if you want to do a test run first, you can hear a few clips by clicking on "Music" at the show's official site).

Not knowing quite what to expect from the live recording, I ended up being very impressed by the excellent sound quality. Aside from that, you get the advantage of being able to hear not only laughter and applause, but also lots of dialogue and incidental music.

The cast is strong across the board, from young Laurence Jeffcoat as Oliver to Jodie Prenger's brilliant Nancy. I know there have been other great actress/singers in the role before, but honestly, if you'll pardon the cliché, it could have been written for Prenger. Her singing voice is wonderful and her performance is full of spirit, fun, and tenderness.

And then, of course, there's Rowan Atkinson. It did my Blackadder-loving heart good to hear the storm of cheering that greeted his very first spoken word. I won't say he's been hiding a brilliant singing voice all these years to pull out and wow us with, because he hasn't. But neither does he speak-sing the songs a la Rex Harrison. He just sings them straightforwardly, and his voice is adequate to do them justice. And he's just as sly, cunning, and witty a Fagin as I knew he would be.

Between the lively performances of both singing and dialogue, the audience enthuisasm, and the extensive liner notes full of great photos, I was left simultaneously feeling as if I'd actually been at the performance, and wishing that I could have been there for real!

Tweet Expectations

Can you tweet the plot of a Dickens novel? Some people can, according to this (note that the article gives away the plots of several great works, by Dickens and by others). Writer Tim Collins has even included some of his literary tweets in his new book, The Little Book of Twitter. I've put his tweeted version of Great Expectations below the jump, so that you can avoid spoilers about that story if you want.

After I read the article, out of curiosity, I did a little more research into Dickens-related tweeting -- and discovered that, of all people, Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam are now Twitterers. At first that idea just seemed silly, until I read their Twitters, and then it started to seem . . . kind of adorable, actually. Especially when they started tweeting to each other! Awwww.

And a bah humbug to you, sir

Matt Goldberg at Collider.com shares the new poster for A Christmas Carol, but mars the unveiling somewhat by sniping at what he calls the "unnecessary" remake and at its lead actor.

In the first place, I happen to think Jim Carrey will do just fine with the role. In the second place, "unnecessary"? What does that even mean? (I'm reminded of Dorothy Parker on a similar occasion, writing of the book On the Beach: "One reviewer went farther and dismissed it as 'unnecessary,' which dictum helped me through the white nights by causing me to try making a list of necessary books. To date, I have got as far as The Settlement Cook Book and Madame Bovary.") 

I think most of us would probably agree that there are some movies that shouldn't be remade -- yes, Emma Thompson, I'm looking at you and your highly ill-advised attempt at My Fair Lady -- but adaptations from books are generally a different matter. With books, there's room for lots of interpretations, and I'm very much looking forward to this one.

The making of many books

The Edwin Drood-related books just keep coming! Some of you will recall that I spent a week or so blogging Matthew Pearl's The Last Dickens back in March. (Speaking of Pearl, he has an interesting new audio interview about "bookaneers" and other perils of Dickens-era publishing, over at NPR.)

Later this week, or possibly early next week, I'll start blogging Dan Simmons's Drood, which will probably take a lot longer. From the size of it, I think I can use it as a very effective doorstop when I'm not reading it.

And now comes a new English translation of Jean-Pierre Ohl's novel Mr. Dick, which has ties to both Edwin Drood and David Copperfield. There's a good interview with Ohl here. I'm trying to get a review copy of his book too.

And capsule reviews of all three books -- The Last Dickens, Drood, and Mr. Dick -- can be found in this article.

While I'm at it, I'm also going to try to get a review copy of Richard Flanagan's Wanting, which, for a change, isn't Drood-related but features Dickens as a major character.

And then I think my brain is going to need a vacation!

Goodies on DVD and Blu-ray

BBC Video has released a new "Special Edition" of the Bleak House miniseries on both DVD and Blu-ray. DVDTalk has a nice thorough review here. Their verdict: "While BBC's new DVD isn't exactly jaw-dropping, it's surely an upgrade from the previous, feature-less edition. If you don't already own Bleak House, this is the edition to get. If you do, the extras may not be worth the double-dip unless you're a big fan." And Blu-ray.com also has a detailed review here, complete with screenshots. 

In related news, as Deleilan mentioned, there's a new Charles Dickens Masterworks Collection on DVD that includes Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop, Little Dorrit (the versions we saw on PBS), Great Expectations (1999), and Bleak House. Reviews are here and here.

Finally, I ran across this message board post (scroll down to the post that begins "The DVD contains quite a bit more than the American broadcast") that details several of the scenes from Little Dorrit that were cut from the PBS airing -- and from my review copy. I'll have to get the full set after all. Thank heaven my sister just gave me a gift card. Thanks to the poster for filling us in (and also for linking to us in another post!).

And if you already have the set and have seen the cut scenes, a review would be most welcome!

Happy Mother's Day!

"It is not a slight thing when those so fresh from God love us."

Charles Dickens wrote that, but most moms feel it every day.

Roxanne Brown, "I love being a mom because . . ." Daily Commercial, May 10

A very nice quote (or paraphrase, rather) to choose for Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day to my mom and to all you moms out there.

All aboard!

To promote A Christmas Carol, Disney "has orchestrated a six-month whistle-stop train tour that will hit 40 cities with a multi-car exhibit showcasing different aspects of the production." One car will feature "a first edition of the original novel and some of the author's personal writing paraphernalia."

This I gotta see! The train won't arrive in my area until October, though, so some of you may get to see it first. The USA Today article linked above has a map showing where it will be and when, so take a look, and if you go, please be sure to drop by and tell the rest of us all about it!

Hard times for Dickens World

This doesn't sound good. I hope they don't have to close it. Kitschy it may be, but I still have a sneaking desire just to see it once. (For one thing, they've got a great collection of Little Dorrit costumes!)

Breakfast serial

I'm very much enjoying my weekly PDF installment of A Tale of Two Cities from Dickens for Breakfast. You may think you've read a book numerous times, but reading it in small pieces like this reminds you of all sorts of things that you've overlooked in previous rereadings.

When I reread, I tend just to go back to all my favorite scenes -- which are usually dialogue-heavy scenes. So I'd almost forgotten about stuff like the wonderfully dank, dark, dreary atmosphere Dickens created for Mr. Lorry's night journey in the stagecoach. "There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the labouring horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all." And that's just for starters.

It's also very cool to feel like you're having an experience similar to that of the book's first readers -- with the slight exception, of course, that you know what's going to happen. Still, it's not so hard to put that aside for a little while and to read as if it's all new and fresh, especially when, as I said, you're rediscovering so many things.

And having your book come to you a little bit at a time is tremendous fun. I wish we had our best contemporary authors doing this, publishing books serially in magazines and newspapers. The only novel I ever read serially before was Danielle Crittenden's Amanda Bright@home, which ran in weekly installments in the Wall Street Journal beginning in 2001, before being published in book form. I still remember how I looked forward to the new installment every week. I'd love to be able to read more books that way.

As J. J. Abrams recently pointed out, we do have serialized television, and for him, writing Lost is rather like what writing serially must have been like for Dickens. But for viewers, I think, it just isn't the same. I've actually grown pretty sick of serialized TV drama; with a few rare exceptions (Lost may be one of them, but I've hardly seen any of it, so I can't say), it relies too much on tricks and ratings stunts and general manufactured melodrama. Modern TV knows more of cheap melodrama than Dickens ever dreamed of, in my opinion. You can't show a happy family because that would be boring, so you have to destroy it. You can't show a healthy relationship, so you have to blow it up somehow. You can't have a good character who sticks to principle, so you have to have him or her compromise. You can't have any kind of peace or stability for any length of time, so you have to kill someone. Etc., etc., ad nauseam.

To my mind, these things are signs of sheer laziness. And if there's one thing Dickens didn't do, it was to take the lazy way out.