Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Little Dorrit, 22 Nov 2002
Christine Ezeard has allowed time, in her wonderful adaptation of Dickens' masterpiece 'Little Dorrit', for us to savour scenes, to understand character, motive and history. In some unique way she has exactly caught what we understand, from his writings, to be Dickens' perception of his world. It is as though a camera has been set up in the mid-Victorian world that is the background to the novel and somehow we are offered an insight into the mind of people of that time. The camera observes and does not attempt to manipulate the viewer. In this way Dickens' intent and the symbolism of this dark novel is plain and unadorned. All characters and scenes are unforgettable: Pancks, Flora, Afferty and Flintwich, Mrs Clennam, the Dorrits and all the other remarkable characters; the men lounging against the Marshalsea wall, the Clennam house slowly disintegrating, Bleeding Heart Yard...this is an adaptation which is quite unique. There is not one piece of acting in this fine film. It is being, the cast having the ability here to flesh out charcters straight from the writer's pages. We have not been offerd a modern interpretation of this story, there are no flashy camera angles, no fast cutting, no snatches designed for our time's alleged inability to cope with anything longer than a few minutes. Having experienced this version of Little Dorrit you will never want to see another. Remarkably we are able to watch the same story twice, from Clennam's perspective and from Little Dorrit and her father's perspective. Buy, watch and savour.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Dickens adaptation, unfortunately, DVD HAS SOMETHING MISSING......., 9 Nov 2008
For those who consider subtitling important, I'm sorry to say that this two-disc, long-awaited DVD realization of Christine Edzard's wonderful film has, disappointment of disappointments, no subtitles or closed captioning.
Although, Special Features can't be beat, containing extracts of early interviews with Sirs Alec Guiness and Derek Jacobi, Cyril Cusack, Joan Greenwood, Miriam Margoyles, Patricia Hayes, lead Sarah Pickering and Max Wall.
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41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not everyone's cup of tea but an outstanding adaptation, 3 Sep 2008
Christine Edzard's films (note the plural) of "Little Dorrit" make up perhaps the greatest and most comprehensive adaptation of Dickens ever produced for the big screen. I use the plural because the work comes in the form of two 3-hour films called "Nobody's Fault" and "Little Dorrit's Story". To get the best out of them, both must be viewed and in that order.
The film is studded with great names - Derek Jacobi, Alec Guinness, Cyril Cusack, Joan Greenwood (in her last film appearance) and a host of mostly British acting talent including Robert Morley, Michael Elphick, Bill Fraser and Eleanor Bron, all in little more than bit parts. But for me, the star of the show has to be Sarah Pickering, the unknown actress entrusted with the title role. I have tried, without success, to find just one other film in which she appeared.
The film is set mostly in the notorious Marshalsea debtors prison in Borough, south London, where Dickens' own father was once incarcerated. A debtors prison is a perfect example of what Joseph Heller would later dub "catch 22". A person imprisoned for debt was denied the right to work, hence had no means of earning the money to pay off the debt(s) of which he/she was accused.
The film is essentially a story of the love between Arthur Clennam, a man in his 40s (Jacobi) and Amy Dorrit, usually called Little Dorrit, a young woman of 22 though, according to Dickens, she looked half that age (Pickering). It is set in the period preceding the Reform Act of 1855, and indeed, the novel contributed in no small way to the debate leading up to that piece of legislation. It is a very complex plot (this is, after all, based on a Dickens novel) but one of the devices used is a government department called the Circumlocution Office, in which Dickens and the film makers parody bureaucratic processes by taking them to extremes. Dickens did not go as far as Kafka, who saw authority as actively plotting the destruction of its victims, but he savagely attacks the processes and procedures whereby government is carried out and the means whereby people found their way into high office. At that time, progress through a civil service career was mostly through family connections, a process that enabled illiterates to attain high office.
Edzard's 1987/99 adaptation of the novel is lovingly crafted and filmed exclusively on sets created for the purpose, i.e. there was no location shooting. The background music is adapted from the work of Dickens' Italian contemporary Guiseppe Verdi.
This is not for everyone, but for those who like Dickens and like to see attempts to be true to his work it is an absolute must. Only now (2008) has it appeared on DVD, remastered from the negatives by the original production company. Guinness, Greenwood and Cusack are, sadly, no longer with us, but this serves as a wonderful reminder of the quality of their work
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