tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post3839019865213758166..comments2024-03-23T12:38:46.260+00:00Comments on The History Girls: Tolstoy, Dickens and Woolf go to the PicturesMary Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-11933657480364653372012-05-05T01:10:42.254+01:002012-05-05T01:10:42.254+01:00Late to the party, but had to say what a brilliant...Late to the party, but had to say what a brilliant post this is! I've worked in both media, but you've helped me see both in a new light.<br /><br />It's fascinating how many classic writers use techniques I'd think of as cinematic - Thomas Hardy is another. Think of that 'wide shot' at the start of 'Far From the Madding Crowd', then the wink of light as Bathsheba uses her mirror...<br /><br />Zooming in and out too - and in interestingly similar ways. There's a paragraph in 'Vanity Fair' where Thackeray lists all the global calamities of the year of Waterloo, then finishes with the bathos of 'and old Joseph Sedley was ruined' - reducing his character's tragedy to one more statistic. Thackeray does it by zooming IN, but the same effect is in 'Gone With The Wind' where the director zooms OUT from Scarlett frantically looking for the doctor and shows her as one tiny ant in the middle of a vast and human tragedy.<br /><br />Great stuff, Linda. You've really made me think!alberridgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15986443240923520466noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-60615486680403756002012-05-02T23:11:01.184+01:002012-05-02T23:11:01.184+01:00Many thanks for your comment, Jane. I adored Sall...Many thanks for your comment, Jane. I adored Sally Potter's Orlando and, yes, Jane Campion's take on To the Lighthouse could be phenomenal!Linda B-Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01599899073420595717noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-18613887885476457062012-05-02T13:33:05.840+01:002012-05-02T13:33:05.840+01:00Yes, imagine THE WAVES written and directed by Vir...Yes, imagine THE WAVES written and directed by Virginia Woolf, it would be phenomenal. (And surely only she could do it?) <br /><br />Sally Potter's film adaptation of Orlando was superb though, wasn't it - translating all those shifting layers into the visual. I suppose Orlando is more event/ narrative driven, so maybe translates more readily. The challenge would be to capture the subtlety and nuance of Woolf's psychological strands as images. I'd love to see Jane Campion doing To the Lighthouse... but I digress.<br /><br />Great post, thanks!Jane Borodalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04869783602793206715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-41588348668057566532012-05-02T12:06:16.898+01:002012-05-02T12:06:16.898+01:00Brilliant - with recommendations like these, sound...Brilliant - with recommendations like these, sounds like I don't have to worry about what to watch next! I've not come across FNL before, so thank you. <br />As for scriptwriting v novel-writing, I think both are just as easy and as just as hard in different ways. But the downside (and it's a big downside) is that the script is a blueprint and not the finished thing - but exciting all the same and I'd love to do more if I could. Lovely comment about Ruskin, Michelle, there is something fine about a collaborative creative process. Adele - actually I think stage plays are the hardest of all... Many thanks, both, for your comments.Linda B-Ahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01599899073420595717noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-29870203028442162752012-05-02T11:34:06.644+01:002012-05-02T11:34:06.644+01:00Oh Michelle! So pleased you're a FNL fan. We a...Oh Michelle! So pleased you're a FNL fan. We adore it...still have two and a half series to watch and I will MISS it like mad. I am in love with Tim Riggins!<br /><br />But this is a marvellous post, Linda. So interesting and like Michelle I can't imagine how to write a script though I've done a couple of plays. I live in hope of someone else one day wanting to adapt something of mine...adelehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15826710558292792068noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-46739977780353891002012-05-02T09:43:31.521+01:002012-05-02T09:43:31.521+01:00Fascinating! I love the idea that making a film is...Fascinating! I love the idea that making a film is like building a medieval cathedral. I'm in awe of anyone who can conjure a script - it seems to me like writing in four dimensions at once. (And Ruskin would approve of the analogy and the process - each individual person making a creative contribution, even if it is just a particularly beautiful acanthus leaf or a moment of light falling on someone's face.)<br /><br />There is some amazing writing going on just for the screen at the moment. I've just finished watching an American series called Friday Night Lights, which is about football - and not about football at all. It is about being an American in the early 21st century. I found it moving because it nailed its colours to the mast without irony.michelle lovrichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01026972300195225090noreply@blogger.com