Comments | dangermousie: Tess of the d'Urbervilles - my mad fiction love. Making kdramas look upbeat since 19th century

dangermousie

Tess of the d'Urbervilles - my mad fiction love. Making kdramas look upbeat since 19th century

Sep 09, 2009 02:25

I plan to do a back-to-back watch of 1998 and 2008 adaptations of one of my favorite Victorian novels, Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, whose tragic heroine is destroyed both by the sheer brutality of physical survival and the rigid social mores of Victorian England. I am clearly a glutton for punishment but then I like Hardy, so that is not a ( Read more... )

british tv, youtube, books, classics

Comments 25

ambergold September 9 2009, 21:31:29 UTC

this was such a beautifully shot and acted drama. ultimately too dark for me but still enjoyable. have you seen the BBC's Tenant of Wildfell Hall? It's much the same - so well filmed and acted and deliciously dark with a lovely ending. Starts out slow with very odd music but then gets superb rather rapidly. it's instant watching on Netflix if you have that.

ambergold September 9 2009, 21:32:20 UTC

also, Toby Stephens of the new Jane Eyre! mmmmmm.

crumpeteer September 9 2009, 23:44:59 UTC

I always sort of hated Hardy. I think it's the fact that his books are good in theory, but in application they are MISERABLE to read. Jude the Obscure might be the most depressing thing I've ever been forced to read. It makes you wonder about Hardy himself. I mean who even THINKS of that? It always seemed like he made his characters miserable just for the heck of it. Maybe I just shouldn't have been introduced to him with Jude.

dangermousie September 10 2009, 18:40:38 UTC

Jude is very very depressing. I guess I grew up on Russian novels so it was a step up in cheeriness :)

bzoppa September 10 2009, 15:52:41 UTC

I've followed Justine Waddell ever since. She's just incredible looking. I've seen many a movie (or contemplated seeing) just because of her.

dangermousie September 10 2009, 18:40:47 UTC

What else has she been in?

bzoppa September 10 2009, 18:50:56 UTC

lol, nothing big. I actually saw Dracula 2000 because of her.

She was in The Fall which was recent, and exquisite in that. Small part, though, and she wasn't a good character. I almost watched Thr3e but I have severe problems with Marc Blucas (Riley from Buffy) and never managed to get to her first scene.

I'd recommend The Fall to you, although I didn't like it much. You might like it, my buddy swankyfunk adored the movie, but I was a little bored. Beautiful cinematography though.

bzoppa September 10 2009, 18:57:08 UTC

Um, whoa!

Apparently she was in a British miniseries based on an Elizabeth Gaskell book. I haven't seen North and South but know alexandral totally loved it. I'm a little anal about reading period books/classics before seeing the movies/series and didn't finish reading N&S so I never watched it.

Period piece.. miniseries.. sounds like your thing..

Thread 5