The year 1999 was fruitful for The Turn of the Screw adaptations. There appeared two of them: a BBC TV film directed by Ben Bolt, with the homonymous title, and Presence of Mind (El Celo) by the Spanish director Antonio Aloy. They are very different versions of the story. The first one (the subject of this post) is renowned mainly for two things: 1 ( Read more... )

This 1995 film by the American director Tom McLoughlin has got two titles, The Turn of the Screw and The Haunting of Helen Walker. The second one reflects better its particularity. The heroine deserves to be named and mentioned in the title, as she has got a distinctive character that makes her different from all the other governesses in those ( Read more... )

For me, Rusty Lemorande's The Turn of the Screw (1992) definitely stands out from other screen adaptations for its utter originality. It is really an attempt to see the story with new eyes rather than repeat or polemise with other versions. I confess I loved it, despite that the director uses the device I most hate: the action is transferred to ( Read more... )

When I listen to the music by Benjamin Britten, I am, like, straining my brain: 'What is it?', 'What should it mean?', 'What an interesting combination of sounds!' and so on. It is like reading the so-called 'intellectual prose', some elaborately written essays. Like reading... Henry James. :) Pure mind; exquisite turns of thought; in the author, a ( Read more... )

The Basque director Eloy de la Iglesia filmed a very curious version of The Turn of the Screw. To say it at once: the Governess is a man!! That is, a male tutor. Surely, it shifts the accents somewhat and brings in new topics, among which the inevitable one of homosexuality.


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The Nightcomers (1972) is a provocative film directed by Michael Winner. I watched it because it is a 'prequel' to The Turn of the Screw, telling the story of what really could have happened before the arrival of the Governess - between Peter Quint the gardener, Miss Jessel the governess, Mrs Grose the housekeeper and the two aristocratic children ( Read more... )

Warning: Some spoilers. Strong personal opinions abound. Comparisons with Borderie's films and the book are inevitable and numerous. Those who do love the film passionately, read at your own risk ( Read more... )

Doña Bárbara (1929) is a novel by Rómulo Gallegos, as widely popular in Venezuela as it is virtually unknown in my country - for all that it is a work of an acknowledged classic and a significant book for its place in Latin American literature ( Read more... )

Recently, Providence sends me books with a great mystery not quite resolved in the end, an unreliable narrator and an ambiguous ending, written by too clever authors. This time, I refer to My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier ( Read more... )

The Innocents (1961), a film by Jack Clayton, is based on Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. Truman Capote was the co-writer of the script, introducing some clever changes into the story that made it clearer for me - although it is still possible to see ambiguity and have doubts. The black-and-white photography by Freddie Francis is as expressive ( Read more... )