All around the tube stations, there are movies for the new Great Expectations movie – there are actually tons of movies I’m on the lookout for right now so maybe I got so wrapped up in what we’re waiting on in the US market (Bond! Les Mis! The Great Gatsby!) that I completely didn’t even realize this was coming out. I have some mixed reactions about a new movie – I mean, can anything top the 1998 movie with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth and Robert De Niro and of course, the pretty perfect Anne Bancroft as Miss Havisham? And who can forget all of that artwork…and the soundtrack…and the New York setting for the city. While I always try to read the book before movie, that movie made read and re-read the book, and the fact that it has two endings just added to the tragedy in my mind. Something about life being able to go two different ways if just this…or just that…and the fact that our fortunes are connected to more people than we often realize.
But yet, there’s something about seeing Helena Bonham Carter dressed up as Miss Havisham, staring insanely in the distance that’s compelling. She’s made for characters such as these…unlike the 1998 version, it almost seems like this interpretation is focused more on the Havisham/Magwitch characters rather than Pip and Stella but that’s not necessarily a bad thing…Interestingly, the film seems to interpret Miss Havisham’s house in nearly the same way, maybe it’s a nod. I don’t know, I think after this preview below I’m going to have to add this to my list for this winter.
I, too, had no idea this was coming out – definitely on my list now, although I am with you in that the 1998 version is, in my eyes, a classic feast for the eyes. Thanks for this post!