My film/drama list recently
Fanny Hill
Fanny Hill is based on the same-titled novel written in the 18th century by John
Cleland. The novel is also known as Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure. As the
title indicated, this is a story about a woman from an innocent girl to become a
woman who pursues and enjoys her relationship with her various lovers openly. The film is full of erotic scenes such as Fanny’s love scenes with her first sweet heart Charles, and her later relationship with her second lover Mr. H's
errand.
Personally I was more attracted to the plot and later the book itself than the actual drama. Just imagine that John Cleland wrote Fanny Hill in the 18th century
, a century writers such as Jane Austen was born and lived. Who could imagine on
the same land there could be so vastly different writing styles (one's style is
as daring and exciting as the other's genteel and calm) and stories between the
two writers?
The paragraph I quoted here is from the book: “…As to Mr H-, he was so much my
superior in every sense that I felt it too much to the disadvantage of the gratitude I owed him. Thus he gained my esteem, though he could not raise my taste;
I was qualified for no sort of conversation with him except one sort, and that is a satisfaction which leaves tiresome intervals, if not filled up by love or other amusements…”
Mr. H. is the lover Fanny took the first due to poverty after Charles left her.
But except for physical intercourse, they don’t share anything in common. Here
we must understand that Fanny Hill was born and grown up as a countryside girl without high education. But despite that, her meditation about her relationship and Mr. H was so sensible and so true. And I think it was her sensibility carried
her name from the blurring eighteenth century, from the now-and-then obscene and outrageous scenes in the book to the current century and TV screen.
Relevant Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/cinema/features/fanny-hill.shtml
Oliver Twist
Similar to A Christmas Carol, these days Oliver Twist is another story that must
be shared at Christmas time every year. The latest one produced by BBC was divided into free mini episodes with the first episode lasting some fifty minutes and the rest of each half an hour. Both the story line and the acting were really
good.
Whenever I watched different versions of Oliver Twist or read the book, the famous line by Oliver Twist “Please, Sir, I want some more” could make my heart cringe each time. I think it’s the goodness of Oliver Twist and the happy ending
of the film that make it a must-share story at Christmas Time.
Charles Dickens is a great writer, his stories and films adapted from his novels
are always pleasurable to read and watch. I told my friend that having been in
England so long it was until this Christmas that I actually felt I was in England. In the dense culture atmosphere presented by great films on media adapted from writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and w. Makepeace Thackeray, I could actually sense behind the everyday life scenes there were actually something
dormant in the air of this country.
They are still there though not visible if you don’t care to look for it. When
I re-watched Pride and Prejudice the other day, I actually felt the first time that the fascinating culture presented in Jane Austen’s novels are not all lost.
It is true that those social dancing activities were gone, but the social curtsies remain.
You can observe them from the Christmas dining table, from chitchatting manners
among your neighbors. There are fine lines there between appropriate and inappropriate manners. But it almost seems miraculously to me that the people now are just as masterful as that of Jane Austen’s time in light of defining the line.Only for that sake, I think it is not justified to say there are no longer cultures left in this country.
Relevant Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/oliver/
To be continued hopefully...
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