Literature’s all-time jilted spinster, Miss Havisham, has been played by Martita Hunt, Anne Bancroft, Gillian Anderson and Helena Bonham Carter while also inspiring other memorable screen personalities, most notably “Sunset Boulevard’s” Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). In “Peaky Blinders” showrunner Steven Knight’s adaptation of “Great Expectations,” Olivia Colman dons the tattered veil of the iconic character to whom unwitting orphan Philip “Pip” Pirrip (Fionn Whitehead) turns as he pursues social repute in Victorian England.
Though Knight’s amendments to Charles Dickens’ source material have gotten a mixed response, the show continues to draw praise for its production value. Costume designer Verity Hawkes, whose credits include “Snatch,” “Inkheart” and “Black Mirror,” recently gave an interview to IndieWire’s Sarah Shachat in which she detailed her approach to the unenviable task of distinguishing Knight’s rendition of the character from more than a dozen others.
See ‘Great Expectations’ creator Steven...
Though Knight’s amendments to Charles Dickens’ source material have gotten a mixed response, the show continues to draw praise for its production value. Costume designer Verity Hawkes, whose credits include “Snatch,” “Inkheart” and “Black Mirror,” recently gave an interview to IndieWire’s Sarah Shachat in which she detailed her approach to the unenviable task of distinguishing Knight’s rendition of the character from more than a dozen others.
See ‘Great Expectations’ creator Steven...
- 4/19/2023
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
Filmmakers have been adapting Charles Dickens for decades — his “Great Expectations” alone has had almost 20 screen adaptations since 1917. That’s a new Miss Havisham hoarding dusty wedding gifts and inflicting emotional trauma on children every six years for over a century. That poses a fresh challenge for each new iteration of the story: How do you make your version of “Great Expectations” visually distinct, particularly given that Dickens’ prose never turns more purple than when describing the jilted bride that time forgot?
The solution that the BBC and FX’s new limited series’ costume designer Verity Hawkes found was to zag where most adaptations zig. “I wanted to push it slightly and not do museum pieces,” Hawkes told IndieWire of the show’s costumes, particularly Olivia Colman’s Miss Havisham. While the rest of the cast wears (relatively) more modern Georgian styles, but Miss Havisham wanders the dusty, empty rooms...
The solution that the BBC and FX’s new limited series’ costume designer Verity Hawkes found was to zag where most adaptations zig. “I wanted to push it slightly and not do museum pieces,” Hawkes told IndieWire of the show’s costumes, particularly Olivia Colman’s Miss Havisham. While the rest of the cast wears (relatively) more modern Georgian styles, but Miss Havisham wanders the dusty, empty rooms...
- 4/6/2023
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Warning: This review contains spoilers from the first two episodes of Great Expectations.
There have been plenty of good, and even great, adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations.
Unfortunately, this is not one of them.
Most recently, Mike Newell directed a film version in 2012 starring Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter.
BBC, one of the production companies behind this version (along with FX), produced a three-part miniseries in 2011-2012 starring Douglas Booth, Ray Winstone, and Gillian Anderson.
The most famous adaptation this side of the pond is probably Alfonso Cuarón's modern version in 1998, starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Anne Bancroft.
News of Steven Knight's version was exciting, particularly with the announcement of Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham.
If you're going to remake something that has been adapted so many times, you have to approach it from a new vantage point.
Cuarón's version, for example, didn't always work,...
There have been plenty of good, and even great, adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations.
Unfortunately, this is not one of them.
Most recently, Mike Newell directed a film version in 2012 starring Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter.
BBC, one of the production companies behind this version (along with FX), produced a three-part miniseries in 2011-2012 starring Douglas Booth, Ray Winstone, and Gillian Anderson.
The most famous adaptation this side of the pond is probably Alfonso Cuarón's modern version in 1998, starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Anne Bancroft.
News of Steven Knight's version was exciting, particularly with the announcement of Olivia Colman as Miss Havisham.
If you're going to remake something that has been adapted so many times, you have to approach it from a new vantage point.
Cuarón's version, for example, didn't always work,...
- 3/26/2023
- by Mary Littlejohn
- TVfanatic
Spoilers
Despite all the hoo-ha over films such as Blue Jasmine and Stoker contemporary is still pretty much overlooked as a form of costume design. If it’s invisible, well, nobody notices it, and if it’s designer it becomes all about ‘the fashion’ (Omg Totes Want Those Shoes). We are currently in an age when costume design means period and sci-fi. It comes to the extent that if a costumer wants to tell a story through contemporary attire, he/she needs either a director with a key grasp of semiotics, or one that doesn’t care less about semiotics and offers a degree of autonomy. Watching About Time we presume that Richard Curtis is one of the former. Apparently he was specific on his needs to costume designer Verity Hawkes, yet gave her room to breathe and develop the project independently. Basically he let Hawkes do her job. What...
Despite all the hoo-ha over films such as Blue Jasmine and Stoker contemporary is still pretty much overlooked as a form of costume design. If it’s invisible, well, nobody notices it, and if it’s designer it becomes all about ‘the fashion’ (Omg Totes Want Those Shoes). We are currently in an age when costume design means period and sci-fi. It comes to the extent that if a costumer wants to tell a story through contemporary attire, he/she needs either a director with a key grasp of semiotics, or one that doesn’t care less about semiotics and offers a degree of autonomy. Watching About Time we presume that Richard Curtis is one of the former. Apparently he was specific on his needs to costume designer Verity Hawkes, yet gave her room to breathe and develop the project independently. Basically he let Hawkes do her job. What...
- 5/9/2014
- by Lord Christopher Laverty
- Clothes on Film
Not too long ago, Cinematical had a chance to travel to London to visit the set of Inkheart over at Shepperton Studios where stars Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, Eliza Bennett and Andy Serkis were filming a crucial scene in the film -- one that involved fire, magic, a non-cgi'd Serkis and strange-looking evil men. But we'll come back to that in a little bit. Shepperton Studios is made up of several buildings, and unlike the set of The Golden Compass (which we visited the day before), there wasn't much green screen to be found on this flick. Instead, the Inkheart sets were big, bold and quite beautiful -- one of which felt as if you were walking straight onto a village street, with shops and cobblestones and realistic rooftops.
On the side of this set stood the interior of a medieval-looking cathedral, which runs up about two stories...
On the side of this set stood the interior of a medieval-looking cathedral, which runs up about two stories...
- 12/24/2008
- by Erik Davis
- Cinematical
Although "The Hole" might spark easily made comparisons with "The Blair Witch Project" -- terrified teens stalked by an evil presence -- it is actually a shrewdly made chiller that has a good deal to offer. With the right handling, this film could make a nice hit in that hefty marketplace for "teens in peril" movies.
While the film is a U.K.-French production set firmly in rural England, the fact that the key young leads, Thora Birch and Desmond Harrington, are Americans tips us off that this is a film made for the international marketplace.
The film is structured in the form of a series of flashbacks, which gradually reveal more and more about the events, cleverly mixing true memories with alternate variations. The film opens impressively with the shocked, frightened Liz (Birch) wandering into a village where, in a series of flashbacks, she explains to psychologist Philipa Horwood (the always fine Embeth Davidtz) what has happened.
It seems she and fellow pupils from an English public school had gotten out of a school trip by hiding out in an old World War II bunker. Liz was keen to go into the hole with American hunk Mike (Harrington) because she had the hots for him, while fellow students Geoff and Frankie engage in a little quality time together.
Liz initially blames much of what happened to them in the hole on another student, Martin (Daniel Brocklebank), who she says was jealous of her feelings for Mike. But as the police interrogation of her and Martin continues, more and more is revealed of the actual events in the bunker. Without giving too much of the plot away, it becomes clear that someone is controlling the events in the bunker. As the bodies start to fall, fear and paranoia increase.
"Hole" is impressively directed by Nick Hamm (whose previous film was the romantic comedy "Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence"). He makes great use of the frightening location of a dark, shadowy bunker, though his work is much assisted by a fine, intelligent script from Ben Court and Caroline Ip, who give depth and variation to their characters. The hole is nicely designed by Eve Stewart, and, as shot by cinematographer Denis Crossan, it makes for a fine twist on the old-dark-house format.
Birch is asked to offer different levels to her character as the truth behind what happened is gradually revealed, and she does an excellent job of presenting a character who lurches between shy and mousy to cunning and sociopathic. The rest of the young cast is impressive, especially Brocklebank as Martin.
"Hole" is a fine, tense piece of chilling entertainment that deserves to reach an audience.
THE HOLE
Pathe Pictures presents in association with the Film Council and Le Studio Canal Plus
Cowboy Films/Granada Film Prods. in association with Cowboy Pictures
Producers: Lisa Bryer, Jeremy Bolt, Pippa Cross
Director: Nick Hamm
Screenwriters: Ben Court, Caroline Ip
Based on the novel by: Guy Burt
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Andrea Calderwood
Director of photography: Denis Crossan
Editor: Niven Howie
Production designer: Eve Stewart
Music: Clint Mansell
Costume designer: Verity Hawkes
Color/stereo
Cast:
Liz Dunn: : hora Birch
Mike Steel: Desmond Harrington
Martin Taylor: Daniel Brocklebank
Geoff: Laurence Fox
Frankie Smith: Keira Knightley
Dr. Philipa Horwood: Embeth Davidtz
DCS Tom Howard: Steven Waddington
Running time -- 102 minutes
No MPAA rating...
While the film is a U.K.-French production set firmly in rural England, the fact that the key young leads, Thora Birch and Desmond Harrington, are Americans tips us off that this is a film made for the international marketplace.
The film is structured in the form of a series of flashbacks, which gradually reveal more and more about the events, cleverly mixing true memories with alternate variations. The film opens impressively with the shocked, frightened Liz (Birch) wandering into a village where, in a series of flashbacks, she explains to psychologist Philipa Horwood (the always fine Embeth Davidtz) what has happened.
It seems she and fellow pupils from an English public school had gotten out of a school trip by hiding out in an old World War II bunker. Liz was keen to go into the hole with American hunk Mike (Harrington) because she had the hots for him, while fellow students Geoff and Frankie engage in a little quality time together.
Liz initially blames much of what happened to them in the hole on another student, Martin (Daniel Brocklebank), who she says was jealous of her feelings for Mike. But as the police interrogation of her and Martin continues, more and more is revealed of the actual events in the bunker. Without giving too much of the plot away, it becomes clear that someone is controlling the events in the bunker. As the bodies start to fall, fear and paranoia increase.
"Hole" is impressively directed by Nick Hamm (whose previous film was the romantic comedy "Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence"). He makes great use of the frightening location of a dark, shadowy bunker, though his work is much assisted by a fine, intelligent script from Ben Court and Caroline Ip, who give depth and variation to their characters. The hole is nicely designed by Eve Stewart, and, as shot by cinematographer Denis Crossan, it makes for a fine twist on the old-dark-house format.
Birch is asked to offer different levels to her character as the truth behind what happened is gradually revealed, and she does an excellent job of presenting a character who lurches between shy and mousy to cunning and sociopathic. The rest of the young cast is impressive, especially Brocklebank as Martin.
"Hole" is a fine, tense piece of chilling entertainment that deserves to reach an audience.
THE HOLE
Pathe Pictures presents in association with the Film Council and Le Studio Canal Plus
Cowboy Films/Granada Film Prods. in association with Cowboy Pictures
Producers: Lisa Bryer, Jeremy Bolt, Pippa Cross
Director: Nick Hamm
Screenwriters: Ben Court, Caroline Ip
Based on the novel by: Guy Burt
Executive producers: Francois Ivernel, Andrea Calderwood
Director of photography: Denis Crossan
Editor: Niven Howie
Production designer: Eve Stewart
Music: Clint Mansell
Costume designer: Verity Hawkes
Color/stereo
Cast:
Liz Dunn: : hora Birch
Mike Steel: Desmond Harrington
Martin Taylor: Daniel Brocklebank
Geoff: Laurence Fox
Frankie Smith: Keira Knightley
Dr. Philipa Horwood: Embeth Davidtz
DCS Tom Howard: Steven Waddington
Running time -- 102 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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