another Great Expectations

UK Elle December 2012

I had forgotten that another version of Charles Dickens' classic tale, Great Expectations, was set to be released. The other was the BBC adaptation that was available stateside last spring. It was a wonderful 3-part telling of the story with a very spooky portrayal of Miss Havisham by Gillian Anderson. She played her very neurotically. I bought the series and have viewed it several times. The mood of the piece is very bewitching.

Aha! but this feature length version stars Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes. I can't wait to catch a glimpse of Helena ... she plays creepy so divinely. I just saw her last week in Les Miserables, and honestly, she was one of my favorites! How could she not be ... she just lets herself go. Her measure is enormous and she's always so cheekily strange. And what is to say about Ralph Fiennes? Brilliant. I just happened to catch a bit of the Goblet of Fire this week, and he was more than I could have ever imagined for 'he that shall not be named.'

This film was released in Britain in November, and from everything that I could find on it coming here, it's not. I can't really believe that, and I will have to make do with another treat that I read about in this issue of UK Elle ... a novel, Miss Havisham, written by Ronald Frame. It is an imagining of Miss Havisham's life before she was left at the altar. I put in an order for it ... and with good faith will follow up the read of it with a review. I liked the treatment of Wild Sargasso Sea as a prelude to Jane Eyre ... so I expect to be as delighted with this telling. If you haven't read Wild Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, I would recommend it. It was good to meet Mrs. Rochester before she became the madwoman in the attic! She wasn't mad at all in Rhys' hands ... she was the product of a racist, sexist system which isn't much different now, I suspect.