AN UNPRECEDENTED RETROSPECTIVE OF FILM AND TV ADAPTATIONS
‘Dickens’ nearness to the characteristics of cinema in method, style, and especially in viewpoint and exposition, is amazing.’ Sergei Eisenstein
‘I borrowed the idea from Charles Dickens. Novelists think nothing of leaving one set of characters in the midst of affairs and going back to deal with earlier events in which another set of characters is involved. I found that the picture could carry, not merely two, but three or four simultaneous threads of action – all without confusing the spectator.’ D. W. Griffith
Many believe Charles Dickens invented the language of cinema; through Dickens on Screen the BFI will explore how the work of one of Britain’s best loved storytellers has been adapted and interpreted for the big and small screens offering the largest retrospective of Dickens on film and television ever staged. At BFI Southbank from January – March 2012, the season is part of Dickens 2012, the worldwide celebrations throughout 2012 marking the 200th anniversary of his birth. Audiences will enjoy a unique insight into Dickens through previews, screenings, special events and panel discussions with talent including Sir Trevor Nunn, Martin Jarvis and David Threlfall. A national and international touring programme of screenings, including a special screening at Rochester Cathedral, will follow.
Heather Stewart, Creative Director BFI said ‘When we think of all Dickens’ extraordinary characters and nail biting cliffhangers it is not surprising he’s the most adapted author of all time. Working with our partners, and with the BFI National Archive so rich with interpretations of Dickens’ work, we have the perfect opportunity to present the biggest and widest ranging ever retrospective of Dickens on screen – from the lesser known works to the classics.’
Dickens on Film
Dickens is the most adapted novelist of all time, and every decade since the invention of cinema a new generation has interpreted his work for the screen. The BFI season incorporates rarely seen silent work taken from the early 20th Century Scrooge – or Marley’s Ghost (UK 1901) and David Copperfield (1913) to Hollywood’s interpretations including The Only Way (1926) and Jack Conway’s A Tale of Two Cities (1935) starring Ronald Colman, alongside British adaptations of the same story such as the 1958 version A Tale of Two Cities starring Dirk Bogarde. At the season’s heart will be David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), arguably the defining films of the Dickens canon, together with films rarely seen on the big screen ranging from the joyous musical that is Carol Reed’s Oliver! (1968) to Roman Polanski’s brooding Oliver Twist (2005).
Dickens on TV
The BFI starts the celebrations in December with two exclusive BBC TV previews: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (UK 2011) and Arena: Dickens on Film (UK 2011), a brand new exploration into Dickens’ contribution to film and TV history co-produced by Film London, written and narrated by season co-curators Michael Eaton and Adrian Wootton and directed by Anthony Wall.
For many their first encounter with Dickens will have been classic television adaptations for children and young adults. Dickens’ novels, originally written in instalments are a perfect fit for a weekly TV drama serial. In a day long event, ‘Adapting Dickens for Television’ Marcus Prince, TV Programmer BFI Southbank, will lead panel sessions to explore how TV has used or adapted Dickens and, in some sense, became his natural home. Five major TV adaptations will be screened in their entirety throughout the season with Our Mutual Friend (1976) in January, Barnaby Rudge (1960), Martin Chuzzlewit (1994) and Hard Times (1977) in February and Bleak House (1985) in March. There will also be a rare opportunity to see the 1982 Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, directed by Sir Trevor Nunn and John Caird with a panel discussion ‘Dickens & the Theatre’ with both directors, actor David Threlfall and writer/adapter David Edgar.
Dickens and the language of cinema
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) never lived to see the advent of cinema but was constantly being adapted for the theatre. Dickens himself was a natural showman who gave many public readings of his works where huge audiences were enthralled by his dramatic delivery. Critics and filmmakers have suggested that the brilliance of Dickens’ descriptive abilities and his innovations in narrative in some sense invented the language of cinema. Cinema took to Dickens and his unerring sense of drama in its first decade and has continued to do so in every successive decade.
The public appetite for Dickens shows no sign of abating on his 200th birthday, with new versions of Great Expectations being prepared for film (dir. Mike Newell, currently in production and supported by the BFI Film Fund) and television (dir. Brian Kirk for the BBC).
The greatest actors and directors have all been attracted to the unforgettable characters and plots which grew out of the hectic demands of weekly periodical publishing, their serial form perfectly suited to episodic television drama, while in film their heart-stopping melodrama makes for utterly compelling viewing. Dickens created over 2000 characters in his novels. Many of them have entered the popular imagination and provided the basis for Hollywood and international filmmakers to create enduring and hugely popular entertainment. Talent from Claude Rains and Valerie Hobson in Edwin Drood (1935) to Joyce Grenfell, Hermione Gingold and Donald Wolfit in The Pickwick Papers (1952), Diana Rigg in BBC TV’s Bleak House (1985) to Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke in Great Expectations (1998) have lit up screens.
More Dickens from the BFI
Selected titles from BFI Southbank’s Dickens on Screen season – including David Lean’s celebrated adaptations of Great Expectations and Oliver Twist – will be made available to UK cinemas and literary festivals for screening throughout 2012. A programme of rare silent shorts from the BFI National Archive will screen internationally in partnership with the British Council.
The small town of Rochester in Kent was a great favourite of Dickens and features in several of his works. Celebrating this historic connection, a special screening of Great Expectations (1946) – organised by BBC South East in association with the BFI and with kind permission of the Dean and Chapter of Rochester – will take place on 10 February 2012 in the wonderfully atmospheric setting of Rochester Cathedral.
The BFI’s Dickens Before Sound is a 2-disc DVD collection of the surviving earliest adaptations of Dickens’ stories spanning 1901-1922. It includes the first existing Dickens adaptation, Scrooge – or Marley’s Ghost (1901); an entirely original attempt to animate a series of lantern slides depicting the story of Gabriel Grub; the first Dickensian sound film with Bransby Williams as the character Grandfather Smallweed from Bleak House; and a 75-minute version of Oliver Twist (1922) featuring two iconic performers of the silent screen: Jackie Coogan and Lon Chaney. The films are presented with new scores by the composer and pianist Neil Brand and are available from all DVD retailers and the BFI Filmstore.
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