Great Expectations

chanandre

[Cinémathèque PT #101: 35 mm] > great book oh Charles Dickens, great film oh David Lean, great song oh Chan Marshall!

Richmond Hill

A consummate transposition of Dickens that captures the rich and fruity fresco of his storytelling. All elements coalesce with deftness and sureness of ambition, despite the occasional longuere. The sureness of touch almost makes you believe it could never be any other way.

Michael H. CLAES

Il y a 150 ans DICKENS écrivait Les Grandes Espérances & David LEAN l'adaptait au cinéma il y a 70 ans. Tout cela est étonnamment & quelque part dramatiquement, moderne. Puissance du récit, des acteurs, une réalisation magistrale, un chef d'oeuvre! == 150 years ago Dickens wrote Great Expectations & David Lean adapted it to the movies 70 years ago. All this is surprisingly & somehow sadly, very modern. A masterpiece.

Roscoe

Magnificent black and white cinematography and some fine character actors chowing down on great roles make up for a strange lack of tension as the film goes on -- and Valerie Hobson is never once able to conjure Estella's icy beauty.

Wee Hunk

PBS ruined costume dramas for me. They just won't stop making them. There's this huge industry in England where they keep churning this crap out like a factory. I just got sick of them. Now when I say costume drama, I just mean the old England high literary shite.

Stefan Drees

Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations" is very difficult to adapt - but this film is one of the best adaptations I've seen. In my opinion it's not as strong as David Lean's "Oliver Twist" but nonetheless it persuades through its strong cinematography and the change between very quiet and very dynamic sequences.

THE APOLL0

Lean avoids the narrative pitfall's of and dangerous forms of Victorian romanticism another filmmaker may have fell for and stay's focused on the objective in all aspects.

azoulay

On trouve dans ce film toute la virtuosité de David Lean, le cinéaste des espaces, de l'espace, des plans qui portent le sens, land infinie ou décors de poussières. La mise en scène est magistrale, seul bémol, la performance des deux jeunes premiers adultes n'est pas top mais c'est tellement bien et ensuite tout sera encore plus beau chez Lean, un des plus grands parmi les grands.