I recently finished re-reading the novel, and when I finished the last page, I mourned a little because I wasn't going to be able to be so enthralled anymore! It is truly a magical book. I read a lot, but no book has really captivated me like this one. So, to keep the suspension of disbelief going, and as a reward for completing such an intense book, I bought the 1992 film version, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. Well, I just got finished watching it and...
...I WAS SORELY DISAPPOINTED! Argghh, it was so horrible. Granted, it was made in 1992 (which we all know was not exactly the height of filmmaking), but still! It had such good reviews on Amazon which is why I purchased this one over the 1939 or 2003 versions. Oh well...
Now, I hate to sound like one of these "the book is sooo much better than the movie" people, because I'm really not. I actually took a film study course in college in which we focused almost the entire semester on how a book and its film counterpart can never have the same "essence", hence they are incomparable, but that's a story for a different day. Aside from the fact that it was a totally watered-down version of the book, this film was simply a poorly-made film.
Has anyone read this book? If you haven't, you absolutely, positively must go read it, STAT. The first couple chapters are a little slow and perhaps confusing with all the characters, but once you get into it, you won't put it down- it is dark, depressing, scary, and its very own little world. There are a lot of gothic themes, like imprisonment and the supernatural (being two of the biggest themes, actually), so I guess not super realistic, but you won't know the difference when you read it! :)
I think it might be the Twilight for English majors, or for the 19th century, at least. It has to be at least 2000x better than Twilight :)
Anyways, go read and if you already have, let's be dorks and chat about it!
5 comments:
It took me like 5 months to read it.... Seriously. I couldn't get into it. Please post reasons as to why you like it so much!
(Oh and I read on fb that you want to get more readers... Let me tell you how: COMMENTING. It works like a charm!)
Thanks fechter, you always come through for me! I will try that commenting business :) And I knew you would comment a) b/c you are so diligent, and b) b/c you had talked about reading this book.
I will definitely post some reasons for me liking this book. But I understand, when I first started up this time, I was about to abandon the project, but then something clicked and I was hooked!
lol nice, I just left comments on all of them- I will be diligent :) You are so funny.
I agree it was a terrible movie. Never have I wanted to gouge out my eyes so badly!!
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