{"id":2570,"date":"2005-09-30T18:07:00","date_gmt":"2005-09-30T18:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/09\/ive-got-to-ask-a-question-or-two\/"},"modified":"2005-09-30T18:07:00","modified_gmt":"2005-09-30T18:07:00","slug":"ive-got-to-ask-a-question-or-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/09\/ive-got-to-ask-a-question-or-two.html","title":{"rendered":"I’ve got to ask a question or two…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Just a couple quick questions here.<\/span><\/p>\n

I caught Roman Polanski\u2019s adaptation of Oliver Twist<\/a><\/i> this afternoon, and as often happens before I can settle down to write my review, I feel a need to make a couple of lists.<\/p>\n

First, I checked this<\/a> IMDB page and a few others to see how many other adaptations of this Charles Dickens story have already been made, and there seem to have been well over 20 \u2014 but once we bracket off the silent movies, the TV shows, the cartoons and the modernizations, it seems there have been only four more-or-less straightforward big-screen talking-picture adaptations:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. a 1933 version<\/a>, which starred Irving Pichel \u2014 the future director of religious movies like The Great Commandment<\/a><\/i> (1939), Martin Luther<\/a><\/i> (1953; my review<\/a>) and Day of Triumph<\/a><\/i> (1953; this was the first feature-length \u201ctalkie\u201d about the life of Christ in the English language) \u2014 as Fagin<\/li>\n
  2. the David Lean film<\/a> (1948)<\/li>\n
  3. the Lionel Bart \/ Carol Reed musical Oliver!<\/a><\/i> (1968)<\/li>\n
  4. the new Polanski film (2005)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    FWIW, I know some might quibble that the musical was not as \u201cstraightforward\u201d as the others, but it fits the label better than many of the other ones I\u2019ve bracketed off. Are there any more?<\/p>\n

    The other question I have is this: In 1971, Roman Polanski directed an adaptation of Shakespeare\u2019s Macbeth<\/a><\/i>. Have any other<\/i> directors made adaptations of both<\/i> Shakespeare and<\/i> Dickens?<\/p>\n

    I went to the IMDB\u2019s \u201cpeople working together<\/a>\u201d search engine and tried to match \u201cCharles Dickens\u201d as a writer with \u201cFranco Zeffirelli\u201d, \u201cOrson Welles\u201d, \u201cLaurence Olivier\u201d and \u201cKenneth Branagh\u201d as directors \u2014 those being the most prolific Shakespeare adapters that I can think of \u2014 but the search turned up nothing.<\/p>\n

    OCT 4 UPDATE: My review<\/a> is now up at CT Movies.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Just a couple quick questions here. I caught Roman Polanski\u2019s adaptation of Oliver Twist this afternoon, and as often happens before I can settle down to write my review, I feel a need to make a couple of lists. First, I checked this IMDB page and a few others to see how many other adaptations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nI've got to ask a question or two...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just a couple quick questions here.I caught Roman Polanski's adaptation of Oliver Twist this afternoon, and as often happens before I can settle down to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/09\/ive-got-to-ask-a-question-or-two.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I've got to ask a question or two...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just a couple quick questions here.I caught Roman Polanski's adaptation of Oliver Twist this afternoon, and as often happens before I can settle down to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/09\/ive-got-to-ask-a-question-or-two.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-09-30T18:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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