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Originally posted by Pianoman View PostMaybe Gatiss is spreading himself a bit thin though, with all these commissions. I say this having watched 'Martin's Close', his latest MR James adaptation, which was terrifying in its NON-scariness. In fact, it paled beside the classics from the 70s - or maybe it's because all the best James stories had already been done back then?
... yes, Martin's Close was disappointingly thin - so much so that we re-watched the 2010 Whistle and I'll Come to You (terrific John Hurt) just to remind ourselves how good an MR James adaptation can be.
But Dracula is proving to be a thing of wonder, even if episode 3 loses it a bit. Dolly Wells as Sr Agatha a real find - I hope we see a lot more of her in the future.
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Originally posted by vinteuil View Post.
... yes, Martin's Close was disappointingly thin - so much so that we re-watched the 2010 Whistle and I'll Come to You (terrific John Hurt) just to remind ourselves how good an MR James adaptation can be.
But Dracula is proving to be a thing of wonder, even if episode 3 loses it a bit. Dolly Wells as Sr Agatha a real find - I hope we see a lot more of her in the future.
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Originally posted by LMcD View PostI haven't seen that version, but even if it's only half as good as the wonderful Michael Hordern version from the early 1960's it must assuredly be worth investigating.
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
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Originally posted by vinteuil View Post
UPDATE!
I'm afraid I was disappointed in this unnecessary and unsatisfactory remake. Michael Hordern's quirky lonely academic was much more intriguing. Jonathan Miller clearly felt no need to tamper with the original story.Last edited by LMcD; 04-01-20, 19:52.
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Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View PostYes - tremendous fun. (Moffatt has definitely got a "thing" about cremation, though - the "corpse in agony as it burns" idea was used in Dark Water/Death in Heaven as well!)
And I also greatly enjoyed the Gatiss documentary that Bryn mentioned and alywin referred to - very glad to be reminded of the 1977 Louis Jourdan adaptation, too.
Utterly disappointing is how I’d describe Martin’s Close - a complete absence of atmospheric cinematography (astonishing for someone like Gatiss who claims to be a connoisseur of the genre) - and a shockingly bad (or badly-directed) performance by the bloke playing the Judge
We followed it up with a look again at Lost Hearts, rebroadcast last year: deeply creepy although playfully lurid. https://youtu.be/bm_mnNFapPU (It’s just over half an hour - for some reason it’s repeated during the second half of that link) Not an ounce of that in the new one...Last edited by Nick Armstrong; 04-01-20, 20:27."...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Originally posted by Caliban View PostAgreed about Dracula parts 1 & 2, but as so often with the Gatiss/Moffatt oeuvre, they couldn’t sustain it and part 3 was pretty lamentable.
(Incidentally, the cries of the Undead begging to be killed is another Moffatt Who-trope: he first used it in World Enough and Time, when Bill Potts encounters the prototype Cybermen, stuck forever in an eternity of unrelenting pain.)[FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]
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Originally posted by Caliban View Post
We followed it up with a look again at Lost Hearts, rebroadcast last year: deeply creepy although playfully lurid. https://youtu.be/bm_mnNFapPU (It’s just over half an hour - for some reason it’s repeated during the second half of that link) Not an ounce of that in the new one...
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Originally posted by Pianoman View PostNow that's how to do an MR James adaptation - Lost Hearts has always been my favourite, scared the ....out of me years ago and still stands up well, as does 'A Warning to the Curious', with hardly any 'special' effects and that haunting solo flute ...
... and the haunting tune of the Italian boy’s hurdy-gurdy in Lost Hearts ... still going round in my head nearly 2 weeks later..."...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Originally posted by Jonathan View PostThoroughly enjoyed the first part of Dracula, there were some very funny lines in it."...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Did anyone notice that, at the beginning of Episode 1 of Dracula, the hymn tune that was being sung offstage (presumably in the Hungarian convent chapel) was Michael (the tune for All My Hope on God is Founded)?
Both anachronistic and geographically unlikely. Knowing Gatiss (in particular) and Moffat, I find it hard to believe that it was carelessness, but I am struggling to think of an explanation other than that the tune is by Howells, and that the convent was later beset by wolves.
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The Trial of Christine Keeler is for me the best series on BBC for ages, in casting, acting, directing, several classes above World on Fire, Dark Materials... familiar tale but very well done here. Sophie Cookson is a true, gorgeous screen magnet as Christine (and the clothes are to die for - was there ever a more stylish decade?)....Norton pitches it just right as Stephen ( though "little baby" is somewhat overused...)....
Remember the girls getting dressed in Scandal, to the Shadows' Apache? This time it was less overtly sexy, to The Crystals.... da-doo ron-ron....still a kind of affectionate homage, I thought.
It can only get better as the story darkens and deepens... (should be on the green button! waiting a week is awful!).
As for Dracula, brilliantly executed first episode, yes, on every level, but perhaps more of a (very) clever parody than a truly gripping tale? My longterm favourite was always Herzog's Nosferatu, with the extraordinary Klaus Kinski, but in recent years I just can't watch anything about "the undead" - just creeps me out. Too close to the literal, mortal bone.
So my judgement of this latest version was confined to ep 1.....switched off during the crates-in-the-crypt scene and deleted the rest...(ever had a fly in your eye...?)...
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Originally posted by jayne lee wilson View Postthough "little baby" is somewhat overused...)
I agree that it is a great series so far, cast to perfection.
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