I really loved the film Brooklyn based on Colm Tóibín’s excellent novel of the same name. He is a wise writer, who always speaks brilliantly about Jane Austen, one of his favourite novelists. The film was less dark and conflicted than the novel, but so beautifully done. Don’t miss it!
Emma Donoghue’s novel Room is powerful and moving. So is the film – the actor playing the little boy Jack is superb.
The new 6 part BBC adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace has been declared by Clive James to be “not half bad”. It has been adapted by Andrew Davies, who seems to have been put on this earth to adapt classic novels for TV, and it stars Lily James and James Norton. I have not watched it yet, but am really looking forward to it.
I adored The Lady in the Van, based on the screenplay by Alan Bennett, which recounts the true story of Mary Shepherd who lived on Bennet’s London driveway for 15 years. (And if you have never read Bennett’s 2007 novella The Uncommon Reader, about the Queen taking to books, do so immediately. It is a total joy!)
The film Love and Friendship is based on Jane Austen’s youthful work Lady Susan. The movie is getting excellent reviews and stars Kate Beckinsale. It is coming to Australian screens this year.
Jane Austen, from a drawing by sister Cassandra. Coloured version.
I was delighted to hear that a film of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon is to be made by Fluidity Films (I assume the story will be completed by the scriptwriter, even though several ‘finished’ versions of the book have been written). Charlotte Rampling will play rich Lady Denham, who tries to control others with her money.
It has just been announced that there will be a Broadway version of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. I hope it travels so that we might have a chance of seeing it in Australia. So sad to hear of her death the other day. I did not like her recent book, but she wrote one of the great American novels, and Atticus Finch will always be my hero!