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Reviews
The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)
Every Generation Throws a Hero Up the Pop Charts
I have enjoyed reading and re-reading various Dickens novels over the years; perspectives change as you grow older and there are often new things to discover. Likewise, I try to watch new adaptations of his works and find it interesting to see how well - or badly - each writer and director fares as well as how each actor approaches their character. UK TV has generally shown itself to be a fertile ground for good adaptations; cinema less so. There's a necessary tendency in films to go for shorthand depictions of character and plot - not to mention excisions of plot points and character development - for the sake of brevity in order to meet reasonable running times. I had high hopes for this particular film, given Armando Iannucci's talents as a director and writer but, sadly, it misses the mark repeatedly and doesn't benefit very much from his arch sense of humour. While a more casual viewer who just wants two hours of entertainment in the cinema or with a DVD in front of the tv might be well served by this film, it feels rushed, incomplete and occasionally badly edited to someone who has a more than casual acquaintance with other adaptations of Dickens' work. Maybe it's just not marketed at me (though I'm happy with its more ethnically diverse cast which more accurately reflects the reality of the times) but I've seen a fair few poor adaptations of this novel and this shares the same desire to rein in his appreciation for how the minutiae and milieu of Victorian England informs his work to the detriment of the finished product. The constant exuberance of speech is downright irritating at times and it is altogether too colorful and facile; it's a cinematic confection rather than a good film.
Quintet (1979)
A flawed masterpiece
I am one of those who was haunted by this film on first viewing and watched it for a second time soon afterward and understood - and appreciated - it far more as a result. It's often disingenuous to say that a film which so clearly divided opinion has to have something going for it but, in the case of Quintet, that is pleasingly true. By trawling the other comments about Quintet on the website, you can see that some people have a visceral dislike for the slow pace and unfolding of the film and a discontent with the actions and reactions of characters within it. Others point out that this is precisely the point of the film - it is profoundly nihilistic and demonstrates the breakdown of modern social conventions when a culture is forced to make a dramatic change to itself. Also, Quintet should be taken in the context of Marshall Mcluhan's comment: "the medium is the message". I wish I could claim this next comment as my own, because it's very perceptive, but it came from my then girlfriend: "This must have been what it was like for people in the last ice age, when just surviving was the priority and anything, even killing people, was a welcome break from the tedium". You see, Quintet isn't actually about how a society evolves to meet the challenges of environmental change; it's about how a society devolves to minimise the effect of environmental changes. Having watched this film again just last night, I agree even more with Altman's vision of where the human race is likely to go - I think he is remarkably prescient. Like 'Three Days of the Condor', this is a film that has, with the passing of time, become remarkably relevant to the world in which we live today.