29 November 2009
CHRISTMAS CAROLS
I'm not doing enough blogging. So for this and the next three weekends, I am going to pay tribute to Robert Zemeckis's irritating, unnecessary adaptation of A Christmas Carol from three weeks before the Christmas season began by looking at four different approaches that other filmmakers over the years have thought up to approach that oft-filmed novella. First up, today, is the classical approach, as embodied by what many people believe to be the all-time best cinematic treatment of any Dickens text. Future weeks will see a musical, a modern-dress version, and a kid's move all take their turn at bat.
10 comments:
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Ooh! I hope you're doing Scrooged. That movie has been a Christmas tradition in my family ever since I was little (and didn't get all the jokes).
ReplyDeleteI went to see Zemekis' film over the weekend. I liked the various angle and aerial shots, and the opening shots of the London streets. the 3-D effect really was impressive. But in my opinion, the best version will always be "Mickey's Christmas Carol". I think Zemekis' version even borrowed some elements from it. I can't watch any other version of Dickens' classic without thinking of Scrooge McDuck.
ReplyDeleteAs fate would have it, both of these versions will be part of my little series, the Disney short being part of a double bill with my own favorite, A Muppet Christmas Carol.
ReplyDeleteI cannot wait for this feature. "A Christmas Carol" is one of my favorite Christmas stories and I have seen all of the adaptations of this story and can't wait to see what you have to say about them.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to quote Ricky Gervais, who once said, "A Christmas Carol is the greatest story ever told, and the only way it could get any better is The Muppet Christmas Carol."
ReplyDeleteI have made my loyalties known.
A Muppet Christmas Carol is the best version I've ever seen, and that includes A Very Patrick Stewart Christmas (otherwise known as the one starring Patrick Stewart: King of Kings). I despised Zemeckis' Christmas Carol. Fucking demon puppets from a computer's fever dream.
ReplyDeleteIf some intrepid soul found a way to edit in Patrick Stewart's Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol I would never watch another film. Quite frankly, why put the rest of cinema under the stress of measuring up?
ReplyDeleteEspecially if you were able to edit out all the stuff about Tiny Tim and all that and make it into a movie about Patrick Stewart and the Muppets forming a rock and roll band and learning the true meaning of Christmas (material gain).
ReplyDeleteMAKE IT SO
ReplyDeleteLots of love here for Patrick Stewart and the Muppets and Scrooged, but I must say the best Christmas Carol is the 1980's George C Scott version. Fantastic.
ReplyDelete