12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting but flawed attempt, February 13, 2006
I watched this film literally an hour after finishing the book (for the second time).
It ought to be called "Highlights from Portrait of the Artist," because it doesn't attempt to reproduce the full dramatic arc or philosophical argument of the book. Instead, it plays like something from Reader's Digest, offering samples of important scenes, superbly photographed on location in Ireland and very well acted indeed.
Bosco Hogan is perfect as Stephen at University, although he struck me as a bit too old to play the 16-year-old Stephen at Belvedere. T.P. McKenna is outstanding as Simon Dedalus, his father. John Gielgud chews up the scenery deliciously as The Preacher in the famous hellfire sermon, and Desmond Cave does a fine, understated job in the difficult role of Cranly, Stephen's friend.
The selected scenes are presented with the original dialog from the book faithfully preserved. (The Christmas dinner is spot-on perfect.) However, a number of critical scenes are "tossed off" in a rapid, offhand manner which minimizes their importance in the plot. This is especially true of the crucial moment when Stephen sees the girl on the beach and realizes his artistic calling. None of Stephen's inner struggle is apparent, and neither is the magnitude of his visionary breakthrough. He simply glimpses the girl, rips up his vocational prayer card and walks away. It's all over in ten seconds.
The DVD presentation is a bit disappointing. A rather worn print was used for the transfer, and an optical flaw somewhere in the image-processing chain has left a number of "hot spots" or flares on the image that persist throughout the entire movie. Aspect ratio is 1.33:1 (full frame), although some composition problems suggest that the image has been cropped from a wider aspect, probably 1.6:1 European widescreen. The sound is good monaural. (Trivia: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST was reportedly recorded in true binaural stereo, and was intended to be presented in theaters with stereo headphones for every member of the audience. Announcements were made in the trade press, but the idea never materialized.)
No ninety minute film could ever hope to capture the essence of Joyce's book. Three hours at this level of polish just might do it justice.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
addendum to john27, December 9, 2003
...the opaque philosophical walks and pub crawls...I enjoyed them (privately), but they were poorly FILMED until Stephen's JOURNAL entries were narrated with haunting background scene and score. THAT is the film's strength - his mother in the garden, Dedalus facing his old girlfriend, Dedalus pondering the ruddy faced Gaelic speaker in the pub. Superb. ...the white maiden in the water scene... Lust had nothing to do with it. Dedalus sees her as radiant, whole, nearly growing out of the sea, and she is (in my opinion) one of the most etherally beautiful women i've seen on screen. The book's adept treatment of a philosphical jungle - the movie (it's a FILM for God's sake!) did right to avoid it, and yet included it in moderation. I think it's a fine film, but do agree...that a kind of anti-establishment extremism comes out in the movie that i don't quite remember in the book. Indeed, the film overemphasises sexual desires as the main impetus for his maladjustment to the religious life...
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Strick's Portrait, June 22, 2000
This film is a much better attempt at filming Joyce than was the 1967 "horror of a film" Ulysses. Here, Strick has come closer to filming the internal thoughts of Joyce's characters. The film itself looks great,I feel. He did a good job of lining up shots that corespond to what one might imagine in the novel. However, the acting was not as good. Perhaps now something as this just seems dated. Who knows? I would hope someone today would want to attempt this again. Overall, better that Ulysses. Another great attempt at filming the works of our centuries most intellegent man. For anyone wanting to expand their view and inturpretation of the novel, this film is a must see.
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