Customer Reviews

VHS Little Dorrit: Nobody's Fault and Little Dorrit's Story (Film One )

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In recent years there have been some excellent productions of Dicken's works, including the BBC's Martin Chuzzlewit and the lushly beautiful Our Mutual Friend, neither of these would I want to be without in my video library!

But this production of Little Dorrit is done with a totally different eye, a unique approach, that I thought takes you straight into the novel. The producers of this film built the most unique sets and you have the remarkable feeling of at first watching a play unfolding before you only to find as you watch and become familiar with the usual Dickens plethora of characters that you are actually on a street in London in front of the Marshallsea yourself. It must have been very like this once, with the noise and confusion of such a city pressing all about and out of it emerges first one story and then another.

I thought the technique of telling the same story twice through different eyes helped to explain many things that a straight once through telling would have missed.

Excellent acting, beautiful music, all from Verdi, and a screenplay that captures the spirit of a great novel, makes this one part of my library we've already watched several times!

When I'd finished watching Part 1 of this film it was way past my bedtime on a work night, but I had to watch Part 2 anyway -- "just to see how it works out . . ." And I couldn't turn it off. Like Part 1, this is a beautiful, beautiful movie, full of richly realized characters with subtle and persuasive inter-relationships that are completely involving. For the duration of the movie these people will be the most important thing in the world to you, and the emotional payoff at the end is all the more effective -- restrained as it is -- for the careful development that has gone before.

Derek Jacobi has never been more appealing as the protagonist, but to call him out from all the wonderful presentations is to do a disservice to a roster that reads like a "best of British theater tradition."

Select this movie when you want to be transported to a different time, a different place, into the lives of people you will care about in a way that "escapist" entertainment simply cannot touch.

This is a beautiful movie, an immersion experience into a wonderfully realized world drawn from the Dickens novel (a little "prettier," maybe, but I'm not complaining). The performances are superlative, especially Derek Jacobi. The entire cast presents understated and thoughtful characterizations that provide the foundation for an emotional payoff based on some of the subtlest gestures and phrases -- something not to be found in an action film (for instance). Some of the performances are over-the-top and not to be missed for their gleeful chewing of scenery: but this is completely consistent with the way Dickens wrote them.

This is a long complicated story and it requires your attention. Your time will be well repaid. You will come from this movie refreshed in mind and spirit (and go out and buy the book, probably).

Part two of this ambitious film is a definite improvement over part one. It develops themes and fills out the plot (as really any second half of a story should), though you could never watch part two without seeing part one. The most jarring thing about this part is the insistence of recreating most of part one scene for scene (only this time through the eyes of Little Dorrit). Perhaps the most notable thing about this film (for me anyway) is that it contains the last lead performance in a film from Alec Guinness (all his subsequent roles, up to his 1996 retirement, were cameos) and he is wonderful in his fourth screen interpretation of a Dickens character. The rest of the cast is also fabulous (including the last screen performance of Joan Greenwood as Mrs Clennam). It has been said before - you will either love this adaption, or hate it.

I purchased this adaption of Little Dorrit several years ago on laserdisc and I enjoyed it, but I found that to fully appreciate this film it was necessary to watch it to the end. The point to this film adaption of a Dicken's book was to tell the same story twice but through differing viewpoints. Certainly the story is not as interesting or as gripping as Dickens more widely read novels and the film could have been improved by cutting and picking up the pace, but I believe the director accomplished his goal.

The first half of the film is dark and bleak, people are seen suffering a miserable existence and you do have to wade through a rather pessimistic view of life; but in the second half of the film we see a differing view of life. We see the same scenes over again but now we see them through Dorrit's eyes. The world becomes a new place; it is bright and life itself is a joy. In the midst of squalor Dorrit's optimism colors everything new. Little Dorrit seen in the first half is a sad young woman but now she is a young woman full of life. Whatever Dickens is telling you in his novel this film is telling you that life is what you make it.

This is how I watched the film. And I enjoyed it.

I am fortunate enough to have this on laser disc and while it may not be up to new DVD standards, the quality is still far better than VHS. I would definitely buy a restored DVD issue when it becomes available. I loved this version. I just watched the newer BBC version on PBS. Overall it was very well done but I thought it did a poor job explaining the "mystery" at the conclusion. We had friends that could not figure out who was related to whom at the end, and I have heard that PBS received tons of e-mails asking for clarification. It almost came across as if Arthur and Amy were step brother and sister.

It is a long and involved story but worth the attention. As with most british films, it is slow going in the begining then works up to a surprising end. Be sure to have both sets of tapes, you won't want to wait to see Part two or Little Dorrits view.

I went to see this (these) film(s) in the theatre when they were first released in the US. I went with great anticipation to see part one with the prospect of an incredible "event" forthcoming. During wading through part one, I was very disappointed and sure that I was not going to force myself to sit-through part two. All I could think was "NOTHING'S HAPPENING! MY GOD, DO SOMETHING! THIS IS SO BORING! NOTHING BUT EXPOSITION! THERE'S NO WAY I'M SITTING THROUGH PART 2!" And then...in the last two (?) minutes of the movie, with the final tag "Now, see the story through Dorrit's eyes" (or something like that), I was like "What? WHAT?" And HAD to come back the next week to see part 2. I was then treated to three solid hours of complete payoff! Three hours of "Oh, my god! She never knew!", etc. I've never had a more surprisingly enjoyable experience in the cinema! I've only had the chance to see these movies once, way back in 1994, and I still refer to them at least once a month in some conversation. I so look forward to these films ever being released on DVD or (I can dream) Blu-Ray! Marvelous!!!

Here's a news flash for lovers of this unique film. I recently discovered that both volumes of the Little Dorrit pair are available for online streaming from Netflix!

No, they still aren't available in DVD, but Netflix somehow worked out a streaming rights deal anyway.

The first film, "Nobody's Fault" is in 4:3 aspect ratio and a pretty murky transfer. I compared it carefully with my old Laser Disk and decided the streaming version is a little bit brighter and more detailed. However, there are no subtitles or closed captions. (The LD has CCs.) This is true of all Netflix streaming video, even the most recent HD releases, so it's apparently a limitation of their streaming technology.

The big revelation is the second volume, "Little Dorrit's Story." It is in glorious 16:9 widescreen and a LOT brighter and more detailed than the Laser Disk. Around the quality of a not-great DVD.

None of this will do you much good if you don't have a Netflix account, but for those who do, this is major progress while we continue to wait for Criterion or someone to do a new DVD or BluRay release.

When this film (or should I say films) came out in 1988, the New York City art house theatre that was showing it did something unusual. You could buy tickets for either movie (and see them on separate days) or you could buy tickets for both (at a discounted price) and watch the whole story in one day. I opted for the one-day marathon. Part 1 ran from 10:00am - 1:00. You then had an hour and a half to go out and grab a bite of lunch. Part 2 started at 2:30 - 5:30pm. As other reviewers have stated, this is a beautifully filmed, detailed and magnificently acted story. Since there is a great deal going on it does require your full attention to detail and storyline. One wonders if they could get away with making a film like this today. At 6 hours in length, they were only able to have one showing a day. It certainly wouldn't be a moneymaker!