Vanity Fair: Bringing Thackeray's Timeless Novel to the Screen (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks) [Paperback]

Mira Nair (Author), Matthew Faulk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 18, 2004 | Series: Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook

The full-color companion to the new film version of the Thackeray novel starring Reese Witherspoon and directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Salaam Bombay!).

Reese Witherspoon stars as Becky Sharp, one of the greatest female characters ever created. Born into the lower class, Becky can rely only on her wit, guile, and sexuality as she makes her way up through London society circa 1820, alongside her best friend Amelia. As the two heroines make their way through the tawdry glamour of Regency society, battles—military and domestic—are fought, fortunes made and lost.

In addition to the complete screenplay by Oscar®-winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) and Matthew Faulk & Mark Skeet (NBC's Jason and the Argonauts), this Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook features over 150 full-color illustrations, extracts from Thackeray's novel, interviews with the cast and crew, notes by director Mira Nair, and sidebars on the film's costume, set, and production design. 150 color photos.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Combining pretty pictures, fascinating background information and an overall lovely story as its subject, this companion to the Mira Nair film based on Thackeray’s classic novel offers more than the usual "behind the scenes" film book. Vanity Fair was published in monthly installments beginning in 1847, and it merrily exposed every bit of English society’s two-facedness, money-oriented desires and social fronts. Director Nair (Monsoon Wedding) spent months doing "homework like a schoolgirl" in order to prepare for the film version, and she shares her lengthy e-mail correspondence with screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) about adapting Thackeray. These messages make up the book’s most captivating portion, as director and screenwriter bat around ideas such as adding more emotion to certain scenes, staying true to Thackeray’s concepts and disguising an actor’s pregnancy. Fans of Nair and Fellowes will delight at reading the notes; the two share a strong friendship and frequently profess their admiration for one another. The rest of the book consists of bits of the screenplay, Nair’s journals and photos of cast members in costume.
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About the Author

Mira Nair is the internationally acclaimed director of the hit film Monsoon Wedding, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. She made her feature film debut with Salaam Bombay!, and has also directed Mississippi Masala, The Perez Family, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, and Hysterical Blindness.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Newmarket Press (August 18, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557046379
• ISBN-13: 978-1557046376
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 9.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,917,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE PERFECT COMPANION TO A WONDERFUL FILM!, September 9, 2004

By 

Charles K. Pickerill (Lombard, IL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vanity Fair: Bringing Thackeray's Timeless Novel to the Screen (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks) (Paperback)

Vanity Fair: Bringing Thackeray's Timeless Novel to the Screen is an excellent book for anyone who has seen the film and wants to delve in to what went in to making it. The film itself, an adaptation of Thackeray's classic novel, is a sumptous feast of vibrant colors, deliciously wicked dialouge, great acting, and skillfull direction by Mira Nair. Reese Witherspoon sparkles as classic herione/anti-herione Becky Sharp, the social climber in 1800's England. The rest of the film is well cast and the supporting cast turns in some terrific performances. That being said, this book is packed with details that will enhance your viewing of the film. I particulary found the correspondance section between director Mira Nair and writer Julian Fellows to be quite entertaining. It gave me an idea of some of the process that goes in to the writing of the screenplay. Development of characters, set locations, and the casting of the actors are some of the topics that Fellows and Nair discuss. Nair also talks about some of the problems that arose during the pre-production phase like having to move the shooting to Ireland instead of where the novel is set in England. She also had to scrap some of her original plans to shoot scenes in certain areas of India due to budget concerns. The rest of this book deals with other areas that went into making of the film. These areas include costumes, art direction, music, cinematography. Also, included is the complete final screenplay along with hundreds of color pictures from the film. Going back to the screenplay, it is probably a little too early to start talking about adapted screenplay oscar nominations, but I really thing Julian Fellows' screenplay is an early contender. I really encourage everyone to see the film "Vanity Fair". If you really enjoy it, I would encourage you to pick-up this book as well. It will really give you a better appreciation of the film and what went into creating it. I would also recommend getting the soundtrack, the music is really great in this film. Mira Nair has created one of the better movies of 2004, and Julian Fellows has written a great script with some crackling dialouge!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The mechanics of translating a classic novel to the screen, March 10, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vanity Fair: Bringing Thackeray's Timeless Novel to the Screen (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks) (Paperback)

No, this isn't Thackery's original classic, but a screenplay of his novel, packed with 140 color photos, original costume designs, and examples from other movies and photos which served as inspiration for the film. As much for film production students as for Thackery scholars, Vanity Fair covers the mechanics of translating a classic novel to the screen.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent companion to Nairs movie, August 19, 2005

By 

Dr. Andrea Grunert (Germany) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vanity Fair: Bringing Thackeray's Timeless Novel to the Screen (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks) (Paperback)

This excellent companion to Mira Nair's cinematic adaptation of VANITY FAIR provides very interesting and insightful behind-the-scenes combinations of probing comments, production notes and interviews and beautiful photographs and drawings. The book is a very fine and carefully made presentation of texts - including the screenplay - and stills.