Events / Talking Pictures

Each season takes a specific theme or personality from the world of cinema. The format is a brief spoken introduction based on a prepared handout, the screening of the film, and an informal follow-up discussion. Screenings are usually in English.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 20.00

Film: The Old Curiosity Shop

 

"... fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine."

Another all star ensemble cast attempt to bring Dickens's colourful, tragi-comic characters to life, but this necessarily truncated version of the novel perhaps falls short of expectations. Sophie Vavasseur's Little Nell and Toby Jones's Quilp are fine characterisations but the cliffhanging serial structure of the novel that had readers frantic for narrative continuity is inevitably lacking in this version. And what about the changed ending?