Vanity Fair - Film vs Miniseries

Vanity Fair BBC miniseries 1998 wins!

OK, I have given it away right here at the beginning...the 1998 BBC miniseries with Natasha Little, Nathaniel Parker and Philip Glenister is hands down the winner. I am betting that although many of you likely saw the 2004 film version with Reese Witherspoon, not many of you likely saw my winner (or read the amazing novel by William Makepeace Thackaray). I never would have read the novel if it hadn't been for the miniseries with the screenplay written by my hero, Andrew Davies, and with the captivating and mesmerizing Natasha Little in the title role. Mira Nair and Reese Witherspoon did their level best, but no contest between these two versions.

Natasha Little as Becky Sharp and Frances Grey as Amelia Sedley in Vanity Fair

Natasha Little does a fantastic job of playing the woman that other women love to hate, Becky Sharp. She is gorgeous, charming, cunning and ruthlessly manipulative, which is what she needs to be to climb that difficult social ladder in 19th century London. Frances Grey is also great as the unbelievably sweet and incredibly doting Amelia. They are both exactly as they should be.

Nathaniel Parker as Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair

Nathaniel Parker is spot on as Becky's husband the empty headed Calvary Officer Rawdon Crawley but the one you'll really fall for in this version is Philip Glenister as Dobbin.

Philip Glenister as William Dobbin in Vanity Fair

Philip Glenister will steal your heart as the tall, ungainly and supposedly plain William Dobbin, who is loyal to George Osborne and in love with Amelia Sedley until the bitter end. Stupid, stupid Amelia. You'll want to shake her little blond head and then run off with Dobbin yourself!!!!

Vanity Fair 2004 with Reese Witherspoon

The 2004 film version directed by Mira Nair is ambitious to try to cram this wonderful novel into 141 minutes. Well....good try, but not quite. Too much plot to condense and it loses something in the process.  Not surprisingly, Mira Nair gives her version an exotic, Indian twist, which is fair enough considering that the character of Jos Sedley as a successful Nabob in India was likely part of the draw for her.  It is gorgeously filmed and a feast for the eyes, which is probably enough to get me to watch it again if only for the costumes and locations.

James Purefoy as Rawdon Crawley and Reese Witherspoon as Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair

I will say that James Purefoy is quite sufficiently yummy as Captain Crawley.  Mmmm, mmmm, good. Unfortunately Reese Witherspoon is a bit too likeable to really pull of the anti-heroine Becky Sharp. She is quite beautiful enough and nails the alluring, intelligent, talented part of her personality. She just doesn't make me buy the amoral, manipulative, insincere part which is really the entire point of the story.

Romola Garai as Amelia  Sedley and Rhys Ifans as William Dobbin in Vanity Fair

Romola Garai who I usually love, does her best here but has to work fast to develop her character. And although he may have done a good job here, to me Rhys Ifans will forever be the goofy roommate Spike from Notting Hill running around in his underwear.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Rhys Ifans and James Purefoy in Vanity Fair

I didn't really like Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrayal of the selfish, vain George Sedley, although maybe he played it so well that I just hated the character. Or maybe I just hated the fact that he had too much 20th century hair gel going on????

In any case, if you haven't seen the 1998 BBC miniseries then you are in for a treat. And if you, like me, bought the Reese Witherspoon version, watch it again for the visual feast. And if you are tempted to read the novel, I believe it is one of the best novels I have ever read, even if it doesn't end as happily as one might like.

By the way, thanks to Charleybrown from Enchanted Serenity of Period Films for her wonderful lists of Georgian, Regency, Victorian and Edwardian films which have reminded me of many I want to see again, and many I have yet to see.

P.S. The music score of the 1998 Natasha Little version IS a travesty. Please try to ignore it and enjoy the acting. It's really in need of re-scoring but I'm sure it would be too expensive.

The Tudors Marathon

While I have been recuperating from a bad throat infection, I have had the pleasure of watching the miniseries The Tudors for the first time.  It was lent to me by a friend who knows my weakness for Period Drama just before Christmas, so I obviously hadn't had time to watch it yet.  When I started feeling better, I popped the first episode in the DVD player and was quickly hooked. My friend said she had bought the first season because she and her teenage daughters had enjoyed it so much.  Apparently, the fourth and final season has just recently wound up on TV.

Henry ripping the bodice off yet another Lady in Waiting!

I have to state at the outset here that the DVD version is UNCUT!  Yes, lots of breasts and naked butts in this one, so if that is not to your taste, beware.  But, this is the Tudor period we are talking about, and it all seems to come down to political intrigue and sexual politics as well as a fair number of beheadings.  Whether you read about the period, or watch any of the various films about Henry VIII or his daughter Elizabeth I, there is always a lot of violence, and a fair bit of sex and political maneuvering.  Now, the nice thing about this series is that there is very little violence in it, considering the time period in which it is set (you know, beheadings and burning at the stake and all).  I am a person who doesn't mind the sex and nudity much but I do object to too much violence.  So this production suited me just fine.  And this is a very beautiful production.  Almost too beautiful, as I am often pondering the unlikelihood of the perfect teeth and hair on the actors.  Not much orthodonture in the 16th century!  Nor blow driers for that matter.  Alas, modern audiences expect beauty, so there you go.

I mean seriously, did their Ladies maids have blow driers?

And of course, it wouldn't be a Tudor/Elizabethan historical drama without messing with the facts and rearranging history a little.  So far, I have seen Henry's sister Mary, who in real life married the King of France who died a few months after marrying her, get switched to being Henry's sister Margaret (OK there are really too many Marys...) who in this series marries the King of Portugal and then smothers him with a pillow within days of the wedding, as he was too old and ugly for her taste (oops...should have given a spoiler alert).  He truly was disgusting, so I don't really blame her.  Especially when you see who she ends up with instead, and I won't spoil this one, but he is very yummy looking.

I actually learned a bit of correct history as well, in that along with all of the plagues and illnesses we are used to hearing about, they had another one in the 15th and 16th century called sweating sickness.  I looked this up on Wikipedia, where we all seem to end up while googling things these days, and apparently this was a true illness (and a frightening one at that as you could be dead within hours of contracting it) and which disappeared after the year 1551.  They don't know what the cause of the illness was, but they suspect a variation of hantavirus.  So you get the real history mixed in with the rewritten stuff.

In any case, the reason to watch this one is for a rollicking good story, gorgeous locations and costumes (as well as impossibly gorgeous actors) not for historical accuracy.  Although, my 16 year old son ended up learning a fair bit about the English Reformation by sitting down beside me every time he walked by and there were nipples visible on the screen, which happened regularly to his delight!  I managed to slip in an English history lesson here and there between the bodice ripping, without him really even noticing....

Overall, two thumbs up, even though the more genteel 19th century is more to my taste.  My sister used to devour books on this era (as well as on the Medieval times a la Mary Stewart) so she will love this one, as will her 13 year old son I suspect!

N.B.  I just finished the whole first season.  Really wonderful!  Who cares if the history is a bit dodgy?  Now I have to get Season 2, 3 and 4.  Hmmm....rent or buy?  Or perhaps it would be worth getting Netflicks for?  I'll post later when I have worked my way through season 2.  Can't wait to see how they portray the Reformation and how Henry gets rid of all of those wives!  I think I may have to buy the entire boxed set with all 4 seasons...