Great adaptations

There are few greater movie-going pleasures than discovering and exploring a great director. Thankfully, the Northwest Film Center is well aware of this.

A significant part of the nonprofit organization’ programming is director-based retrospectives, wherein preeminent classic and contemporary filmmakers are explored at length in screenings of their celebrated works.

These series are what the Film Center does best–and this month they are presenting the early works of British director David Lean, best known for Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago.

This month’s series, now in its second week of screenings, features 10 films made from 1942-1953. Why the focus on his early works? According to the Film Center’s Web site, “[His popular films] … earned Lean the reputation of only being capable of staging stunning, but impersonal, commercial stories on an epic scale. [This retrospective] … offers a more balanced appreciation of his talents.”

Fair enough. But while I don’t necessarily agree that Lean’s later films are completely impersonal (or that “commercial stories” are necessarily lesser cinema), it’s clear he was making well-constructed and emotive pictures from the beginning of his career. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his adaptations of Charles Dickens.

Playing this weekend, Oliver Twist and Great Expectations both showcase strong black-and-white photography and a keen sense of storytelling. Yes, pulling from the work of one of history’s best-loved novelists helps these films along, but truly great film adaptations of literary classics are few and far between. And it wouldn’t be a stretch–at all–to call Lean’s works the definitive cinematic adaptations of these two novels.

Oliver TwistOne of the most famous characters in literary history, detailing the plot of this oddly named orphan and his experiences of the various grotesqueries in pre-Industrial Age London would be useless. Even if you haven’t read the book, you know the story of young Oliver and his pickpocket friends.

Here, Lean’s stark black and white photography (with magnificent cinematography by Guy Green) grounds this story in Dicken’s engrossing, gritty realism. The photography lends itself to the heartbreaking frames of Oliver’s face, played to perfection by John Howard Davies.

The lynchpin of any successful cinematic adaptation of literary work revolves around what the director decides to leave in, and what they decide to change. Clinging to every detail can leave movies feeling bloated, but take out too much, and it’s not really the same story. Lean’s reworking of Oliver Twist masterfully toes the line, remaining true to Dickens’ beloved book, while creating a tightly paced film masterwork.

Great ExpectationsAnother of Dickens’ works that focused on England’s class system in the 19th Century, Lean’s adaptation of Great Expectations, which was made in 1946, two years before Oliver Twist, again demonstrates a dexterous control of literary material.

It’s also interesting to view this in connection to the later movie, because it demonstrates the evolution of Lean’s camerawork. By no means unskilled or poorly made, Expectations‘ visuals are nonetheless not quite as dynamic as in Twist, or at least different. (I prefer the stronger, noir-esque contrast of the later film.)

Like most of Dickens’ writing, the plot of Great Expectations is well known and archetypal. A young boy falls in love with a rich heiress who toys with him. Eventually, through the good graces of an unknown, rich benefactor, the boy becomes part of the gentleman class, and the story follows the in and outs of their love.

Again, Lean’s storytelling skill is shown, leaving the nuances of Dickens’ humor and satire in place without overplaying any of his hands.

For all you book-reading types who constantly decry cinematic versions of the written word, take notice. These two films are adaptation done right, and by a master filmmaker to boot.

David Lean this weekendAll screening at Whitsell Auditorium (1219 S.W. Park Ave.)

Brief EncounterTonight, 7 p.m. and Oct. 11, 5 p.m.

Great ExpectationsOct. 11, 7 p.m. and Oct. 12, 4:30 p.m.

Oliver TwistOct. 12, 7 p.m.