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Amazing Film
David Lean film
John Mills and Jean Simmons star-acting
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Great Expectations
written by Charles Dickens and Directed by David Lean |
David Lean's handsome adaptation of Charles Dickens' classic
novel captures the warm humour and richness of character that so many
film-makers miss in their reverent recreations of Victorian England. From
the nightmarish opening sequence on the windswept graveyard where young
orphan Pip (Anthony Wager) meets the desperate escaped criminal Magwitch (Finlay Currie) to the shadowy, musty mansion of the widow Miss Haversham
(Martita Hunt) where he first meets the impertinent young beauty Estella
(Jean Simmons), Lean captures a child-like exaggeration of reality with
his elegant expressionism. When Pip's sudden change in fortune sends him
to London as a burgeoning gentleman in high society, Lean sketches a
beautiful, bustling city.
John Mills's performance as the adult Pip charts his change from the
wide-eyed wonder and generous spirit of the child he was to the class snob
transformed by money and social standing, an ugly flaw that Pip confronts
when his mysterious benefactor is finally revealed. The outstanding cast
also features Valerie Hobson as the grown-up Estella, now a beguiling
enchantress, a bright young Alec Guinness in his film debut as Pip's
jovial London roommate Herbert Pocket, and the imposing Francis L.
Sullivan as the decidedly humourless lawyer Jaggers. Exquisitely
photographed by Guy Green (who won an Oscar for his work). Lean and his
collaborators effectively maintain the heart of Dickens's epic drama while
cutting it to its essentials in this vivid, compelling film.
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