Vanity Fair

Rating:
Summary: Not a great English Movie
Review: I thought Vanity Fair was a baudry and cheap movie that lasted to long. I feel I wasted my money on buying it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent adaptation
Review: I truly enjoyed watching all 5 hours of this BBC adaptation of Vanity Fair. I found it as humorous as the original novel was intended to be. While some parts of the story are necessarily left out of this miniseries, I couldn't really complain. The casting was excellent and I found myself laughing out loud at times. Although some have complained about the soundtrack, I found it only added to my enjoyment. It was a great story, and a great film, and I highly recommend it to fans of this genre.

Rating:
Summary: TURN DOWN THE BAND MUSIC
Review: I'm a big fan of movies of this genre and this is one of the worst I've seen. There are many good things about this movie; I felt it stayed true to the novel, the costumes were excellant, the acting and character adaptations superb, but the sound was absolutely horrible. So horrible in fact, that it completely turned me off the movie. I found myself wincing everytime the music played. One reviewer said that the quality of the picture was horrid, but I didn't find that at all and think their DVD player or TV must need adjusting. The poor sound was not due to my DVD player nor TV, it was the loud, obnoxious bad music that played throughout the movie and many times totally covering important conversations between the characters. Not only was the music loud, it also seemed inappropriate for the scenes. Anyone want to buy a one-time watched copy of Vanity Fair??

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother with it
Review: I'm so dissapointed at this period movie, it was badly cast, terrible music choice, and boring. Also it felt so disjointed from start to end. I truly purchased it cause the review says
"Adapted for the screen by Andrew Davies, who did the honors for the phenomenally successful Pride and Prejudice" however it does not compare at all with the quality of Pride and Prejudice.
It was so boring and disgusting, you are better off without watching it, you wouldn't miss a thing. DO NOT BOTHER BUYING IT.

Rating:
Summary: Thackeray's masterpiece brought to life!
Review: It begins on an innocuous afternoon at the Pinkerton school for young ladies, where Miss Becky Sharp (played by Natasha Little, whose father was a drunken drawing master) is finishing up her last day as French tutor to the girls. She is going to stay with her friend, Amelia Sedley (a stock-broker's daughter, played by Frances Grey) for a short time, until she must leave to take up a post as a governess. Becky carelessly proclaims her goodbye to her students and "waltzes" out of the classroom, shortly to join Amelia in Miss Barbara Pinkerton's office. Miss Pinkerton reads aloud a glowing letter of praise about Amelia to her sister Jemima, just before they are joined by Amelia and Becky; she then presents "my dear Amelia" with Johnson's dictionary to "remind her of her time there." Miss Pinkerton (who has never liked Becky) then continues severely, "Miss Sharp, I bid you good day. I make no presentation; you've shown yourself incapable of gratitude," to which Becky replies tartly, "I beg your pardon. I taught a little French here and you paid me a pittance for it. No occasion for gratitude on either side, I should say." She flounces outside and into the waiting carriage, where she and Amelia journey to the Sedley home in London.

Amelia Sedley (Emmy to friends), a sweet and innocent young lady, trusts that her friend Becky is as honest and true as she herself is; but it is just not so. Becky is envious of her friend Amelia's good fortune and privileges, and does everything she can to attain those things for herself. She pursues love in the least likeliest places (going after men she could not possibly be interested in), hoping to eventually catapult herself into the upper crust of society; Becky manipulates man after man, using them for what they can give her, while Amelia Sedley, who is trusting and kind, sadly begins to experience misfortune at the hand of both fate and society.

All in all, this six-part mini-series from A&E was a great watch, if you can get past a small bit of questionable content and mild language. I'm looking forward to the new version done this year with Reese Witherspoon and Romola Garai!!

Rating:
Summary: a fantastic adaption--watch one episode and you're hooked!
Review: It would be hard for a movie to do justice to Thackeray's wonderful novel VANITY FAIR, but it is clear that this awesome 5 hour version is every bit as good. I bought the whole set of tapes as soon as I heard they were coming out, and love them. Every time I watch them, I get so involved in the characters that I can't wait to watch the next episode. I always laugh at the broad, witty comedy that brings the film to life, and at other times I have to cry, for example the beautiful scene when Dobbin finally admits to Amelia that he is in love with her, or when Amelia has to send her son to go live with his grandfather because she is too poor to take care of him...The film is excellently done, with lavish sets and costumes. I find all of the actors to be wonderful, Natasha Little in particular plays the tricky role of Becky to the hilt, so that we are simultaneously rooting for her and wishing she'll get what's coming to her. Little finds the right mixture of sympathy and wickedness to capture Becky. Also, Miriam Margolyes is absolutely hysterical as the outspoken Miss Crawley, constantly laughing, eating, gossipping, flirting, moaning about her aches and pains, talking with her mouth full, and stabbing her friends in the back--she's like Becky, minus the table manners. Many peole have complained about the musical score, but I think it was incredible. The use of mainly brass instruments is superb, and the horns blare with an evil charm just at the right moments. They are just the right touch, adding to the movie's boldness. The only thing that upset me was that in almost every shot, the heads of the main characters are always cut off--it's so annoying! Luckily, the movie is so interesting that often we forget about it, but once you start noticing all the badly framed shots it becomes obsessive! Also, the cinematography is grainy at times, especially in the darker scenes. And I felt that the momentous confrontation between Becky, Rawdon, and Lord Steyne could have been better executed...but oh, well. The rest is too good to complain about. The film is charming, wicked, and very intelligent while still containing its dark moments such as Mr. Osborne insanely destroying every rememberance of his son, or a later scene when Osborne stares in desperation at his grandson with a mixture of sadness, loathing, and grief for his own dead son--it's just indescribable. Obviously, it's difficult to watch the film unless you buy the whole set of tapes or borrow them from someone, but if you are interested in seeing it, it is well worth the money spent on the whole set of tapes.

Rating:
Summary: A splendid rendition!
Review: Most of us period drama aficionados have been brought up on a fairly one-sided menu of Austen, and as a consequence some will be shocked by "Vanity Fair", which is a whole different ball-game. Austen may deal out the occasional pin-prick, but her social comedy remains well-mannered and has a basic sweetness. Thackeray provides a far more brutal kind of satire; "Vanity Fair", though nearly 200 years old, is a startlingly modern novel still. Rarely can a reader have been so hard put to find a single sympathetic character in a book. George Osborne is a heartless, vain opportunist; Jos Sedley a ridiculous coward; Amelia Sedley an insipid dreamer forever betting on the wrong horse; Dobbin on the other hand is just too good to be true and infuriatingly servile - et cetera. Only amidst such a cast are we tempted to feel a modicum of sympathy for viciously predatory Becky Sharp, who by modern standards would no doubt qualify as a psychopath. The tables only turn on her when she meets her equal in the vile lord Stayne (what's in a name), who warns her: "Don't overplay your hand, Mrs. Crawley - you're in very deep now...". She does overplay her hand, and her astonishing social climb is mercilessly reversed. It's all very Darwinian avant-la-lettre: survival of the fittest.
Andrew Davies perfectly caught on to this in his gritty, highly original adaptation of Vanity Fair for TV. Apart from Becky Sharp (Natasha Little) the cast includes no pleasant beauties of either sex to please the eye. Murkiness and squalor are not eschewed and find their peak at Queen's Crawley, where maggots indeed crawl on Lady Crawley's dinner plate, and Sir Pitt senior devours his tripe with relish. Though not all viewers may be pleased, the fact is that the conditions shown in this series are far more realistic depictions of actual living conditions in late 18th and early 19th century England than the glossed-over prettiness presented in most Austen-films. And still many of the actors have much better teeth than they would have had in those days...
The acting is quite excellent throughout, and the intensity of it is heightened by frequent use of close-ups. At other times camera movements are deliberately unsteady, lending a documentary feel to Amelia's visit of George's grave, and making the viewer share in the drunkenness when Osborne senior waxes sentimental over young George at his dinner table. In dialog, the camera may well very slowly pan across the room, taking in all the little trinkets and ornaments it meets underway before finally arriving at the face of the other character. Instead of the perfectly choreographed quadrilles of Pride and Prejudice, you may find a dance at a ball depicted by a mere quick succession of close-ups of feet and whirling skirts. It is all rather unconventional and extremely effective. So is the music - the score is dominated by several deliciously raucous wind-band themes that tell us we are, indeed, in a fairground.
The DVD comes without any extra's. I'm unsure to judge the picture quality, as I am playing the disc to a PAL TV and don't know if this causes distortions. Still it looked more than acceptable, except that pale faces tended to go slightly blue in outdoor scenes, and that dark images looked a bit as if filmed through a slightly sooty lens, and sometimes had unsteady backgrounds.
Though in the final reckoning this series may not quite aspire to the perfection of the latest BBC Pride & Prejudice, it is at least as worthwhile and involving to watch, and makes a very refreshing change from the usual period drama routines.


Rating:
Summary: save yourself three hours
Review: My interest in vanity Fair was first piqued by the Mira Nair version, which I saw in the theater. That version seemed to move pretty fast and I thought that something must have been left out. However after discovering that the book is something like 600 pages long I found this version and happily bought it expecting to get the story I was sure I was missing in the Nair version. But even though this version is at least twice as long as the Nair version it seems as though there is little more included to advance the story. There are some scenes that help to clarify and add depth to it but for me it is not a fair trade off. The music is often annoying and seems to have the wrong timing, there are visuals of people picking thier noses, eating lunch-loosing slop, and pigs snorting around during the credits. These visuals I realize are working together in order to convey a certain feeling to the film, but it just grosses me out. Although upon watching this bbc version again, I have begun to enjoy it more, givin what I know now, I would've waited for Mira Nairs version. It has a more outrageous Becky in the form of Reese Witherspoon and a stunningly colorful and beautiful production in contrast to the sometimes stomach turning visuals in this BBC version (I know its more authentic, but I don't want to see it). Next time I get the urge to see the story of Vanity Fair, I'll Save myself three hours and watch Reese Witherspoon.

Rating:
Summary: MAGNIFICENT PRODUCTION!!
Review: Simply put: a magnificent rendering of the novel. One can't imagine any other filmic incarnation. The casting is astonishing, right down to each and every extra. The editing and direction are impeccable. And the music is so spectacularly appropriate, even though its raucousness - at times - seems so twentieth century. This of course helps the production stay fresh and modern, whilst absolutely nailing the society and period it depicts.

A truly ragingly funny adaptation - rampant with human foibles and greed, vicious and deliciously bold, heartbreakingly tender and beguiling.

Andrew Davies is indeed a very, very capable screenwriter. And Marc Munden a decidedly gifted director.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent adaptation of Thackeray masterpiece
Review: Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" is such a sprawling, grand example of the Victorian novel that any mere two-hour movie adaptation will be forced to leave out crucial elements. As it is, this six-hour BBC film version emits certain items (Jos Sedley's ultimate fate, the James Crawley episode), but is remarkably faithful to its source. Indeed, a television mini-series is the best way to adapt such a work, allowing the story to unfold and the viewer to become involved with the various characters.

This production is fantastic, with beautiful costumes, excellent performances, and a fine script. Chief among its attractions is Natasha Little in the key role of Becky Sharp. Miss Little is not only luminously beautiful, but manages to arouse our sympathies toward a virtually unsympathetic character. Special mention must also go to Jeremy Swift, whose portrayal of bumbling Jos Sedley is a delight. Miriam Margolyes (always wonderful) and Eleanor Bron appear in secondary roles. The rest of the cast is well-chosen and all play their parts with conviction.

The greatest hurdle a filmed version of "Vanity Fair" faces is how to convey the many shifts of tone which Thackeray goes through in the novel. This problem has been solved by use of an unusual score, which draws from such diverse sources as military marching bands, Strauss waltzes (wrong for the period but who cares?), and a bit of Kurt Weill. Murray Gold's score never lets us forget that we are in the world of Thackeray's biting satire, and not Jane Austen's more delicate world of comedy-of-manners.

All told, it will take a long time before this film treatment is bettered.