Great Expectations (1998)
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón
Loosely based on the Charles Dickens' classic novel, "Great Expectations" is a sensual tale of a young man's unforgettable passage into manhood, and the three individuals who will undeniably change his life forever. Through the surprising interactions of these vivid characters, "Great Expectations" takes a unique and contemporary look at life's great coincidences.
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What critics compared Great Expectations to
In an introductory statement circulated to the press before screenings of "Crimson Peak," del Toro deems his first feature in two years "my attempt to harken back to a classic, old-fashioned, grand Hollywood production in the gothic romance genre," citing productions such as the forties-era adaptations of "Great Expectations" and "Jane Eyre."
…rotting yet magnificent, more akin to David Lean ’s Great Expectations or Robert Stevenson’s Jane Eyre than the B-movie aesthetics of Roger Corman or Hammer.
Pointedly absent in his latest film, kids have played a central role in Cuar�n's desultory oeuvre -- from the prepubescent expressionism of A Little Princess and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to the ardent adolescent pangs of Great Expectations and Y Tu Mam� Tambi�n, the burgeoning consciousness of youth is his constant theme.
Cuaron's done some children's fantasy (A Little Princess, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and literary adaptation (Great Expectations), a sex comedy/road movie/coming-of-age story (Y Tu Mama Tambien), and now an action-adventure/SF/war movie (Children of Men).
Here, she was born Estella, perhaps named for the girl Miss Havisham trains to break men’s hearts in Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations.”
It's great to hear Jean Simmons again, a gorgeous young woman back in the 1940s in David Lean's Great Expectations, Michael Powell's Black Narcissus and Laurence Olivier's Hamlet.
The delightfully pert Emily Mortimer is the young Sophie, and Jean Simmons is her older incarnation—and Simmons is inspired vocal casting because her voice might quaver but her inflections are still those of the young Estella in Great Expectations.
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It plays like Frankenstein meets Blade Runner via Hitchcock haunted by the ghosts of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations , in a film that’s both highly literate and steeped in tense cat-and-mouse chills.
“Endless Love” resembles a menagerie of dramas that have come before, films such as “The Notebook” and “Great Expectations,” though that’s to be expected given the familiarity of the narrative technique on display.
The fourth film, Goblet of Fire, was ably but unmemorably directed by Mike Newell (who, in a truly odd coincidence, is scheduled in 2012 to become, with Cuarón, the second Potter director to release an adaptation of Great Expectations).
Dickens' "Great Expectations" put Gwyneth Paltrow and Ethan Hawke in modern-day Manhattan.
Even if the dramatic pretensions of literary fidelity get the better of him in the end, it is Kumble's sense of humor that makes Cruel Intentions a step above recent then-to-now translations such as William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Great Expectations .
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Alfonso Cuarón, the Mexican-born director who’s made a reputation of tackling a wide variety of subjects and milieus, hopping from the depths of outer space ( “Gravity” ) to barren, post-apocalyptic futures (“Children of Men”) and even Harry Potter and Dickens (“Prisoner of Azkaban” and “Great Expectations”), returns to his homeland – where be crafted his signature tale of taboo sex and betrayal, “Y Tu Mamá También” – to forge the semi-autobiographical contemplation “Roma,” something of a nostalgic dream cut with historical incident and unhappy reality.
When moving from Mexico to the United States, Cuaron himself first debuted in the English-language market with two literary adaptations, A Little Princess , based on a 1905 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Great Expectations , a modern-day update of the Charles Dickens novel.
Cuarón’s career is diverse and celebrated; after his 1991 debut, the Mexican film Sólo con Tu Pareja , he quickly migrated to movies that proved to have broad audience and critical appeal: A Little Princess (1995), Great Expectations (1998), Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004, widely considered the best of the Harry Potter adaptations), Children of Men (2006), and Gravity (2013).
A sexually explicit comedy may come as a shock to audiences who know Cuarón from his two American movies, "A Little Princess" and "Great Expectations."
Nothing in director Alfonso Cuarón's earlier work, including A Little Princess (1995) and Great Expectations (1998), would lead us to believe that he had such a sexy, playful, vivacious film in him.
In general, the lively compositions and rambunctious tone of Y tu mamá también sheds light on why Cuarón's determinedly sleek remake of Great Expectations with Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow felt like such a pinched and maladroit affair.
He then made Great Expectations , a film for adults adapted, very loosely, from a novel.
Alfonso moved to New York and made two features for Hollywood -- A Little Princess and Great Expectations -- but continued to foster the idea of making another film in Mexico.
Y Tu Mamá También is a return to roots by the Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, who came to America in the '90s to direct such neo-classical eye candy as A Little Princess and Great Expectations.