Thursday, January 29, 1998
Updated Dickens focuses on youth
FILM: Interpretation
of beloved classic brings novel into a ’90s setting
By Aimee Phan
Daily Bruin Staff
When Hollywood puts a classic novel on the big screen, it has to
live up to great expectations.
For the latest interpretation of Charles Dickens’ "Great
Expectations," filmmakers were challenged to adapt the 19th-century
novel about social class and love into a story relevant to the
’90s.
"Great Expectations" is a young person’s typical introduction to
Dickens. The story is fairly simple compared to Dickens’ other
epics: Young poor boy Pip (Ethan Hawke) falls in love with snotty
rich girl Estella (Gwyneth Paltrow) and spends his entire life
trying to climb the social ladder to become a gentleman worthy of
his beloved. Along the way, two eccentrics, Estella’s wealthy and
demented guardian Miss Havisham (Anne Bancroft) and a mysterious
criminal named Magwitch (Robert DeNiro), are instrumental in
determining the destinies of the two would-be lovers.
When director Alfonso Cuaron ("A Little Princess") and
screenwriter Mitch Glazer ("Scrooged") decided to modernize "Great
Expectations," both were apprehensive about what to change in the
famous novel.
Cuaron admits that this "re-elaboration" of the film will
probably not please everyone with its modifications, but he is
confident that their movie stays true to the heart of the
novel.
"There’s no two people that have the same explanation about what
the whole book is about," Cuaron says. "It can be about destiny,
social class and acceptance and at the end it’s about everything
all together."
Finding a ’90s version of England’s 19th-century aristocratic
society, a setting which plays a big role in the story of class
hierarchy, was one of the first challenges for the filmmakers.
Glazer finally settled upon focusing the story on two places,
South Florida as the place of Pip’s impoverished childhood and New
York as the wealthy aristocracy of modern times. The screenwriter
borrowed from his own upbringing in South Florida.
"My family used to vacation at Palm Beach during the summers and
look at all the rich people," Glazer says. "And I thought if Miss
Havisham was to come alive today, she could be this eccentric lady
living in this crumbling mansion. Then I thought celebrity and fame
could be the new aristocracy."
Another significant revision in the story is the changing of all
the major characters’ names except for Estella. Glazer explains
that he changed the names because "they were too ‘Dickensian’",
thus, Miss Havisham became Ms. Dinsmoor, Magwitch became Lustig,
and Pip became Pompey. Unfortunately, the cast and crew had a big
problem with the name "Pompey."
"They thought it sounded like Muffy," Glazer remembers. "I was
drawing on my childhood and my sense of romance from that age and I
gave him the name of the toughest coolest kid I knew. (Ethan)
actually refused to say the name.
"He just saw this image of a girl hockey player. And I said he’s
in prison now, he’s that tough a guy. But they were like no, it’s
just too silly."
In the end, Hawke received the privilege of renaming his own
character.
"We were sitting in Ethan’s trailer minutes before a scene where
you were going to hear the name for the first time," Glazer says.
"And Ethan said, ‘What about Finn?’ which had echoes of Pip,
obviously. Also if it didn’t work, we could blame Ethan."
For Cuaron, the name change was a small price in exchange for
the talented actor. But the director was pleased with his entire
cast, which he insists contained all his first-choices.
For the role of icy heroine Estella, Cuaron selected Paltrow
even though he was not initially familiar with her work. But after
seeing "Emma," he realized she would be ideal for the part. He
commends Paltrow’s performance in playing a complex character who
had to maintain the audience’s sympathy while still being cruel to
Hawke’s Finn.
"Forget about the obvious beauty and sophistication, it’s this
magic that she projects," Cuaron says. "Her portrayal of Estella
was so courageous. She’s portraying this apparently very cold and
manipulative woman, but from inside you see all this pain that
she’s going through."
While those who have read "Great Expectations" will no doubt
remember how Estella cruelly leads the main character on and is his
continuing source of happiness and misery, Paltrow believes that
Estella is also a victim of people’s manipulations.
"I know (Estella) comes off really horrible like she has a
really mean spirit, but I really didn’t think of her that way,"
Paltrow says. "She’s been raised by this insane person (Miss
Havisham/Ms. Dinsmoor) to be like this. The meaner she is, the more
her mother figure tells her, ‘You’re such a good girl.’ It’s a very
confusing thing to do to a child. In her heart, I think she is a
good person. It wouldn’t have been her nature if she wasn’t raised
that way so I felt very bad for her."
Paltrow credits her multi-layered performance to Cuaron’s
dedicated vision and the rigid work ethic he maintained throughout
the entire shoot.
"(Alfonso) is such a passionate filmmaker," Paltrow says. "It
was really like an education because he would get in fights with
the studio all the time about money and this and that. He had the
whole film completed in his head before we even began. He can’t
compromise his vision, which I think is so extraordinary. You work
with so many wishy-washy people. It was really refreshing."
While Paltrow was content to leave the film in Cuaron’s hands,
Hawke, on the other hand, was more than eager to become involved
with the creative direction of the project. The actor often
conferred with Cuaron and Glazer over several of the movie’s
pivotal scenes, asking questions and offering suggestions.
"Ethan started raising all these questions,"Cuaron says. "A big
percentage of what you see on the screen (was) Ethan, Mitch and me
on the set every morning, forgetting about the pages and just
improvising things and rethinking the whole scene. You have this
puzzle that you’re not sure if the pieces are coming together. It
was very risky and very stressful."
One of the risks that Cuaron is talking about is the removal of
some of the novel’s most important plot lines, such as Miss
Havisham’s fiery death and DeNiro’s character being revealed as
Estella’s father. Glazer explains that it was due to time
constraints and hopes that dedicated Dickens fans will forgive the
omissions.
"It was editing," Glazer says. "The trick with adapting this
book was there was so many gifts to it, the man had hundreds of
plots going on the book, but we had to make the movie focus."
And for those loyal by-the-book fans who might not be pleased
with this modernized version complete with a rock and roll
soundtrack and a more intimate relationship between Pip/Finn and
Estella, Hawke points out that the theme of the novel is still in
tact.
"As far as this is concerned, the Merchant Ivory approach has
been done," Hawke says. "David Lean did this movie (the 1946
version) very well if you want a period version of it. If you are
interested in the theme of this piece, the way Alfonso is, then I
think there’s something really fun about taking something and
spinning it on its head and showing it in a new way."
FILM: "Great Expectations" opens on Friday.