Catholic movies

[marigold]

Yesterday I found the movie version of "In This House of Brede" on YouTube, and I was very disappointed.

Perhaps I would have liked the movie if I didn't love the book so much. "In This House of Brede" is not just a detailed story about religious life before Vatican II, but Rumer Godden created a wealth of well-developed characters, and captured their spiritual and personal difficulties and growth over time.

"In This House of Brede" is a very long book, so to make it into a 90-minute movie a lot of important plot points had to be cut, and several characters were merged. I found the plot of the movie choppy, and I think I might have been confused if I hadn't read the book. And, for me, most of the merged characters/plot points just didn't work.

Also, after reading the book so many times I had developed a picture in my head of the various characters, based on Rumer Godden's descriptions. About the only character that fit fairly well was Diana Rigg as Phillipa, but even then, many aspects of her spiritual life were not addressed well in the movie, especially the reasons she became a nun in the first place, the difficulties she faced, and how she grew both spiritually and as a person.

So, this is warning for those of you who love "In This House of Brede"--you may be disappointed by the movie.

OT--Seeing the adaption of "In This House of Brede" made me appreciate the Harry Potter movies. Those movies stayed very close to the plot of the books, and were exceptionally well cast, so that the actors fit the characters in the books. I enjoyed the movies even after being familiar with the books.

Agreed! I sort of enjoyed the film version just because it was a story close to my heart - but I was annoyed that they threw out all the subtlety and richness of the book and had Dame Agnes as the one 'baddie', and merged the Dame Maura/Sister Cecily subplot into Philippa's. I also thought the monastery was quite claustrophobic and chilly-looking, which was the opposite of the impression I had from the book. Overall the whole thing just comes off really prim and smug.

I don't know why they bother if they're not going to do it properly. The 80s TV version of Brideshead Revisited was like 11 hours long but at least they did the story some justice.

[Spem in alium]

Agreed! I sort of enjoyed the film version just because it was a story close to my heart - but I was annoyed that they threw out all the subtlety and richness of the book and had Dame Agnes as the one 'baddie', and merged the Dame Maura/Sister Cecily subplot into Philippa's. I also thought the monastery was quite claustrophobic and chilly-looking, which was the opposite of the impression I had from the book. Overall the whole thing just comes off really prim and smug.

I don't know why they bother if they're not going to do it properly. The 80s TV version of Brideshead Revisited was like 11 hours long but at least they did the story some justice.

Exactly! And yes, the setting did look really cold and uninviting, while in the book it does definitely seem the opposite. And changing the whole story with Keith also just annoyed me. So many great things they could have easily kept from the book.