Adaptation in Visual Culture by Julie Grossman & R. Barton Palmer

Adaptation in Visual Culture by Julie Grossman & R. Barton Palmer

Author:Julie Grossman & R. Barton Palmer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham


Style and Aesthetics: Dickensian, Art, and Theatre

Excepting the innovative credit sequence, first impressions of Dickensian’s visual design might belie the program’s differences from previous Dickens adaptations. The impressive set adheres closely to popular conceptions of “Dickensian London.” Dickens exhibited an abiding fascination for the capital, and his images of London were of central importance to Victorian literary and visual culture: indeed, “mid-nineteenth-century London acquired its breadth, depth, and density as a fictional space almost entirely through the work of Charles Dickens” (Bodenheimer 142). Dickensian recreates the writer’s fictional microcosm in its scale, complexity and comprehensiveness, comprising one hundred and twenty metres of genuinely cobbled streets, seven back alleys, and twenty seven two-storey buildings, including a fully functioning inn and nine working shops. The level of detail more than fulfills that expected of period dramas and adaptations. But a second, closer look reveals that Dickensian moves far beyond convention in terms of style and aesthetics.

Toru Sasaki reiterates the oft-noted affinity between Dickens’ stories and the screen, citing “the plastically visible characters, melodrama, montage [and] orchestration of sensuous details” (67), all of which apply to Dickensian. Even more pertinently here, Kleinecke-Bates, on the release of the BBC’s innovative Bleak House (2005), observed a “move away from familiar visual vocabulary and realism, and towards an appreciation of style” (117). Whilst Dickensian (like Bleak House) remains broadly realist, it attains an extraordinary level of visual density and stylistic flair. From the first episode the program’s contemporary flexi-narrative is enhanced by bold stylistic choices, which reflect the serial’s narrative, thematic, and tonal contrasts. Sharp cuts from extreme close-ups to long shots to aerial shots offer an ever-changing perspective, and marked contrasts in pace shape each episode. No shot feels still; even when characters are not moving, the camera is. The tone of the serial is similarly changeable in an instant, as indicated in the opening scene: a somber funeral procession passes through the streets, watched by quiet onlookers; Mrs. Gamp, observing, calls out a greeting to Marley, who stands on his doorstep: “Morning Mr. Marley.” “Good day, Mrs. Gamp,” replies Marley, at which Mrs. Gamp chuckles wryly, with a nodding gesture to the passing coffin, “Not for ‘im it ain’t”.

The series employed a number of writers and directors, and close observation reveals discernible changes of style between episodes, such as the greater use of hand-held cameras in episode six, marking a crucial point in the narrative: the arrest and interrogation of Bob Cratchit. In Cratchit’s interview, an increased number of close-ups from odd angles and visible refocusing express his disorientated anxiety—a much more personally expressive mode than previously employed. Attention is thus drawn to the camera’s perspective, and consequently we might appreciate, in a later scene between Compeyson and Amelia Havisham, the constantly moving, sustained mid-shot camerawork which, like Compeyson, appears smooth and reliable, but feels restless and inconstant. Thus we are encouraged to look again, more closely: to attend to the details, noting not only what we see, but also how we see it, in a clear echo of the preoccupations of Victorian visual culture noted above.



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