David Copperfield is an old character, from an old story, but the subject of a new movie just released in Australia.
You could be forgiven for wondering why someone would turn out a new iteration of his infamous tale.
Director Armando Iannucci, the mind behind the latest version of David Copperfield (and creator of Veep, The Thick of It and The Death of Stalin), is similarly inclined.
Released many months ago in the UK, The Personal History of David Copperfield will hit our shores this week after being delayed by COVID-19.
"Because it's been out in the UK for a little while, I have this sense of it … well, winding down," says Iannucci. "And I forget that it's about to actually be unleashed on the rest of the world now."
The book has been out for while, too. The story was Charles Dickens' eighth novel, a triumphant, sprawling, eminently relatable tale of a young man's semi-autobiographical travails as he grew up under bizarre, harrowing and heart-warming circumstances.
But the story of David's trials and tribulations has been around since 1849. Why do it again? Why now?
Loading...
'You can't be so reverential that you don't change anything'
Iannucci is only too happy to explain.
"Oh! Well, look. I grew up as a huge fan of Dickens. I admire him, his work, and he's always been funny to me. People have him down as this sort of long-winded Victorian novelist who writes about fog, and child labour," he says.
"But Dickens is also very magical. Big hearted! But what I've always admired is how he uses comedy to try and appeal to as wide an audience as possible, but then he uses that platform to deal with challenging issues. Like, say, factory conditions, poverty, or homelessness."
I ask Iannucci when he last read the book. "Well I re-read Copperfield about 10 or 12 years ago, and I was struck by how current it felt, how modern it was," he says. "It's about status anxiety and there's also poverty and wealth, homelessness and opulence living side-by-side. That certainly hasn't gone away."
Iannucci believes the themes remain relevant. "It's about someone spending all their time working out … what his identity is. Does he fit in? It's about impostor syndrome. Am I good enough? What do my friends think of me? If they knew my background would they think less of me?"
How does Iannucci make this well-known story new and relevant without tampering with the things that made it special in the first place?
"You have to carry in your head what it was in the original that made you want to turn it into, in this case, a film," Iannucci explains.
"For me? The themes. The language. The colours. But you also can't be so reverential that you don't change anything, because this is a film. You have to drop stuff, merge scenes, change lines… all these things, but you still have to try and preserve the spirit of the (story)."
'I didn't have a Plan B'
Did Iannucci pull it off? Well, the Dickens family recently invited Iannucci to a dinner to celebrate the author's legacy. The family praised him for doing the work justice.
"They were touched by the film, they thought it preserved the spirit of the book," he says. "That's what you do if you adapt. You're not doing an impression of it in another form. You do it right, but you put a little of yourself into it."
Loading...
A key to making the film work was the question of who would play David Copperfield.
"I like the fragility of David, the honesty of him … he's got flaws," Iannucci says. "David is a writer. His role is to write something down and make something of it. And that's how he becomes who he really is."
David Copperfield himself, played with an almost nuclear level of doddering charm by Dev Patel, is like many of Iannucci's best characters: kind, but capricious; trying his best, but falling all over the place in the process.
When did Armando know Patel was his David Copperfield?
"He's wonderful, isn't he?" Iannucci laughs down the line. "Well, he's always been on my radar, and I've always thought he was very funny in Skins, and in Slumdog.
"But when I saw him in Lion, focused, still, charismatic, strong, determined… that's when I thought… oh, he's David. I knew. I knew to the extent that I didn't have a plan B! So when I went to the studio, I thought… Oh God. If he says no. I didn't have a back-up plan!"
Iannucci goes on to point out that the casting of Patel influenced the way the actors were chosen for the rest of the film.
"Once I had Dev, we had this conversation. Is he from an Indian family? No! We'll just cast who is perfect for the part. We cast Dev that way, we cast everyone else that way, too," he says. "Because I want the film to feel… like it's happening now, in front of you. Yes, they're in the 1840s, but for them, it's present day! They think they're modern! And it should have that feel of being alive, now."
The Personal History of David Copperfield is exactly that: alive. It feels like a living, breathing place, full of dynamic, misshapen, complex people.
Perhaps an unrelenting dose of optimism is just what the world needs right now.
"It's what I wanted to celebrate," says Iannucci as we wrap up. "It's a film that celebrates community, and friendship, and kindness."
The Personal History of David Copperfield is in cinemas now.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiWGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA3LTA0L2RhdmlkLWNvcHBlcmZpZWxkLW1vdmllLWFybWFuZG8taWFubnVjY2kvMTIzODU1NDjSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTIzODU1NDg?oc=5
2020-07-04 00:26:19Z
CAIiEAa4Emtqs45Q5fVyoBSICswqFwgEKg4IACoGCAow3vI9MPeaCDDoiokG
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar