The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton was a classic that I somehow stayed away from. Usually I immediately want to read the book if I see a film adaptation but for this one I was strangely reluctant. And after all these years, this novel came into my life in the form of an audiobook. And I liked it so very much that I actually stayed until 01:30 to finish it (only less than an hour left and I simply was not able to wait for tomorrow). I love the prose, the structure of sentences and descriptions such as "the dangerous easiness of safety". The reader was also very good.
So far I have only seen two film from Edith Wharton adaptations (The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth) and again while I liked both very much, I never felt the need to seek the novels - maybe because of all the general gloominess and incomprehensible helplessness of the main characters - but my eyes are opened to a prose very suitable to my reading tendencies and I hope that I'll read more novels of Mr.Wharton.
Now a bit about the adaptation. I think it ended up being an excellent one. Daniel Day Lewis is an amazing actor and now I can appreciate his performance even more (of course I want to go and watch the film again right away, right now while still under the spell of the story).
But the thing strike me as odd regarding casting -not that there is anything wrong with it since both Pfeiffer and Rider are really good - is the physical types. In the novel May is a golden, blue haired beaty and Madam Olenska is dark haired and eyed and not as physically pretty as may. I find the contrast interesting in the novel. Usually brunettes are cast as the villains and this role reversal pleased me in the novel. And I liked the fact that Newland liked Ellen as a whole, and liked her character and self better than her appereance (of course in real life this would not be very likely no?) In the film Ms.Pfeiffer is very good looking, a lot better looking than Ms.Rider. So I wondered whether actors physically more suited to present this juxtaposition would have been more interesting to watch. If I cast this now, I'd go for Scarlett Johanson for May and Natalie Portman as Ellen (and in my dream casting Mr.Lewis would be still the same age and stay as Newland).
So far I have only seen two film from Edith Wharton adaptations (The Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth) and again while I liked both very much, I never felt the need to seek the novels - maybe because of all the general gloominess and incomprehensible helplessness of the main characters - but my eyes are opened to a prose very suitable to my reading tendencies and I hope that I'll read more novels of Mr.Wharton.
Now a bit about the adaptation. I think it ended up being an excellent one. Daniel Day Lewis is an amazing actor and now I can appreciate his performance even more (of course I want to go and watch the film again right away, right now while still under the spell of the story).
But the thing strike me as odd regarding casting -not that there is anything wrong with it since both Pfeiffer and Rider are really good - is the physical types. In the novel May is a golden, blue haired beaty and Madam Olenska is dark haired and eyed and not as physically pretty as may. I find the contrast interesting in the novel. Usually brunettes are cast as the villains and this role reversal pleased me in the novel. And I liked the fact that Newland liked Ellen as a whole, and liked her character and self better than her appereance (of course in real life this would not be very likely no?) In the film Ms.Pfeiffer is very good looking, a lot better looking than Ms.Rider. So I wondered whether actors physically more suited to present this juxtaposition would have been more interesting to watch. If I cast this now, I'd go for Scarlett Johanson for May and Natalie Portman as Ellen (and in my dream casting Mr.Lewis would be still the same age and stay as Newland).
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