#32 - Oliver Twist

And we get the next David Lean film - another adaptation of a Dickens classic.  Alec Guinness does a wowzer transformation here as an old, withered up Fagin - (so much so they actually showed his performance from Great Expectations in the trailer to this film to contrast his transformation)

Speaking of that's about all there is in these two Criterion movies - the trailer and colorbars - no special features short of subtitles -

Good movies but I'm eager to get back to stuff I haven't heard of from outside English speaking stuff - and these 1940's films wouldn't be something I'd buy - but I got thru them

RB

#31 - Great Expectations

And so we come to the first of two Dickens adaptations directed by David Lean - (who we last saw in Summertime - #22) -

This was filmed right after the end of the Second World War, and has Alec Guinness in his first speaking role on screen - This seems like a classic of 1940's cinema - the music, the scenery, the characters - it all feels like it's in the right time and well done -

I just wasn't terribly interested - I have no terrible desire to rewatch movies or stories I've seen before and while Ethan Hawke and Gweneth Paltrow made a terrible Pip and Estella, by that point I knew the story well enough.   The Actress playing Estella did manage to come across as a detached lady of refinement.   She was probably my favorite character after the portly lawyer, Jaggers

It's not a bad film - many think it's one of the best ever - it just wasn't that interesting or exciting to me - I guess there was an inferior 1934 American version of Great Expectations (with the same actor playing Jaggers) but that this is regarded as the classic interpretation - so I'm glad I saw it

but truth be told - I coulda gone either way -

RB

Side Tangent - Library rents Criterion streaming

thought this was interesting

https://lifehacker.com/now-you-can-stream-criterion-films-with-a-library-card-1797516428

side note:   Having just left a city with 50 libraries and moved to a small town with one, I'll be having to netflix or borrow stuff in the future - which means sadly fewer of the special features...

I did get a Roku recently and will add filmstruck after a period of studying where I'm working on a work certification - it'll be my reward if I pass - I've been upset ever since they dropped the collection on Hulu