|
''The Jealous God'' (2005) is a 1960s set feature film by British writer-director Steven Woodcock.〔British Council Britfilms catalogue.http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/catalogue/browse/?id=D9CC70591895f232A8VtM3CBDC47〕 It is based on the novel by John Braine. The opening scenes were filmed in the grammar school in Bradford where Braine was once a pupil.〔Article in ''Bradford Telegraph & Argus''. 10 August 2005.〕 Braine became famous in 1957 for his classic ''Room at the Top'', a book that shocked when first published because of how it exploded British class and sexual mores of the time. There’s a clip from the Oscar winning 1958 film version of ''Room at the Top'' in ''The Jealous God'', when Vincent and Laura are seen sitting in a cinema. ==Background and production== While Woodcock's movie ''Between Two Women'' was cinematic and intellectual in tone ''The Jealous God'', set in the early 1960s, is more commercially retro styled, like an actual 1960s melodrama. The poster that promoted the film outside British movie houses was painted by legendary New York magazine artist Basil Gogos to look like a 1960s movie poster.〔the Director interviewed on DVD documentary ''Making The Jealous God''. (Odyssey Video. 2006.〕 The sophistication of ''Between Two Women'' shows that as a director Woodcock is capable of great subtlety so it can be assumed the more populist nature of ''The Jealous God'' was a stylistic technique used to suit the film’s deliberate, almost kitsch retro feel. Unsurprisingly it was an American, the respected film critic Rich Cline, who was one of the few reviewers perceptive enough to realize this: "The story is filmed in a straightforward style with as few frills as possible. Woodcock immaculately recreates 1960s-style filmmaking, right down to a prudish tone that avoids actually mentioning any shocking issues by name and pans to the wallpaper when things get remotely steamy. The camera work is like a TV show - lots of moody close-ups and almost no stylistic flourishes besides a gritty recreation of the period. It's extremely effective - like travelling back in time, but with the added resonance of modern actors who combine knowing sensitivity with the overwrought drama."〔Review on Shadows on the Wall. 12 July 2005.http://www.shadowsonthewall.co.uk/05/art-u.htm#jeal〕 However, not everyone was convinced. One critic who had also read the source novel commented that: "Woodcock takes a selfconsciously ‘heritage cinema’ approach, best illustrated by a railway station featuring immaculately restored trains courtesy of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. Although the period detail is convincing, this fetishising of surface elements arguably does Braine a disservice. His novel was a sincere attempt at capturing the (then) here and now, but Woodcock’s reconstruction too often feels preserved in aspic."〔'The Jealous God' by Michael Brooke, Sight & Sound, October 2005〕 The movie stars Jason Merrells and Denise Welch (both popular British TV actors) and is reasonably faithful to the novel's main narrative line, although it sanitises certain elements such as its protagonist's nascent racism. It tells the story of Vincent, a young Catholic school teacher still living with his possessive widowed mother. She wants him to become a priest, and the movie explores how he is torn between this and sex and a commitment to his family and his faith. The movie looks similar to ''Between Two Women'' and has the same attention to detail in the sets and costumes and uses similar convincing period locations, steam trains, etc. Some of the same actors appear in both movies. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Jealous God (film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|