TASK 1:

After watching the film you will write a text to explain:

- what English settings the film has shown

The lilterary institutions the reader comes across are: libraries, museums, academies and centres of research.

- how the role of academy comes into play

First of all the role of academy is a central one. All the story plot is based on academy. So, the role of academy comes into play simply watching the actions of the characters.

- how documents and letters come to the forefront

In this film, as it happens in  the book, the finding of some Victorian  letters and documents come to the forefront. Roland comes across two drafts of a letter Ash has sent to La Motte, but all the other documents and letters found are consequences of an incessant and determined research which meets its objective thanks to related academic knowledge.

- how Victorian and modern London are presented (what does the director focus his camera on)

Victorian and modern London are surely presented in a different way: the director focuses his camera on the houses, the roads and the vehicles, but also on the different ways of dressing and on the characters' different behaviours. All the differences have the function of making the common aspects of the Victorian characters and modern ones clear

- how the different ideas of possession are conveyed (physical love, mental love, attempts to put one's hand on precious letters, documents, objects of research, value etc.)

In the film  different ideas of possession are expressed. All the ideas are conveyed by some examples. The idea of physical love is conveyed through the impossibility of Ash and Lamotte to refrain from making love when they are alone in Yorkshire.

The idea of mental love is conveyed through the characters of Ellen and Ash, that are in love despite having no  physical contact.

There's another kind of possession: be possessed by the idea of keeping or touching or even getting hold of the precious letters or documents is the situation of many characters: but the main character affected by this kind of possession is  Mortimer Cropper. He is willing to do anything to be able to put his hands on something of Ash's property.

- how literary erudition is shown in the film (dialogue exchanges, pictures, audio, music, other)

 -------?

- how the characterizations of the four protagonists are created

The four protagonists are characterized though their dialogues, through what they say or what they think, through their actions and decisions and through their way of dressing.

- how the director shows the bond developing between Maud and Roland

The director was very able in showing the bond developing between Maud and Roland because it appears parallel to that of Ash and LaMotte. It seems that this 2 love story are braided thanks to the literature.

- how unconventional love stories are treated

Unconventional stories (like the lesbian relationship between Blanche and Christabel, and the extramarital relationship between Randolph and Christabel) are treated like something common: the characters are not marginalized because of their love stories.

- how the juxtaposition of present and past is developed (montage, close-up, long shot, two shot, point of view shot ,

medium shot, flashback, flash forward, panoramic effects, other)

The juxtaposition between past and present is developed by flashbacks, flash forwards and mainly by panoramic effects. In many scenes the director keeps fixed the landscape changing the Victorian lovers with the modern ones.

TASK 2:

In a coherent text develop the points below

• your different response to novel and movie: in which way are the two products similar, different
• different effects creted (which devices chosen explain for the different effects)
• how the two love stories are conveyed
• how the past is relevant to understand the present
• how characterization is built up
• how past love stories may seem more or less modern and unconventional than present love stories
• how characters face loife and passion
• quality of actors performance
• message the film director wants to convey
• similarity or difference of textual and film message
• the debate on truth in the film
• how the idea of postmoderinity is conveyed if any
• evaluation of film from a personal point of view

The novel and the movie are different in many aspects: right from the beginning the novel starts with Roland in the library. The film shows indeed an auction regarding Ash’s effects. Continuing to watch the movie the viewers can notice that many characters (like Leonore Stern, and Euan MacIntyre are missing. The movie is shorter and more direct than the novel: it shows the scenes in sequence without stopping on the descriptions. The movie follows perfectly the content of the novel, so there’s a similarity. The two love stories develop very similarly  because there’s a parallelism between them due to Byatt’s mirroring technique. The past is definitely relevant to understand the present because through the love story of Ash and Lamotte the reader can better grasp the present relationship between Roland and Maud.

Characterization is made up by dialogues, actions, movements, thoughts, expressions and ways of behaving. Characters face life with a strong will and ambition because they are eager to reach their objectives and find out hidden love stories on which the film lingers more than on the level of a possible detective story as is the case of the novel.

Actors’ performance is brilliant because they convey emotions and feeling to the viewer.

The message the film director wants to convey is questioning the existence of a single truth and the importance of the research and the academy.

The idea of postmodernity is conveyed by the pastiche, the fragmentation in the narration and the concept of truth.