Polanski's Oliver Twist

While Polanski has once again proven himself to be a master director, I feel like this film is a bit of a misstep in his filmography...

Honestly, after so many movie and even more TV series adaptations of the Dickensian classic, I don't really see the point in filming another one Oliver Twist...

Hats off to the young actors in the film, as well as Ben Kingsley (who just keeps getting better with every role), but I think Polanski could have easily skipped this one...

I truly found myself enjoying this film!

Then again, I’ve always had a massive soft spot for adaptations of Victorian novels, so perhaps I can’t claim to be the most objective critic out there...

I honestly don't get this movie. What was Polanski even trying to achieve with this adaptation? I have no clue. All I can say is what it did to me—absolutely nothing. Total indifference... I haven't read the book, but my gut feeling while watching was that the adaptation is just way too literal, sticking far too close to the original. (Well, obviously with some parts cut or condensed, which is fine). The issue is that the original deals with themes and motives that feel so recycled that nothing feels fresh anymore. Watching it, everything on screen felt so overdone and predictable that any chance of actually connecting emotionally was dead on arrival. To me, the film is just empty. Technically it's fine, but that’s basically become the baseline expected standard now. Either Polanski (and everyone else) should stay away from these classics and pick something that actually challenges them, instead of being lazy or—at best—just practicing their craft so they don't get rusty...

I honestly don't see the point of this movie. What was Polanski actually trying to achieve with this adaptation? I'll admit, I haven't a clue.

Kingsley on the subject:

Question: To what degree do you think Dickens

Kingsley: Unfortunately the dilemmas that exist that millions of children are disempowered and we need to empower them., I think is still very, very true. Hopa that WE have premieres in this film for Save the Children and other charities - First star, Save the Children, UNICEF, The Princes' trust - have masses of charity premieres for organisations who are absolutely committed to empowering and saving children.
...
Question: Can you explain - this is a much different film - how did he change as a director, i mean , after The Pianist and you see him again, what did he bring to this film that was different from that film?

Kingsley: For me, because I've seen him over the years and, been with him over the years - just the occasional dinner, the occasional lunch and the occasional social meeting - and more recently I was at Deauxville with him and he was Chairman of The Jury. So I spent ten days with him and it was wonderful - I was on the jury. It was beautiful. he loves his wife and he loves his kids and that gets in deeper the more I know him. When i First knew Him ten years aga , i think One of his children was tiny and The other i think maybe Had Just been born or about to be born. He's a lovely dad and he's a very happy man. He deserves to be because his childhood was... it's a miracle he's alive. It's a miracle he survived the stuff he's been through.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/oliver1.php

Polanski on the subject:

What prompted him to turn to Dickens was The Desire to make a film his children could see for a Change. 'They come on the set of my movies, they know what I am doing, they live around all that, but the result of all this work is something so remote from their world they can't identify with it,' he says. 'I wanted something they could, so I started looking for subjects that would be suitable.' Although he reads to his children every night, the only Dickens he had read them was A Christmas Carol; it was his wife, Emmanuella, who suggested Oliver Twist, knowing his fondness for Carol Reed's film of The Lionel Bart musical Oliver!

http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview...582682,00.html

//ps. And now for something completely different 😁 -- alright, now that I've given such a nice answer, someone please tell me what the point of this movie actually is http://forum.us/showthread.php?s=&threadid=120704

To me, Oliver Twist is easily one of the best films released this year. Honestly, trying to adapt a literary classic that’s been done a thousand times before is a massive undertaking. It's easy enough to be original, but it's much harder to take something everyone has already seen and turn it into something engaging, well-paced, and rich with detail.
Polanski kills it.

So I wasn't far off when I said Polanski might've just been honing his craft to stay sharp, especially if the whole point was that Dickens was The Desire to make a film his children could see for a Change. That’s hardly a motivation a filmmaker can brag about if they actually care about more than just making an industrial product...

And all this nonsense about UNICEF is typical for any actor during a press tour, always trying to pin some "higher purpose" on their movie. This Romanov adaptation doesn't even really critique society or try to highlight issues with abandoned kids. To him, it felt more like some kind of adventure...

Whatever, the real issue is the premise and the script itself, so I'm "only" blaming Polanski for picking a bad project.

Justin Patel said:For me, Oliver Twist is easily one of the best films released this year. Honestly, I think it’s such a massive challenge to adapt a literary masterpiece that’s already been done a thousand different ways. It’s easy enough to be "original," but it’s way tougher to take something everyone has seen before and turn it into something refreshing, beautifully edited, and packed with rich detail.
Polanski absolutely rocks.

I haven't caught o. T. yet, but I totally agree that working with a famous source material is probably the toughest gig there is. Nothing is harder than pulling off a great remake! And hey, Polanski has already proven he can do it with massive success. His Macbeth is hands down the best version I've ever seen; it's actually the only one that felt truly worthy of Shakespeare.

Honestly, this is just a total disaster... really not feeling it. I'll try to come up with something positive tomorrow, but right now? Not happening.

Bravo Polanski, once again!
It was such a great film. I watched it today and I guess I really got swept up in it...👍

I’ll be honest, I haven't come up with anything that could actually save Roman Polanski here. All I can say is the movie "looks pretty." It’s got that classic Roman Polanski wallpaper vibe, except all the patterns are peeling off the walls. Everything is technically there when you look at it—the acting is fine, the lighting and cinematography are solid—but every single one of those strips of wallpaper is coming loose. And the guy supposed to glue them back together with some sophisticated, old-fashioned narration? That’s Roman himself. He clearly fell asleep on the job, or maybe he wandered off to make the kids tea and just stayed away too long. I actually believe what he said in that interview, and that’s the only reason I still think he’s a major director. Why? Because it was apparently easier for him to turn his life story into a movie than to just sit down and talk about it. Now the kids can just pop in a DVD, and hopefully, Roman can move on to something else. It doesn't have to be absurd; the man has calmed down, but this just feels... off.