Iannucci and co-writer Simon Blackwell revel in Dickens’ sublime literary world while upping the pace, humour and transition between Copperfield’s childhood and adulthood. Here, they focus on the carefully crafted characters of Dickens’ world and elaborate on the quirks and comedy. The Personal History of David Copperfield is now showing at the BFI London Film Festival.
Armando Iannucci (The Death of Stalin) showed us his deep love of all things Dickens in 2012 with the fabulous BBC documentary ‘Armando’s Tale of Charles Dickens. Like Iannucci’s documentary, which aimed to celebrate Dickens’ work while putting a fresh spin on his characters and universe, The Personal History of David Copperfield honours the author while providing a beautifully modern twist to the timeless tale of David Copperfield.
Iannucci and co-writer Simon Blackwell revel in Dickens’ sublime literary world while upping the pace, humour and transition between Copperfield’s childhood and adulthood. Here, they focus on the carefully crafted characters of Dickens’ world and elaborate on the quirks and comedy.
In part, this works; however, it also means that the darker elements of Dickens’ world feel underserved and ejected. However, as a step into Dickens’ literary world, The Personal History of David Copperfield is a great success, primarily due to Iannucci and Crowe’s casting choices. Led by the engaging and enigmatic Dev Patel (Lion), the cast includes Ben Whishaw as the creepy Uriah Heep, Tilda Swinton as the eccentric donkey-bothering Aunt Betsey, Morfydd Clark as the dizzy Dora and Hugh Laurie as the charming, sweet and innocent Mr Dick.
The Personal History of David Copperfield is not the first film to deconstruct and reconstruct Dickens for a new audience; A Muppet Christmas Carol and Lionel Bart’s Oliver took a similar route. Just like its predecessors, Iannucci’s dreamlike vision honours the genius of Charles Dickens while shining a bright light on the characters he created. The result is a vivid, colourful, bold and new Copperfield adaptation that, I am sure, would have earned Dickens’ approval.
Director: Armando Iannucci
Cast: Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton, Aneurin Barnard, Peter Capaldi, Gwendoline Christie, Morfydd Clark, Daisy May Cooper, Hugh Laurie, Paul Whitehouse, Ben Whishaw, Benedict Wong, Jairaj Varsani, Rosalind Eleazar
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