Brad Pitt And Helena Bonham Carter As Tyler Durden And Marla Singer In Fight Club (1999)

Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter as Tyler Durden and Marla Singer in Fight Club (1999)

mourning hair jewelry

Estella contemplates the memory of Miss Havisham, for whom she still has strange feelings. A brooch using her hair.

“I Know All Sorts of Things”

Based off of @tripleburger ‘s fic Three-Strip Technicolor 🤍

Saw that you said you’ve seen 11 adaptations of Great Expectations? So curious on your rankings and which ones you like the most/reccomend!

OMG AHAH YES... It's even more than 11 now! Including theatre productions, even went to one recently :')  English is not my native language, BUT..

I rank them, but mostly for myself, as the criteria is very specific.

But I can recommend them! I'll talk mostly about the ones I liked, because the ones I hated could be talked about forever.

Naturally, the 1946 version is good, even if it has a romantic ending (which I personally can't stand, but it's present in 90% of the adaptations, so if it happens in the final seconds, you can tolerate it). At least the atmosphere is retained and the film is really great.

I also really liked the 1922 silent black and white Danish film, there's something special about it. Naturally, it was quite shabby, but the actors show everything perfectly with their facial expressions. And most importantly, it's atmospheric and funny. I highly recommend watching it if only for the sake of the experience! I was especially hooked by the very first scene. It's very rare that an adaptation pays more attention to it than the scene where Pip and Magwitch meet. When, as in the book, it's quite sad, as Pip strokes tombstones and fantasises about what his parents might have looked like. So in the film it takes a certain amount of time and he just lies by the tombstones while the wind ripples the grass and you can see the gallows in the background.

For me in general, the most important thing about an adaptation of Great Expectations is that it has to be funny and tragic. Humour is such an important part of the book, and black humour at that.

The 1999 series isn't bad either, although it's quite dark. But here I was sometimes confused by the presentation of the characters, but it's definitely very good compared to many others.

But my personal favourite is the 1989 series, I like everything about this adaptation. And it's naturally tasteful, but all the characters behave the way I expect them to! Especially Pip, Estella and Herbert, they generally often screw up in their character writing in adaptations. In this version, Pip is literally the best I've ever seen.

And Miss Havisham, how gorgeous she is! She is, by the way, played by the actress who played Estella in the 1946 version! (and who better to play Miss Havisham than Estella, ahah).

There's a lot in this adaptation that's often cut or portrayed in a way that's better not tried. Hammersmith with the Pockets family, Wemmick's house is charming with A.P. and Miss Skiffins! What a delightful Joe and Biddy there...... And the fight scene between Pip and Herbert? Wonderful. Funny, ridiculous and with a complete lack of any aggression, as it should be. Pip and Herbert are great here in general, very nice. 

In short, yes. Favourite adaptation.

The 1981 series isn't bad either!

In other adaptations I usually only like certain elements, or the way certain moments are played around.

And it's often just a shame that good actors are used so poorly.

I don't like the 2011 and 2012 versions at all, although I've seen 2012 occasionally praised. But how bad is it for me.... Such disrespect to Estella's character. Not to mention the others, Pip I can't digest here at all. Literally the only good thing I could see for myself was the use of Handel's nickname. But there's a very strange Herbert here and it looks very vulgar and not sincere.

In both these versions Miss Havisham is played by eminent admirable actresses, but how strangely the character of the heroine is turned out by the writers... Such wasted potential with such a cast. There are especially a lot of questions for 2011 in terms of Miss Havisham. Brr. I also hate it when Biddy is made whiny and helplessly in love with Pip. So does Estella...

( Also a shame about Harry Lloyd as Herbert, how little he was and how hastily he was cut. It's a strange desire to cut Herbert out of the plot, to fuse him somewhere. Often, he and Pip aren't even close friends, it's like they're no more than neighbours and drinking buddies. There is no deep connection and no tender loyal friendship).

The 1974 version is neither good nor bad, but rather odd. But I was amused by the scene where Molly is forced to show her strength. She and Drummle wrestle at arm's length and he, of course, shamefully loses.

Here I decided to slow down and not describe absolutely everything I've watched so the post doesn't get any longer. (God I hope you find this post at all useful... And I hope you'll respond.Honestly, if you get the urge to discuss it, I'd be delighted!)

Although it's impossible not to mention the Australian cartoon 1983. It's so bad it's good. It's so fucked up. Had the odd pleasure of watching it, but of course it's bad.

But. Most of all, I hate the 2023 version with all my heart. It doesn't have a single silver lining. It's just disgusting and unbearable to watch, they wanted to look at the story in a new way but fucked up absolutely everything. What a waste of cool cast, impossible.

Estella

Along with Miss Havisham, Estella is one of the great gothic characters and probably Dickens’ most complex and well-wrought female character…

“Believe this: when she first came to me, I meant to save her from misery like my own. At first I meant no more…But as she grew and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings, and with this figure of myself always before her, a warning to back and point my lessons, I stole her heart away and put ice in its place”

- Miss Havisham

Jane Wyatt, 1934

“The lady whom I had never seen before, lifted up her eyes and looked archly at me, and then I saw that the eyes were Estella’s eyes. But she was so much changed, was so much more beautiful, so much more womanly, in all things winning admiration had made such wonderful advance, that I seemed to have made none.”

- Pip

Valerie Hobson, 1946

“‘Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures,’ replied Estella, with a glance towards him, 'hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?’”

Gwyneth Paltrow, 1998

“Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces,—and as it gets older and stronger it will tear deeper,—love her, love her, love her!” - Miss Havisham

Justine Waddell, 1999

“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”

- Pip

Vanessa Kirby, 2011

“I never had one hour’s happiness in her society, and yet my mind all round the four-and-twenty hours was harping on the happiness of having her with me unto death.”

- Pip

Holliday Grainger, 2012

A cold silvery mist had veiled the afternoon, and the moon was not yet up to scatter it. But, the stars were shining beyond the mist, and the moon was coming, and the evening was not dark. I could trace out where every part of the old house had been, and where the brewery had been, and where the gates, and where the casks. I had done so, and was looking along the desolate garden walk, when I beheld a solitary figure in it.

The figure showed itself aware of me, as I advanced. It had been moving towards me, but it stood still. As I drew nearer, I saw it to be the figure of a woman. As I drew nearer yet, it was about to turn away, when it stopped, and let me come up with it. Then, it faltered, as if much surprised, and uttered my name, and I cried out,—

“Estella!”