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British Council is touring the largest retrospective ever staged of film and TV works based on or inspired by Charles Dickens, after premiering at London’s BFI Southbank in January 2012.
In partnership with Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF), British Council is bringing ‘Dickens on Film’ to audiences in the UAE. From 27 March to 2 April, ten films will be screening at VOX Cinemas – Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi, to coincide with the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) 2012 at which the UK is Country of Focus. The programme includes a wide variety of the adaptations of classics from the greatest writer in the history of English literature, Charles Dickens, such as David Copperfield, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.
“This year marks the bicentenary of Charles Dickens’ birth, and Charles Dickens has long been an inspiration for filmmakers, TV producers, and artists alike. Through this collaboration with ADFF, around ADIBF, and with such a burgeoning arts, culture and literature scene in the UAE, we expect the ‘Dickens on Film’ programme to be welcomed with enthusiasm by the local and expatriate communities in the UAE,” said Michel Bechara, Head of Projects, of British Council in the UAE.
From the multi Oscar®-winning Oliver! to the BBC hit series Bleak House, filmmakers and TV producers have consistently turned to Dickens’ immortal stories to adapt for the screen. His highly visual narrative style inspired early film-makers and many have credited the author with providing the very DNA that cinematic language is based upon. The oldest surviving film versions of works by Dickens include an adaptation of David Copperfield from 1913 of which only a tantalizing fragment remains, and over a hundred years later Dickens’ works are still being filmed for cinema and TV to the extent that every one of his 15 novels has been filmed at least twice.
“The screening programme in the UAE will be a unique opportunity to see a great variety of some of those adaptations including the first silent one, dated almost 100 years back – David Copperfield, 1913, by Thomas Bentley – and which now exists only as a fragment, recently restored by the British Film Institute, and whose screening will be accompanied by a live reading of excerpts from the Dickens novel,” Bechara added.
“Not only does this wonderful series present a selection of skilled adaptations of literature to film, but it offers a chance to see some outstanding performances by British screen stars such as Dirk Bogarde, Joyce Grenfell, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, John Mills, Alastair Sim and Jean Simmons,” commented ADFF Executive Director Peter Scarlet. “Not to mention Toronto-born Christopher Plummer, who received his long-overdue first Oscar just a few weeks ago, and two icons of the silent era, Lon Chaney and Jackie Coogan, who star in the greatest rarity of the series, Frank Lloyd’s recently rediscovered 1922 silent version of Oliver Twist.”
The ‘Dickens on Film’ programme will be screening at VOX Cinemas – Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi, from 27 March to 2 April 2012. Dickens enthusiasts can catch any of the screenings free of charge, and need only book their seats online at www.adff.ae/dickensonfilm
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