Carissa Green Reads
I read widely from many genres. Perhaps this blog will feature fewer ratings and reviews, but I certainly intend to write about my reading life - it's the subject I most find myself wanting to talk about.
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Notes on Adaptation: Wolf Hall
What more can I possibly say to add to the loads of critics who have heaped praise on the adaptation of Hilary Mantel's "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies" that aired recently on PBS?
In adaptation, I look for four things: Faithfulness to plot, characterization, dialogue, and theme. This production exceeded my expectations in all these things. Mostly, though, I was entranced by the inscrutable face of Mark Rylance. Pure magic.
But what makes a production transcend, for someone who has the spirit of a reader, are the details that prove the adapters also are readers and are giving you their love for the book. This production was so faithful in detail, and often, those details manifested without having attention drawn to them -- they were just there, correct, filling in the lines perfectly.
Three examples from this show: Cromwell's "yellow turkey comforter," the rose and grey gown with pearls that Queen Anne wears in a particular scene, and the funny little Italian ditty Cromwell sings when he's going through a complicated set of machinations. Thank you, thank you, filmmakers, for proving your love for the text with the subtlety of a butterfly's wing and a painter's brush.
-cg
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