Right at our door...
Sep. 14th, 2015 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI was really gripped by An Inspector Calls, so let me get the snark and trivia out of the way and then I’ll be serious. Is Kyle (Francis in Poldark) Soller going to act opposite all the dwarves from The Hobbit? Because if he can do so opposite the Aussies and Kiwis, I’ll be impressed. Also, I am fairly convinced t’mill’s interiors were the same as used for North and South. Certainly our Edwardians hadn’t learned the lessons of the Victorians. The actress playing Eve/Daisy/Alice/etc looked really familiar, but I couldn’t place her. Also she looked like a blend of Keeley Hawes and Anne-Marie Duff which is a good look. (I IMDb’d her and she was LUCY IN THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE! My feeble excuse is different period and different hair.)
I would love fic about Sheila during wartime (Eric too, but I suspect he would be imprisoned, I hope for the rape as well as the stealing, and Gerald, although I hope Sheila wouldn’t take him back, but it would be interesting if their paths crossed). I would also like to see a modern version, although some parallels were easy enough to draw (the ‘charitable’ committee...or change ‘rich people’ to ‘rich countries’...) Someone else should compare the politics of this to Downton Abbey’s Fellowes-inspired paternalism (although the point that the Birlings were new to wealth, while the Granthams have had their privilege and responsibilities for generations is relevant, as is the fact that Downton shows the staff as actors. Was I the only one who thought Stott’s character was the butler initially?)
Anyway, Stott and Richardson were good – the acting was all good, not a whiff of staginess about it – but Thewlis was amazing as Inspector Goole, come to make enquiries about the chain of events leading to a young woman’s suicide and so relentlessly uncovering how this happy upper-class family, celebrating an engagement and looking forward to the future (only Eric was impolite enough to mention the suggestion of a war brewing), had all contributed to Eva Smith’s desperation by their callousness, lust and selfishness.
I thought that the use of flashbacks balanced the being stuck in the dining room, which turned into an interrogation room. There were a few moments of mumbling that I didn’t catch – I’m not sure whether we read the play at school or if I just knew what it was about by osmosis. I suspect it was the latter, because I didn’t remember specifics. The ending went on a bit, and I suspect it was very loosely adapted from the play there. I got confused as to when Goole saw Eva preparing to kill herself. It led to me thinking he had stepped in before it was too late and that pumping her stomach would be successful (because the Birlings’ phone calls suggested there had been no suicide.) I don’t know whether the play makes it so explicit that Goole is an angelic figure, either.
Finally, I think that I spotted that women had adapted and directed this, which I liked, because it wasn’t just about rich and powerful people being selfish and cruel, but the specific gender dynamics. If Eve hadn’t been young and pretty, the men wouldn’t have all been after her, regardless of her wishes – even Gerald – and Sheila wouldn’t have vented on her. It was clear that that was another, specific layer. Okay, she was the white to bring up the black of the family, but I liked that that aspect was brought out.
I would love fic about Sheila during wartime (Eric too, but I suspect he would be imprisoned, I hope for the rape as well as the stealing, and Gerald, although I hope Sheila wouldn’t take him back, but it would be interesting if their paths crossed). I would also like to see a modern version, although some parallels were easy enough to draw (the ‘charitable’ committee...or change ‘rich people’ to ‘rich countries’...) Someone else should compare the politics of this to Downton Abbey’s Fellowes-inspired paternalism (although the point that the Birlings were new to wealth, while the Granthams have had their privilege and responsibilities for generations is relevant, as is the fact that Downton shows the staff as actors. Was I the only one who thought Stott’s character was the butler initially?)
Anyway, Stott and Richardson were good – the acting was all good, not a whiff of staginess about it – but Thewlis was amazing as Inspector Goole, come to make enquiries about the chain of events leading to a young woman’s suicide and so relentlessly uncovering how this happy upper-class family, celebrating an engagement and looking forward to the future (only Eric was impolite enough to mention the suggestion of a war brewing), had all contributed to Eva Smith’s desperation by their callousness, lust and selfishness.
I thought that the use of flashbacks balanced the being stuck in the dining room, which turned into an interrogation room. There were a few moments of mumbling that I didn’t catch – I’m not sure whether we read the play at school or if I just knew what it was about by osmosis. I suspect it was the latter, because I didn’t remember specifics. The ending went on a bit, and I suspect it was very loosely adapted from the play there. I got confused as to when Goole saw Eva preparing to kill herself. It led to me thinking he had stepped in before it was too late and that pumping her stomach would be successful (because the Birlings’ phone calls suggested there had been no suicide.) I don’t know whether the play makes it so explicit that Goole is an angelic figure, either.
Finally, I think that I spotted that women had adapted and directed this, which I liked, because it wasn’t just about rich and powerful people being selfish and cruel, but the specific gender dynamics. If Eve hadn’t been young and pretty, the men wouldn’t have all been after her, regardless of her wishes – even Gerald – and Sheila wouldn’t have vented on her. It was clear that that was another, specific layer. Okay, she was the white to bring up the black of the family, but I liked that that aspect was brought out.
