Without a doubt the Roman Polanski version of OLIVER TWIST is the greatest "straight" telling version of this story ever filmed. Yes, you will see glimpses of the David Lean version and the Carol Reed musical, but this film stands on it's own as a deeply moving interpretation of the Charles Dickens novel. While I was watching this film I couldn't help thinking how proud Dickens would have been if he were alive. Somewhere beyond he is smiling because Polanski captures the grand scope of the film and maintains its intimacy throughout. OLIVER TWIST moved me to tears.
What a master filmmaker Polanski is and how clever he was to choose OLIVER TWIST as a follow up film to THE PIANIST. You can feel his compassion for this story and its characters. It's hard to match the performance of Fagin given by Alec Guiness in the Lean version and especially Ron Moody in the Reed musical but Ben Kingsley is incredibly dimensional and moving in the role. He puts his own signature onto the part.
Jamie Foreman is the scariest Bill Sykes ever. Barney Clark as Oliver carries the picture on his instinctual little shoulders and is as moving in the role as Ben Kingsley is in his.
The art direction and cinematography are oil paintings in motion. Highly atmospheric and gorgeous to look at.
My only quibble with this version is that the Nancy isn't as compassionate as the the Nancy played by Shani Wallis in the film musical. Although never mentioned in the story there is no doubt about the profession of Nancy and Bet in this picture. Leanne Rowe is a very sexy Nancy and was a fine choice for the part. However, there isn't a scene in this film where Nancy comes into her own and wins the audience over in the way there is for the characters of Fagin, Oliver and the Artful Dodger. This is where Polanski needed to reach deep and establish but didn't . It's unfortunate too because Rowe is really good in the part. There just needed to be a definitive moment in the film where we as an audience fall in love with the character so as to make her death all the more disturbing.
The death of Nancy in the Carol Reed '68 version was a shocking and disturbing scene. The death scene in the Polanski version is handled similarly off camera so as to leave the image in the imagination of the viewer. But the murder doesn't have the shock value it should. I couldn't help thinking that the the image of the blood at the bottom of the door strangely symbolized the blood at the front door of the house where the murder of his wife Sharon Tate occurred. I also got the feeling that Polanski for this reason didn't want to have a graphic death for Nancy. It's as if he's had enough of murders (fictional or otherwise) for one lifetime. One can hardly blame him.
What a master filmmaker Polanski is and how clever he was to choose OLIVER TWIST as a follow up film to THE PIANIST. You can feel his compassion for this story and its characters. It's hard to match the performance of Fagin given by Alec Guiness in the Lean version and especially Ron Moody in the Reed musical but Ben Kingsley is incredibly dimensional and moving in the role. He puts his own signature onto the part.
Jamie Foreman is the scariest Bill Sykes ever. Barney Clark as Oliver carries the picture on his instinctual little shoulders and is as moving in the role as Ben Kingsley is in his.
The art direction and cinematography are oil paintings in motion. Highly atmospheric and gorgeous to look at.
My only quibble with this version is that the Nancy isn't as compassionate as the the Nancy played by Shani Wallis in the film musical. Although never mentioned in the story there is no doubt about the profession of Nancy and Bet in this picture. Leanne Rowe is a very sexy Nancy and was a fine choice for the part. However, there isn't a scene in this film where Nancy comes into her own and wins the audience over in the way there is for the characters of Fagin, Oliver and the Artful Dodger. This is where Polanski needed to reach deep and establish but didn't . It's unfortunate too because Rowe is really good in the part. There just needed to be a definitive moment in the film where we as an audience fall in love with the character so as to make her death all the more disturbing.
The death of Nancy in the Carol Reed '68 version was a shocking and disturbing scene. The death scene in the Polanski version is handled similarly off camera so as to leave the image in the imagination of the viewer. But the murder doesn't have the shock value it should. I couldn't help thinking that the the image of the blood at the bottom of the door strangely symbolized the blood at the front door of the house where the murder of his wife Sharon Tate occurred. I also got the feeling that Polanski for this reason didn't want to have a graphic death for Nancy. It's as if he's had enough of murders (fictional or otherwise) for one lifetime. One can hardly blame him.