As some long time readers know, now and again my esteemed professor papa writes for us. Theme? Great Literature And Movies Wot Got Made Of Them. More elegantly said, he has posted on several literature-based movies, Age Of Innocence, Wings of The Dove, and Passage to India, among others.
This time he’s written us a piece on on James Joyce’s very short novel “The Dead,” and the movie John Huston made of it. The book is available here
If you find you only manage to see the movie, nobody will know. I promise.
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7 Responses
professor c! i will joyce it up if i can manage to finish my overdue library book, which, topically enough, is five came back: a story of hollywood and the second world war – it follows huston and four other directors through their work with the armed forces. i was just reading about how huston was stationed on one of the aleutian islands to document the war in the pacific:
“After Huston had been on Adak for a couple of weeks, he began to realize that the subject of his film might be the particular combination of boredom and fear that characterized life at this outpost – the anticipation, the mundane chores, the uneventful afternoons with nothing to do but wait for the sun to set, the lassitude (“Every day is Sunday,” he scribbled onto an early draft of the script), all of which could be unexpectedly cut short by orders for the men to abandon their chatter or poker games and head to their planes for a dry-run mission over Kiska or Attu.”
morrissey loves classic film references (the cover of the smiths’ first album is a still of alain delon in l’insoumis), so i choose to believe he got hold of that old huston script and was partially inspired to write “everyday is like sunday.” that’s today’s grand unifying theory, anyway.
Lisa, this is why I endure boyfriend jeans posts. Welcome back Professor C! You have been missed!
Thanks, GSL,
it’s good that i shared that five came back snippet with you when i did, as not fifteen minutes later the cat pulled my bookmark out and ate it.
Gosh, it’s like being in graduate school again, which is when I last read The Dead in a Joyce seminar taught by a prof who was very John Houseman-like and, as I recall, not at all partial to Angelica Huston’s portrayal. Can’t wait!
I think your prof. wasn’t alone: Anjelica H. is not especially, or at all, “Irish.” And her height may work against her in the role. But I think her bearing suits the mood and style of the film, even if it takes some getting used to.
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