Sweet Arthur, no!

[litlover12]

Watching Matthew Macfadyen as caddish Sir Felix in The Way We Live Now is giving me one of the severest cases of cognitive dissonance I've ever had in my life. I shall be forced to rewatch Little Dorrit after this, to cleanse my mental palate.

(Incidentally, Trollope had some pretty interesting titles, no? The Way We Live Now, He Knew He was Right . . . Apparently the man wanted to leave no doubt whatsoever as to what his books were about!)

Comments

[valancy-s.livejournal.com]

It's funny, I honestly hadn't seen Matt MacF in many really nice roles when I saw Dorrit - I was used to him as a cad, or kind of a stiff. Arthur's the one who took me by surprise!

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

He has done quite a few caddish roles from what I hear, but as far as I can recall, I've only ever seen him in LD, "Pride and Prejudice," a "Miss Marple" episode, and "Robin Hood." He WAS a cad in the last, but it was such a teeny tiny role (poor guy) that it didn't make much of an impression!

[birdienl.livejournal.com]

Matthew indeed plays a terrible person in The Way We Live Now. Actually, almost all persons in this are quite horrible. I think it's one of the period drama's in which I symphatized with hardly anyone.

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

I'm getting that impression. Don't tell me what happens -- I've only gotten to the part where Marie tells Felix that she has her own money, and then he steps in horse poop (immature SNORK). But I have a feeling it's not going to be pretty.

I'm loving Shirley Henderson as Marie, by the way. What an amazing actress she is, and the things she can do with that little helium-boosted voice!

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

Not even poor Hetta? I know in the book she's an underdone, drippy, all-round inferior attempt at Amy Dorrit, but Davies and the actress really build her into a sweet, wry, intelligent, passionate character I liked quite a bit. Plus, Georgiana Longstaffe does show snobbish/racist colors in the end, but I found her plight and intelligence engaging and often sympathetic (and her suitor was a stand up man).

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

The WWLN/LD connections are very disconcerting - starting from Trollope's deliberate attempt to retell LD (financier villain, older suitor, etc - this theory propsed w/ evidence by Frank Kermode in the Penguin edition of Trollope), then Andrew Davies adapted both, casting both Matthew Macfadyen AND Maxine Peak, though in bizzarely different roles (a cad who seduces the naive country girl vs the decent damaged man who confronts the lesbian dominatrix).

Just goes to show two things - Dickens could write Trollope into the ground in quality (though not quantity - 15 novels from 300-900 pp vs 30ish novels from 600-900 pages - but who reads the latter today?), and Matthew Macfadyen is an incredibly variec and powerfully intense actor (I think his performance dominates WWLN, and the way he self-effaces in LD is amazing).

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

I really like your analysis! And I'd like to read that Frank Kermode piece.

I think some people still read Trollope, though. I'd like to read more of him myself, one of these days.