I reread War and Peace a year or so back, after the last TV version, and really meant to write a blog-post about it, but I hardly ever post here any more (and excuse myself by muttering that the more hours I put into crafting a post the less response it gets, though that's unfair when I barely read or respond to other people now).
Anyway, a few random snippets from what I would have said (may be some spoilers but I imagine you know a lot of the plot anyway):
Gosh, I wish I could have edited this. He has a very repetitive style and I could sub a lot of the repetition out.
Someone else: I expect you'd have cut the battle scenes. Me: NO! The battle scenes are so much more interesting in the book than on screen. On screen it's just lots of people rushing round while things explode, and you've no idea what's going on, which is probably what it's like on a battlefield but rather dull when you're not in danger yourself. In the book, you're usually approaching the battle from the PoV of Andrei, who's an officer with a keen interest in military strategy, so you know what's at stake in this battle, what the plan is, and how exactly the plan degenerates into a chaotic mess.
Andrew Davies, you cad! Prince Vasily did do right by Boris Drubetskoy, reluctantly obliged by his sense of duty.
Andrew Davies, are you on some kind of anti-Bechdel mission? In the book, Natasha and Sonya hold conversations which are not about men they might marry. In particular, when Andrei overhears Natasha luxuriating in a summer night and fantasising about flying out of her window, he is rather disappointed to hear that the young ladies of the house are not talking about him.
And though Andrei has a sense of rejuvenation after seeing Natasha for the first time, on her father's country estate, rather than thinking "Gosh, I might marry that girl", he's inspired to return to Moscow and volunteer for a committee on military reform.
Ooh, Natasha has synaesthesia!
Tolstoy forgets things about his characters - I was startled by the initial description of Countess Rostova as a woman whose health has been wrecked by frequent pregnancies (and the fact that she must have lost several children, comparing the number of pregnancies with the number of children we meet), but much later on he describes her as having maintained her strength and looks until [shattering event].
It's a shame to cut out Vera Rostova; she's not a very interesting person in herself, but the scene in which her father is totally outmanoeuvred over her marriage is a telling stage in the decline of the Rostovs.
Helene keeps being described as very stupid, and aristocratic society as deluded in thinking her clever, but the one time we get into her PoV she is handling her options skilfully.
OK, Lev, I've got the point about Napoleon not driving history by now.
Of all the dramatisations I've seen or heard - I imprinted on the BBC 26-part TV marathon in 1972, but now I think that Radio Four version a couple of years ago, with Paterson Joseph as Pierre, does it best.
Directors can't resist Pierre, Karatayev and the rest trudging through the snow, but actually the snow hits the retreat after Pierre is rescued.
Everyone hates the final glimpse of the families, but I rather like the way the marriages are OK but flawed (a husband's temper, a wife's jealousy).
Maybe, having written that, I could work it up into a post after all.
no subject
Anyway, a few random snippets from what I would have said (may be some spoilers but I imagine you know a lot of the plot anyway):
Gosh, I wish I could have edited this. He has a very repetitive style and I could sub a lot of the repetition out.
Someone else: I expect you'd have cut the battle scenes.
Me: NO! The battle scenes are so much more interesting in the book than on screen. On screen it's just lots of people rushing round while things explode, and you've no idea what's going on, which is probably what it's like on a battlefield but rather dull when you're not in danger yourself. In the book, you're usually approaching the battle from the PoV of Andrei, who's an officer with a keen interest in military strategy, so you know what's at stake in this battle, what the plan is, and how exactly the plan degenerates into a chaotic mess.
Andrew Davies, you cad! Prince Vasily did do right by Boris Drubetskoy, reluctantly obliged by his sense of duty.
Andrew Davies, are you on some kind of anti-Bechdel mission? In the book, Natasha and Sonya hold conversations which are not about men they might marry. In particular, when Andrei overhears Natasha luxuriating in a summer night and fantasising about flying out of her window, he is rather disappointed to hear that the young ladies of the house are not talking about him.
And though Andrei has a sense of rejuvenation after seeing Natasha for the first time, on her father's country estate, rather than thinking "Gosh, I might marry that girl", he's inspired to return to Moscow and volunteer for a committee on military reform.
Ooh, Natasha has synaesthesia!
Tolstoy forgets things about his characters - I was startled by the initial description of Countess Rostova as a woman whose health has been wrecked by frequent pregnancies (and the fact that she must have lost several children, comparing the number of pregnancies with the number of children we meet), but much later on he describes her as having maintained her strength and looks until [shattering event].
It's a shame to cut out Vera Rostova; she's not a very interesting person in herself, but the scene in which her father is totally outmanoeuvred over her marriage is a telling stage in the decline of the Rostovs.
Helene keeps being described as very stupid, and aristocratic society as deluded in thinking her clever, but the one time we get into her PoV she is handling her options skilfully.
OK, Lev, I've got the point about Napoleon not driving history by now.
Of all the dramatisations I've seen or heard - I imprinted on the BBC 26-part TV marathon in 1972, but now I think that Radio Four version a couple of years ago, with Paterson Joseph as Pierre, does it best.
Directors can't resist Pierre, Karatayev and the rest trudging through the snow, but actually the snow hits the retreat after Pierre is rescued.
Everyone hates the final glimpse of the families, but I rather like the way the marriages are OK but flawed (a husband's temper, a wife's jealousy).
Maybe, having written that, I could work it up into a post after all.