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Author Topic: "The Haunting"  (Read 2654 times)

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Offline Patti Feinberg

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"The Haunting"
« on: October 22, 2003, 02:00:20 AM »
Fri, 10/24, 9:30pm, "The Haunting", with Julie Harris is on TCM.

Enjoy!

AND...
Sunday, 10/26, "Wuthering Heights" (which is what a soon to come plot is losely based on) 6pm, again TCM.

Patti
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Offline Philippe Cordier

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2003, 04:43:59 AM »
Thanks, Patti.

I finally saw this version of Wuthering Heights after waiting about four years after getting cable and it not airing.

I thought it was quite good up until Merle Oberon's  A - G - O - N - I - Z - I - N - G  death scene.

Why can't someone do a faithful, complete, and effective version of this novel?!??



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Offline Mysterious Benefactor

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2003, 05:37:40 AM »
Quote from: Vlad on October 22, 2003, 04:43:59 AM
Why can't someone do a faithful, complete, and effective version of this novel?!??

Excellent question, Vlad. Too bad no one seems to have the answer.  ::)

When I'm in a mood for WH, I tend to watch the 1939 Olivier/Oberon version followed by the 1992 Fiennes/Binoche version, which mostly deals with the second half of the book. I have a feeling the story is just too long to ever see it completely dramatized in one film - and so far all WH miniseries (like the Masterpiece Theatre version a few years back) have fallen flat...

IB  [diablo]
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Offline Raineypark

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2003, 11:51:09 AM »
Rainey's Personal List of Worst Novels Ever Read:

1) "Wuthering Heights"

The only redeeming feature being the fact that every wretched character in it comes to the appropriately miserable (and much deserved) end.
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Offline Julia99

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2003, 12:54:42 PM »
Quote from: Raineypark on October 22, 2003, 11:51:09 AM
Rainey's Personal List of Worst Novels Ever Read:

1)"Wuthering Heights"

I agree it's a terrible story. . .after i finally read it 2 years ago, i
wondered. .what is all the hoopla about..Heathcliff is an absolute sadistic, evil ass!
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Offline Patti Feinberg

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2003, 05:33:21 PM »
Quote from: Julia99 on October 22, 2003, 12:54:42 PM
[I agree it's a terrible story. . .after i finally read it 2 years ago, i
wondered. .what is all the hoopla about..Heathcliff is an absolute sadistic, evil ass!

[spoiler]So J.Frid really pulls it off as 'Bramwell' then![/spoiler]

Patti... who used to drool over young Laurence Olivier
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Offline Philippe Cordier

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #6 on: October 23, 2003, 06:51:39 AM »
Quote from: Julia99 on October 22, 2003, 12:54:42 PM
I agree it's a terrible story. . .after i finally read it 2 years ago, i
wondered. .what is all the hoopla about..Heathcliff is an absolute sadistic, evil ass!

It is a terrible story, as you say, but so well-constructed and fascinating ...  And who says you have to like the characters?   ;D  Anyone expecting a sentimental romance is in for a shock!

Ralph Fiennes brought out Heathcliff's sadism the best of any of the Heathcliffs in the screen versions I've seen.  There is something intriguing about him too -- difficult to capture, though Fiennes definitely got the intensity.
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Offline Raineypark

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #7 on: October 23, 2003, 10:57:29 AM »
Vlad wrote:
Quote
It is a terrible story, as you say, but so well-constructed and fascinating ...  And who says you have to like the characters?   ;D  Anyone expecting a sentimental romance is in for a shock!

Did I say the problem was that I found the characters unlikeable?  I found them boring.  The relentless single-note self-absorption was like having to read the same sentence over and over for several hundred pages.  Bad enough in one character.....unbearable in EVERY character.

I don't require characters that I like.....I require charcters and circumstances that make me give a damn what happens next.  A man who becomes a monster because a shallow, vain girl gives him the back of her hand isn't a tragic hero.....he's a twit.  A girl who can be as self-centered as Cathy isn't a romantic heroine when she dies....she's an object lesson in come-uppance.

I didn't give a damn who died, why they died, or in what order they died.  When it was over I was merely glad to have been put out of their misery.

Ralph Fiennes is a brilliant actor who could play the part of an empty box and make one weep.....but even HIS presence couldn't make me sit through this story.
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Offline Philippe Cordier

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #8 on: October 23, 2003, 05:59:00 PM »
Quote from: Raineypark on October 23, 2003, 10:57:29 AM
Did I say the problem was that I found the characters unlikeable?

Well, no.  I was actually responding to Julia99's comment, which I quoted.  And it certainly was not meant to be an attack.   :o

That said, I think you're in the minority on this, Raineypark ... at least I've met more people (usually female, usually literature majors) who say "Wuthering Heights" is their favorite book, and only one or two people who didn't care for it.  Katherine Anne Porter called it one of three perfect novels.

I guess a personal response to a work is a matter of taste, though.

And I think there's something compelling about Heathcliff ... disturbing, but compelling.


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Offline Raineypark

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #9 on: October 23, 2003, 06:15:37 PM »
Quote from: Vlad on October 23, 2003, 05:59:00 PM
That said, I think you're in the minority on this, Raineypark ... at least I've met more people (usually female, usually literature majors) who say "Wuthering Heights" is their favorite book, and only one or two people who didn't care for it.  Katherine Anne Porter called it one of three perfect novels.

Oh, believe me, Vlad, I know  ;)....  I had to argue my point of view on this book in not one, but two college literature courses....one Victorian English Lit, and the other Women's Lit.

It was like defaming motherhood.....the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth was astonishing.  One Prof thanked me.....he'd never had students shriek at one another over an assignment before and found it exhilarating!!
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"Do not go gentle into that good night.  Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Dylan Thomas

Offline Philippe Cordier

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #10 on: October 23, 2003, 06:28:23 PM »
Quote from: Raineypark on October 23, 2003, 06:15:37 PM
Oh, believe me, Vlad, I know  ;)....  I had to argue my point of view on this book in not one, but two college literature courses....one Victorian English Lit, and the other Women's Lit.

Although we disagree about the book, I've been known to take the less traveled road myself at times ... it can be lonely, but satisfying, to think outside the conventional, accepted views that everyone else seems to repeat like a mantra!

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Offline Raineypark

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #11 on: October 23, 2003, 06:33:59 PM »
Quote from: Vlad on October 23, 2003, 06:28:23 PM
Although we disagree about the book, I've been known to take the less traveled road myself at times ... it can be lonely, but satisfying, to think outside the conventional, accepted views that everyone else seems to repeat like a mantra!

Exactly!  ;)
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Offline jennifer

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #12 on: October 23, 2003, 08:19:42 PM »
Quote from: Vlad on October 23, 2003, 06:51:39 AM
It is a terrible story, as you say, but so well-constructed and fascinating ...  And who says you have to like the characters?   ;D  Anyone expecting a sentimental romance is in for a shock!

Ralph Fiennes brought out Heathcliff's sadism the best of any of the Heathcliffs in the screen versions I've seen.  There is something intriguing about HER too -- difficult to capture, though Fiennes definitely got the intensity.

agree with you totally Vlad that was the best version of the story
but i do admit i watch the Timothy Dalton version with the sound down >:D
Aston Kutcher is a little boy toy compared to Dalton :-*
jennifer
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Offline Mark Rainey

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #13 on: October 23, 2003, 10:45:25 PM »
Count me as belonging to Raineypark's minority contingent.

I must admit I haven't even attempted Wuthering Heights since I was in college, all those many years ago... but the times I did, I found the book utterly uncompelling. For the very reasons Raineypark lists, I despised the characters. I don't have any problem with unlikeable or even unsympathetic characters; I do have a problem with characters who are not engaging. The most engaging moment I had with the book was when I chucked it high into the air and watched it splat into a big mud puddle out front of the cafeteria at Ferrum College. ;)

--Mark[/b][/color]
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Offline Raineypark

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Re:"The Haunting"
« Reply #14 on: October 23, 2003, 10:56:14 PM »
Quote from: Mark Rainey on October 23, 2003, 10:45:25 PM
The most engaging moment I had with the book was when I chucked it high into the air and watched it splat into a big mud puddle out front of the cafeteria at Ferrum College. ;)

YES!.....I wish I'd thought of that!! [vryevl]
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"Do not go gentle into that good night.  Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
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