It is odd what we sometime remember (or do not) years later about a film (or a book, for that matter). I read the book for the first time a “long time ago” and also saw the film a “long time ago”. But I just saw the film again, quite recently, almost by chance. I must have first read the book and seen the film, on the initial occasion, at enough of a remove from one another that they were completely distinct in my mind. Recently, when I tried to recall the film, not much came back to me aside from the music! I remembered the harpsichord. It may have been the first time I had heard harpsichord. I’m not sure I even knew what one was at the time. Now, and for some years past, I have listened to and loved a great deal of keyboard music on the harpsichord. But now I have to say, seeing the film recently, I was rather disappointed in the music – there was the “harpsichord” but the whole score was really faux-baroque (as rjpdigiacomo nicely put it) – and not very idiomatic – less baroque really and more English Music Hall. (Please correct me if I am unfair to English Music Hall Music or the film!).
But to compare the book and the film – that seems difficult. My impression of the film, in my recent viewing, was not as favorable as I remember (dimly). The film did not really seem to capture the spirit of the book – but, of course, I had just re-read the book! Not that the film isn’t wonderful in many ways but it may be asking too much of any film to really capture the feeling of the book. The film does capture something of the picaresque bawdy 18th century extravagance of what, Doris Lessing, brought to us by Choisya, calls “robust unhypocritical savagery” but not so much what Lessing points out exist “side by side” in the book “with people lecturing others on morality”.
And speaking of the harpsichord…Squire Weston always wants his daughter (we will be speaking of them!) to play the harpsichord as he drinks away the evening – but he doesn’t like Handel! So I recommend Handel’s Harpsichord Suites – there are a number of different recordings in print.
I really like the pace scheduled here for Fielding's book. It should be a fun ride.
