Tagged: The Count of Monte Cristo

Challenge Accepted!

     Last night I watched two movies from the Book to Movie challenge hosted over at Two Biblomaniacs. I am reading a set NYR list and therefore the films I can watch are limited to those books, but oh what fun! Yesterday while cleaning the kitchen I watched Brave New World, and The Count Of Monte Cristo.

Brave New World: 1998 – Peter Gallagher, Leonard Nimoy.
    The book was intense, sad, and then some what a jarring rip off at the end. It had a balanced feel of innocence in a time of debauchery, freedom in the midst of oppression, and a quasi happiness floating like a soap-bubble through hell. The movie seemed to have taken the set, props, and character names from the novel and hosted a totally different play. While I understand editing and screen cuts are needed, this simply wasn’t the same story. The actors did a fine job, they committed to the strange and odd people and managed to have an ok movie… if I hadn’t read the haunting beauty of the book, I wouldn’t have known the soul had been taken out of the story.

 The Count of Monte Cristo: 2002 – James Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris.
     Ah – again. Okay so the movie was fun, fast paced, and visually stunning. I loved Jim Caviezel and Richard Harris in their roles, and seeing Luigi Vampa on-screen was excellent – however. Okay wait before I go all “they changed the story line, they messed with characters, they left two-thirds of the novel out”, I want you to understand that yes, I am more than aware the book to movie version that I would approve of would be roughly 24 hours long. Honestly I belive if I had been saddled with the task of placing that tome of Dumas’ onto film I couldn’t have done a better job….(with the exception of the ‘best friends’ who never really were even acquaintances in the book part). I think they boiled things down and took the parts they wanted and it worked. I should leave it there. I will.

     Two more down and guess what I’m watching tonight? The Woman in White! I am actually kind of scared that Fosco isn’t going to be as compelling as I want him to be, that I won’t love this version of Marian Halcombe. Also I have A Tale of Two Cities, guess who plays Darnay/Carton?! Prince Humperdink :) ha! 

Ciao

Moi xoxo

Not Like I Had Enough Going On Eh?

     So recently, like on Friday, I stumbled upon this super awesome blog called Two Bibliomaniacs. I found them via the Follow Friday blog hop (hint hint it works!).

     These two are pretty sweet.
They have lists – I love lists!
They appreciate good literature – I love really good literature!
They have a witty sense of humour – I have a witty sense of humour!
They host a Book To Movie Challenge – I joined!

     Wait what? oh ya, look over here. So not only are these two bloggers cool but they vlog too. Or they used to? I haven’t really perused their whole awesomeness yet but I will. I did watch this vlog that talked about how they weren’t going to do this thing anymore but now they were going to do a new thing… anyway. The new thing is a Read the Book – Watch the Movie challenge from June 2011 to Dec 31 2012? I’m pretty sure, and I think I could win some steak knives, or some cookies.

     Whatever the reason, I got sucked in. Maybe because I just watched The Color Purple and I’m all excited about it. Maybe because I’ve been keeping notes on the movies I must see: The Count of Monte Cristo, A Tale of Two Cities, who knows! Maybe it’s cause now I get to make a new tag. All I know is I’m at least one down! SO why not? Join me if you dare!

Moi xoxo

 

Quotes from The Count of Monte Cristo

     I love hearing this book. I want to write down everything! Oh I know, I’m either hot or I’m cold, so today I’m hot! This book rules. Dumas rocks my world. So what? So enjoy :)

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My Favorite So Far…

▪ There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live…. the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.

▪ …. I know the world is a drawing-room from which we must retire politely and honestly; that is, with a bow, and our debts of honor paid.

▪ “What a fool I was” said he, “not to tear my heart out on the day I resolved to avenge myself!”

▪ And all this — all this, because my heart, which I thought dead, was only sleeping; because it has awakened and has begun to beat again, because I have yielded to the pain of the emotion excited in my breast by a woman’s voice.

▪ Joy to hearts which have suffered long is like the dew on the ground after a long drought; both the heart and the ground absorb that beneficent moisture falling on them, and nothing is outwardly apparent.

See Hear Speak

Source: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=118340134870228&comments
 Earlier this week I posted a question on the merits of ‘hearing’ vs ‘reading’ a book. I am currently on chapter 28 of The Count of Monte Cristo, and it’s awesome. So awesome in fact that even though I’m madly coding invoices, answering emails, and inputting invoices into the computer all at the same time I am absorbing literature… to be weirdly flowery with my language.
 I thought I was going to miss more, I thought I was going to lose the tangible experience of feeling pages, and scribbling in margins. I’m not. I’m now pausing, re listening to, and writing out sentences and passages in my journal. This actually further hammers the points home!
 Remember studying for tests in high school? They say to use all your senses. Well I am. I’m hearing the word, speaking the word, writing it down and therefore seeing the word. This all leads to a lot of Alexander Dumas on the brain. Here’s my favorite passage so far ~
     I possessed over five thousand volumes in my library in Rome, but after reading them over many times I found out that with one hundred and fifty well chosen books a man possesses a complete analysis of all human knowledge; or at least all that is either useful of desirable to be acquainted with.

The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexander Dumas