Monomania radar: Dorothea strikes again

Picture source: www.s3books.com

Since my last post, I have been given extra motivation to finish Middlemarch within a reasonable time frame: I have found out through the IMDB boards and via this post that Sam Mendes is set to direct the first big screen adaptation of George Eliot's classic, coming to a screen near us sometime in 2009.

Andrew Davies is is currently working on the screenplay. Quelle surprise! Does this man ever take a break? (This informative post from Screen Stories seems to indicate he doesn't) So he's been drafted because of the stripes he earned with his previous Middlemarch version (the BBC 1994 mini) but I confess I would have loved to see Dorothea through a fresh pair of eyes, preferably those of Sandy Welch (big favorite of mine) or Emma Thompson (who wrote that acclaimed script for Sense and Sensibility in 1995). Plus I do think Davies's 1994 screenplay lacked the spark I normally associate with his work.

Still, I live in hope that Mendes's movie could be really good. It seems Davies will focus on the central couples in the novel which I think is the right approach: on the big screen one simply does not have time to develop all of the peripheral characters crafted by George Eliot. But Davies also needs to find the spark, the wow factor... He's done it before with Pride and Prejudice (and many other classics), so he can do it again. On my part I must hurry up and finish this mammoth book before then - I am not exactly a fast reader!

See also:

This article in the Guardian

Of Dorotheas, Lizzies and Janes

As I slowly tackle Middlemarch (which I am very much enjoying) I find myself admonishing Dorothea Brooke for her poor judgment and tasting a little morsel of schadenfreude in this process.

Can you blame me? Dorothea is a wonderful character but her blinkered approach to life makes her difficult to side with (I have the same problem with Isabel Archer - but more on Isabel vs. Dorothea later), leading me to comparisons with literary sympathies Elizabeth Bennet, who takes herself a lot more lightly, and Jane Eyre, who always judges soundly and whose moral superiority flows unaffected.

With these comparisons in mind and inspired by some of the apt chapter opening verses in Middlemarch I wrote 3 - very amateurish - mini poems, one for each heroine. Sometimes I just cannot help but dispense unsolicited advice…

Myopic

(or advice for Dorothea Brooke)

Oh Dorothea, what short sight!
You beat around the bush,
You throw away your youth,
Reverend Casaubon, you soon shall find
Is not a reverential mind…

Do not judge a book by its cover

(or advice for Elizabeth Bennet)

Lizzy dear how you must pine,
You misjudged a man divine
But fret not, do not mope!
He will be back, with renewed hope.

Old flame

(or advice for Jane Eyre - not that she needs any!)

Thornfield went down in flames
Leaving poor Rochester maimed
Run Jane, from St. John’s fire-less hearth
Back to old master and new mirth

Tea Tree: Part Two

Following on from this earlier post, here's part two of my "Bluffer’s Guide to Tea", with a look at miscellaneous teas:

White tea, so called because of the slight white sheen to its leaves (see pictured), is mainly sourced from China (the quality stuff is found in the Fujian province). It is the least bitter of all tea types because its leaves are barely fermented: this means that even if you go beyond the 5 minute brewing mark, it will not taste as sharp and zingy as over brewed teas normally do.

White tea is not as widely produced as its green cousin, but due to its reputation as a "healthy drink" it is now easily found in supermarkets and food stores, as well as the usual tea counters.

Red and non caffeinated teas

If, like me, you are not so keen on herbal teas like chamomile and peppermint but still want to have a cuppa at night time, then look out for these tea types:

Red tea (aka Rooibos, Redbush) -

Red tea comes from a wild plant, the South African red bush. It can be used as a 100% caffeine free alternative to black tea and tastes great with milk. It is a powerful diuretic and contains vitamin C.

If you are not familiar with Rooibos tea I would recommend starting with Mariage Freres's Marco Polo Rouge (pictured right) or Dragonfly's extensive range (the vanilla and English breakfast flavours are great).

Mugi cha -

This is a refreshing tea-like drink made of Barley, with a taste that reminds me of a popular Brazilian ice tea drink: the "mate". The Japanese tend to drink Mugi cha cold, sweetened with a little sugar syrup. It is very easy to find in Japanese food stores and in summer you can sample it at Toraya in Paris (see below) and Abeno in London.



Soba cha (pictured left) - is brewed out of dried buckwheat grains, which are alleged to promote good blood circulation. Its flavour is reminiscent of the Japanese Genmaicha (see link in the first paragraph). Soba cha is hard to track down in Europe: in Paris Toraya sell it at 12 euros per pack (or 4,40 euros a cup). In London you can taste it at Zuma and its sister restaurant Roka, or you can buy it ready bottled from Japanese food stores.


If you know of any London shops selling dried Soba cha please let me know.

Happy brewing!

Austenstock

Now that the ITV Jane Austen season is over (sigh!) and IMDB users have begun to officially rate each production, I thought it would be fun to chart how each of Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are performing as compared to their peers (ie. each previous corresponding adaptation) and against a hypothetical "BBC Period Drama index":

Data source: IMDB - Click to enlarge picture

Stock symbols:

BBCPD = BBC Period Drama Index, a basket of recent BBC productions rated well above 8.5 including such heavyweights as: Pride and Prejudice 1995, North and South 2004, Bleak House 2005 and Jane Eyre 2006.

MP 07 = ITV Mansfield Park, broadcast March 2007

MP 99 = Patricia Rozema's Mansfield Park movie

NA 07 - ITV Northanger Abbey, broadcast March 2007

NA 86 = The infamous (Maggie Wadey scripted) BBC production

Pers 07 = ITV Persuasion, broadcast April 2007

Pers 95 = BBC's Persuasion featuring Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root in the lead roles

Commentary:

Stock: MP 07
Recommendation = Underweight

Although I disagree with the IMDB voters who have placed this production beneath the 1999 movie, it is true that we remain without a satisfying version of Mansfield Park. Perhaps producers should give up trying to adapt this notoriously challenging book? We'll see in another 10 years or until the next version comes up.

Stock: NA 07
Recommendation = Buy

The hands of "Austen ace" Andrew Davies and captivating performances proved a killer combination, thus giving the 86 version a much deserved boot and crowning this production as the season's best. The DVD is a worthy addition to any period drama permanent collection.

Stock: Pers 07
Recommendation = Buy

As shown in the graph, this production seems almost tied with its 1995 predecessor but I expect it to plateau slightly beneath it in due course (see my May projections): many viewers were unhappy with the artistic licences taken here. Personally, I maintain an optimistic view of this production and would recommend it based on the acting strengths of Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones who in my opinion outperformed 95's Root and Hinds.



Conclusion

While the BBC remains the undisputed authority in period drama (despite one or two slips, one of which is charted above - see NA 86), I thought the Jane Austen season was on the whole very enjoyable. With bigger budgets and more attention to detail perhaps ITV can in the future (with its forthcoming Wuthering Heights?) challenge BBC's supremacy.

A New World at the British Museum

Unable to photograph the exhibition, I captured the Museum's inner courtyard instead

Still under the spell of Terence Malick’s breathtaking movie “The New World” which I saw last December, I rushed to catch this similarly named exhibition at the British Museum.

The exhibition features miscellaneous objects, paintings and drawings which transport us back to Elizabethan voyages of discovery, from Martin Frobisher’s failed attempt to find the Northwest Passage (resulting in much truculence between his men and the Inuits of the Artic) to the expeditions led by Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Richard Greenville, which culminated in the founding of Jamestown, Virginia.

Its focal point are several drawings by John White, adventurer and governor to the first British colony in the New World (the "lost colony" of Roanoke): these amazing drawings are the earliest surviving records of natives and nature seen through foreign eyes (see a slideshow and article from the online Telegraph here).

I highly recommend each of "A New World" (the exhibition) and "The New World" (the movie) and agree with those IMDB reviewers who described the latter as a transcendental experience. Both captivated me as they seemed concerned with portraying individuals - not just stereotypes - dealing with the impact of this new and strange world on their lives:

In Malick's movie we see how the arrival of settlers destabilizes the outer and inner worlds of a soon-to-be colonized Pocahontas.

Photo: John Smith and Pocahontas speaking through basics in The New World

Meanwhile, the exhibition shows us the colonizer’s viewpoint: in addition to examining White’s drawings we gain some insights into his life. For instance, we learn that his daughter gave birth to the first child ever born from British settlers in US soil.

Later on we discover that while White was abroad his family and other settlers mysteriously disappeared following trouble with the locals and the hasty dissolution of the Roanoke colony. White returned and searched for them in vain.




Other than White’s beautiful drawings, there were many other precious objects I wanted to capture on camera (sadly not allowed) - some examples:

Pictish Warriors:

John White used evocative drawings of an ancient northern Scotland tribe to show to any potential settlers how the British past had also been savage. I actually thought White's woman warrior (pictured right) seemed very stylish and perhaps too glamorous for a savage...

Map of the world (Pierre Desceliers, 1550):

The exhibition opens with this beautifully intricate 16th century map in which the new world is only starting to take shape. Featuring sirens, sea creatures, polar bears and cannibals, this made me think how much more fun maps were back then!

Black Mirror (Aztec, 15th century):

This large piece of polished volcanic rock attracted me because it seemed to go hand in hand with the Arcade Fire song of the same name. It was known to the Aztecs as "the devil’s looking glass" and used by them to conjure up evil spirits.