17 thoughts on “Delightful Dickens: The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020)

  1. They did a really great job at the 1840s(which,I admit blasphemously,is not the death of fashion when early 1860s exist).Some of the colour choices like the pink and greens did feel a bit veering towards fashionable 50s instead of the 40s,but maybe that’s just me.

  2. I dislike Dickens too much to try any of the thousands of adaptations, though this looks watchable…

  3. A lot of this was shot in my neighbourhood in Hull! I didn’t see any of the actors, but I saw the street around the corner being set-dressed and Murdstone’s cart in the street!

  4. I’m not a fan of Dickens, but as others have mentioned, this looks watchable, especially with Tilda and the dreamy Dev. Why is Mrs Steerforth a Mrs when her son, is a Lord? Also the cast looks good together. Very cohesive.
    BTW they’ve started filming Gentlemen Jack Season 2.

  5. Swinton, Laurie, Capaldi and Patel? Yes, I’ll watch it! For a few years, I did Dickens, but Political Correctness killed Christmas, and Dickens went with it. I just wish someone would do a story about Dickens’ love life. When he was cited as a hero for helping save lives after a big train wreck, it was his mistress he was with, not his wife.

  6. Thanks for writing this. We’ll give it a whirl. Dora is a drip, but I love her fluffy pup!

  7. I absolutely love Dickens! Colourful, adventurous, dazzling writing skills. Dora is the wettest of the wets, but she’s David’s youthful folly, not a character to admire.
    This cast is brilliant. Haven’t seen it yet, but it’s on my watch list now!

      1. Nope, we Dickens lovers are here! I love his realistic stories.
        How can you not love Bleak House with Gillian Anderson and Carey Milligan 😍 “Shake me up Judy” 😂😂😂

  8. Thanks for this–I just watched it two nights ago! Was gobsmacked at the little plaid shirts on the Victorian children (because I had questioned that in the film)–and that little dude who played young David was so sweet!! I nominate Dev Patel to be the next Doctor Who–he can keep his costumes from this movie! And even though Dora is totally annoyingly drippy in the book, this woman did a nice job (she also, slightly weirdly/Oedipally? played David’s mother). She was self-aware that a way that the novel’s character isn’t, and is rather heartbreaking when she offers to hold the pens to make herself useful, and then voluntarily writes herself out of the story–which replaces the obligatory poignant-death-scene in the novel.
    David’s teal/tan print waistcoat shows up on Mr. Dick at the end of the film; I liked that, as sort of a “Cool waistcoat, dude, can I borrow that sometime?”

    1. I haven’t seen this yet, but I am aware of the change in the story regarding Dora’s fate. I’d love to ask Armando Ianucci why he chose to go this route. Is it because killing Dora off has some rather unfortunate implications…you know, “if a woman isn’t capable of keeping house then she’s only fit for the grave”? Or is it because of the parallels to Dickens’ own life? DC was Dickens’ most autobiographical novel, and Dora was a stand-in for the two women Dickens had loved up to that point…Maria Beadnell was the flighty, girlish, childlike side of Dora and his own wife Catherine was (supposedly) the model for the hopeless-at-housekeeping-or-practical-responsibility side of her. Could Ianucci have thought that Dora’s death from the novel was a little too nasty on Dickens’ part, especially considering how he later treated Catherine?

  9. This was advertised to me a lot and the cast is fantastic, but I wasn’t sure what to expect with the director–like, Death of Stalin was brilliant but it seemed to reflect a very specific style/viewpoint/artistic vision that made me less certain of this. Glad to hear it was enjoyable; I’ll keep an eye out for it.

  10. Ooooh, I am IN for this!

    I love Dickens (guess I’m in the minority!), though David Copperfield isn’t my favorite (Bleak House has my heart), mainly I was always annoyed at David for marrying Dora and then felt she died super conveniently, so he could realize Agnes had been the one the whole time. Maybe realistic young man folly, but kinda painful to read.

    This adaptation looks colorful and wonderful and right up my alley!!

  11. Just watched this. I loved it!!! It was so fast paced and colorful, like the 2020 Emma. So fun!

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