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The Hours Movie-Book Parallel and Polina, Danser Sa Vie Review
The Hours Movie-Book Parallel and Polina, Danser Sa Vie Review
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The Hours Movie-Book Parallel and Polina, Danser Sa Vie Review
The Hours Movie-Book Parallel and Polina, Danser Sa Vie Review
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The Hours Movie-Book Parallel and Polina, Danser Sa Vie Review
The Hours Movie-Book Parallel and Polina, Danser Sa Vie Review
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Cernat Andreea
Cloe, anul II, Franceza
I chose for this parallel the movie The Hours - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274558/
directed by Stephen Daldry, in the interpretation of starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and
Nicole Kidman based on Michael Cunningham's 1998 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
It is usually said that books are far better as experience than the movies they are based on.
In the case of the book I chose I would dare to say it was the other way around. Of course, this
might be because I saw the movie twice or three times before reading the book and somehow
while reading I couldn’t stop from trying to match the descriptions to those in the scenes from
the movie. I wonder if it would have been differently if I would have read the book first.
However, for this particular plot the director had the advantage of image shifting to create easily
the setting for the three different time spans while in the book you have to create your own
setting for each story and shift them regularly.
I will only emphasize a few features that appear differently in the movie and in the book.
Firstly, I have to explain that the action takes place in three different periods and follows the
lives of three women whose stories are very much interconnected through the means of the same
book. The first period is around 1923 when Virginia Woolf is writing the novel Mrs. Dalloway,
the next period is in 1949 when we see the American housewife Laura Brown who is actually
reading the book Virginia Woolf wrote, and the third narrative takes place in the late twentieth
century when Clarissa Vaughn alias the protagonist in Mrs. Dalloway is actually living her life.
It is interesting that all these span times center around one day from each character/actress life
but it somehow seems as you have access to much more than one day.
In the book, we see the world through Clarissa’s (and the two other protagonists’) eyes, we have
access to her inner feelings and thoughts through an omniscient narrator while in the movie we
can only imagine her thoughts through Meryl Streep amazing acting (she manages to express so
much through her gestures, sighs, mimic but of course, all these have to be debunked). If I would
have read the book first I would probably have struggled to match all her acting to her thoughts
and feelings I had access to in the book thanks to the omniscient narrator. However, I could only
be glad to see while reading the book that I identified correctly the pressure Clarissa was feeling
and how much she was still anchored in the past although she seemed to live her life as an
independent woman.
The idea of homosexuality appears very little in the movie while in the book we are revealed
much more about Richards’ affair with Louis, a friend of theirs who was invited at the party
Clarissa was hosting. From the very first pages of the book the strong relationship between
Clarissa and Richard is portrayed, a connection based on communication expressed freely while
they were approaching controversial topics that Clarissa is recalling with melancholy while
buying the flowers for the party. In the movie, this connection is proved by her devotion in
taking care of everything for him and even if everything happens in one day, it seems Clarissa is
doing it forever.
Both in the book and in the movie Clarissa is presented as full of vitality, happy at the thought of
seeing the others happy (her daughter, the woman she is living with as a companion), Richard’s
novel appears as “unreadable”, hard, difficult to understand, he even wonders whether he would
have won the prize if he wouldn’t have been found with AIDS. However, he seems pleased about
his work not being understood and I had the feeling that it wasn’t for the quality of his book
itself but for the fact his protagonist was Clarissa herself as Mrs. Dalloway.
Virginia is presented as having her usual headaches which interrupts her from her work, as
having the “flow of consciousness’’ specific to all her writing which makes her rather an
unreliable woman both in the novel and in movie (her husband takes care of her, doctors as well,
the servants are replacing the household duties for her). Everyone seems to be very worried
about her eating and resting which seems to be a rest from all the psychic consuming she was
always a victim of. In the book, Michal Cunningham presents Virginia’s writing as an amazing
work of art while in the movie her husband confesses there is an activity which is allowed to her
(due to her condition) to keep her mind busy.
Laura, the American house-wife is amazed by Virginia’s intelligence and so much influenced by
her faith (she drowned herself in a river after finishing the last novel Between acts – hints to the
paper she left to her husband appears at the beginning of this movie and in the beginning of
“Between the Acts”). Laura is always stuck somewhere in between what she should do (as a
normal wife with a 3-year-old kid and another one on the way) and what she feels like doing
(reading as a means of escaping the reality). There is a very relevant scene in the movie at the
table where her husband said he took her “to make a happy woman out of her” whereas in the
book we have an insight on what she thought when she accepted him as a husband (as it was the
right and natural thing to do for a woman).
Laura is confused about the fact Virginia killed herself and she is thinking how can someone so
wise, complete, with such a wide view of things (probably referring of the whole personality of
Virginia Woolf or in the specific novel she was reading –Mrs Dalloway) could have killed
herself. “What can happen to people. for God’s sake!” she says. Both in the movie and in the
book, we assist at Laura’s struggle between what she feels inside and what she should feel as a
normal wife having a normal life. There is such a great discrepancy between her inner and outer
world, we see how she is trying to comfort herself (making the cake, trying to fulfill her duties as
a mom and “happy wife”) from the confusion, disorder she is feeling. She felt as if she did not fit
in her life but this we can only imply in the movie by her “distraction” and mechanical way of
doing things. In the book, we have more details on how she was self-motivating herself to do
what a woman in her condition should. The life in the book she was reading was more intense
and attractive to her than the real life she should enjoy living.
Laura’s three-year-old kid (the old Richard now having AIDS) is presented as a kid avid of her
love, always watching her next move. In the movie, I had the feeling that she is insensitive
towards him as the status of wife did not fit her, presented as she did not know how to behave
around him sometimes and as if this consumes her energy and mental strength a lot (she tried to
kill herself in a hotel room by taking some pills) but in the book the author describes her deep
feelings of love she had for her child.
A scene that impressed me a lot happened in the car when Laura gave up on her intention to kill
herself and went to take back the kid from the lady she entrusted him and the kid said as some
point while she was driving back home: “Mom, I love you!” as she really needed to hear this
whilst in general, this should be the line a mom should say to a child to comfort and ensure him
of her love.
Richard’s apartment is the setting where the most astonishing event happens in front of Clarissa,
when he decides to end his life as it wasn’t worth living anymore and where he tries to make
Clarissa acknowledge he is only kept alive by her will/ to her comfort. In the movie, we only see
a messy and dark room whereas in the book we have a “vivid” description. As I read the book in
Romanian language I will quote it in Romanian for fear not to lose the essence: “Apartamentul
lui, ca intotdeauna intunecos si inchis, supraincalzit, plin de miresme de salvie si ienupar pe care
Richard le ardea pentru a acoperi mirosurile de boala...Apartamentul are mai mult ca orice un aer
subacvatic. Clarissa merge prin el ca si cum ar negocia recuperarea unui vapor scufundat” (p. 54)
These are the differences I noticed in making this parallel. Personally, I loved the movie
more but this also might be an effect of seeing the movie first and having the advantage of
shifting in the three time spans more easily than in the book where I needed 2 minutes after each
chapter to set myself in the other setting.
I chose "Polina, danser sa vie" for a review as it was the most recent movie I watched lately that
I really enjoyed. Also, I had the change to watch it at Elvire Popesco French Institute when
Juliette Binoche was invited along with the co-director of the movie and witnessed their
comments at the end.
I am still now sure in which category I should include it: in the category of artistic movies,
drama, fantasy or tragedy as it has it all.
The main plot centered around the dance classes Polina attended preparing for Bolshoi Ballet.
The tough experience with a severe professor, the exhausting rehearsals, the sacrifice and the
harsh life her parents was leading to afford her classes and around the transformations she
suffered being in love and failing, trying to make a living out of her gift as a dancer and failing
again.
All these shifting moments were faced with the beauty of an art by this character. Even if she
was rehearsing until exhaustion or waste nights working and drinking in clubs you tended to
empathize with her and to a certain extent to exonerate her of the responsibility she was
supposed to have in respect for all the hard work she had invested by then in this dream. She
was so passionate when it came to dance that you tended to forget to judge her for the
irresponsible behavior she sometimes had and maybe lack of consideration she expressed by not
being always committed to her parents’ sacrifices.
Either way, even if you disagreed her choices you could at least understand her behavior
considering the pressure she had to face every day and maybe even identify with her character
alongside.
The director presented all her experiences by means of artistic images, slow motion scenes,
songs and dance and I confess that only by witnessing the dance choreography in a room cinema
was as you were witnessing a catharsis experience.
Maybe the final idea was that a gifted dancer has to "dance" her life through the obstacles life
brings ahead. At least this was the comment that both Juliette and the French co-director of the
movie stated when they were asked about it by the audience.
Juliette Binoche was interpreting the role of a choreographer and it was amazing to have her on
the scene sharing her experience as an actress in this movie with the audience. She had a simple
appearance, in dark and white clothing, talking with modesty which was kind of contrasting if
you considered the amazing performance she had in the movie and that we all witnessed just a
few minutes before her showing up on the stage.
I am attaching a video of the dance scenes and the link of the reviews I read after the movie :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooe9ZQHcAVs
https://bookhub.ro/polina-despre-film-dans-arta-si-artist-cu-juliette-binoche-valerie-muller-si-angelin-
preljocaj-la-institutul-francez/
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