One of Charles Dickens’s most famous stories — told with a star-studded British cast — will close the 56th BFI London Film Festival.
In Great Expectations, Four Weddings and a Funeral director Mike Newell breathes new life into the story of Pip, played by Jeremy Irvine from War Horse, who rises from humble beginnings thanks to a mysterious benefactor.
Ralph Fiennes is escaped convict Magwitch, Helena Bonham Carter the cruel Miss Havisham and Holliday Grainger her young ward, Estella, whom she coaches to break men’s hearts. The cast also includes Robbie Coltrane, Jason Flemyng and David Walliams.
Newell said there could be no more fitting showcase for the film than the festival, which will close on October 21 with the director leading Fiennes and Bonham Carter on the red carpet.
“It’s the bicentenary of Dickens’s birth, Dickens is very famous for London and it’s been a very energetic year for London — so everything comes together in a wonderful way,” he said.
He added that while the new version remained truthful to the novel, the screenplay produced by One Day author David Nicholls made the story sexier than its predecessors.
“I think we’ve teased out what is intended to be there,” he said. “It’s a very sexy story and I cast it with that in mind. I felt there should be a terrific sexual charge between Pip and Estella, much more so than could happen in other versions. How strong can you make something on Sunday evening television?”
The film, which goes on general release at the end of November, comes closer to a happy ending than Dickens’s bleak original but without being “saccharine”: “You do feel there’s some hope for them. If they can hang together, they may save each other.”
The director admitted having freely plundered from the many previous screen and TV adaptations back to David Lean’s 1946 epic, which for many remains definitive.
“I looked at all of them and tried to learn,” he said. But he insists his holds its own: “I think it’s really good.”
The BFI London Film Festival, in partnership with American Express, runs from October 10.
