FILM

Great Expectations | (UK)18 min; 1946; b/w; English)
Director: David Lean

With John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Tony Wager

Recipient of the Oscar Awards for Best Cinematography, Black-and-white; & Best Art Direction – Set Decoration, Black-and-white, Academy Awards, USA 1948; and NBR Award, Top Ten Films, National Board of Review, USA 1947David Lean’s adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations is one of the best literary adaptations ever made. Edged with humour and a surprising dollop of horror, his story of Pip, a blacksmith's apprentice who comes into a mysterious inheritance, works beautifully even after all these years. As he would do with Oliver Twist two years later, Lean judiciously uses the bits of the book that he liked and ditches the rest. The result is Dickens' tome, condensed into cinematic moments that deserve their place in movie history.