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Oliver Twist


Surprisingly, Polanski’s Oliver Twist is a faithful, well-made, and enjoyable version of Dickens’s great novel. It’s a rather old-fashioned film, unaltered by Polanski’s previous propensity for fatalism and hopelessness. Although the film looks a bit too “brown,” Polanski’s excellent cinematographer, Pawel Edelman—employing marvelous set designs, costumes, and locations (shot in Poland)—has captured a remarkably believable mid–19th century England. Although some of the characters fall into caricature (always a danger with Dickens), there are excellent performances by Edward Hardwicke as Mr. Brownlow, Oliver’s patron; the extremely moving Leanne Rowe as Nancy, the good-hearted whore; and Harry Eden (Peter Pan), a likely star of the future, as a very engaging Artful Dodger. Young Barney Clark does a fine job portraying the sweet and irrepressible Oliver, and Ben Kingsley is a rather hammy but adequate Fagin, though he’ll make no one forget Alec Guinness in the still-superior Lean version.

The most interesting scene in the film results from Polanski’s important decision to include Oliver’s prison-cell visit to Fagin before the criminal finally meets his fate. This scene, which takes up roughly two pages in Dickens’s long novel, is generally left out of filmic adaptations of the novel, including the Lean version, but Polanski wisely leaves it in. When Oliver insists on encountering Fagin in his holding cell, the young boy has one purpose in mind—not merely to comfort the nearly deranged old man, but to try to save his soul. When he is confronted with Fagin’s self-absorbed murmurings, Oliver finally calls out, in desperation, begging the man to pray with him. Oliver kneels down on the floor of the cell, but Fagin is too obsessed with fear to do as the boy asks, and Oliver cries out, “Oh! God forgive this wretched man!” The fact that Oliver is unsuccessful is probably why other adaptations of the novel have avoided the scene, but Polanski shows this powerful moment that clearly reveals the source of Oli-ver’s uncompromising morality—his religious faith.

Does this mean that Polanski, now in his 70s, has come to witness a broader vision of the world than his earlier Beckett-like nihilism? It is impossible to know. Years ago, long before Polanski was an international fugitive, he said rather flippantly, “Normal love isn’t interesting. I assure you that it’s incredibly boring.” But he’s now married to Emmanuelle Seigner; they have two children; and he claims, “A lot has changed for me. My life has improved. It’s not only the children, but the relationship with my wife is the best thing that ever happened to me.” Although his new version of Oliver Twist has been a disappointment to those critics who value Polanski’s characteristic cynicism, the film reveals a much more complex and hopeful vision of the human predicament.

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William Baer is a graduate of U.S.C. Cinema, where he received the Jack Nicholson Screenwriting Award and taught in the filmic writing program. He currently teaches English and film at the University of Evansville, Indiana, and is a frequent contributor to Creative Screenwriting.

Written by Rafael de la Piedra