Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

post #1 of 18
10/12/03 at 11:46am
Thread Starter 
This little seen Dickens classic is a wonderful film.

I'd love to see a dvd release of this film. The making of the film would be interesting too.

I loved the design of the film - it being in 2 parts - the first through the viewpoint of Mr Clennam and the 2nd part through the eyes of Little Dorrit. 6 hours of great Dickens.

Info on Little Dorrit:

Ebert review: http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_...12/329391.html

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095530/
Reply
post #2 of 18
10/13/03 at 10:38am
I'll second the request. I'm a sucker for Dickens on film, and Alec Guinness in just about any movie. Derek Jacobi and Joan Greenwood (her last role?) are icing on the cake.
Reply
post #3 of 18
11/12/04 at 8:23am
Thread Starter 
This film needs a dvd release.

There is some demand - this ebay auction is already at £36 for VHS!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...sPageName=WDVW

Come on Warner. You released it on VHS - so why not DVD!

An updated link for Ebert's review

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/...812160301/1023
Reply
post #4 of 18
11/12/04 at 10:32am
I believe it was released on laserdisc as well. There must be some market for it.
Reply
post #5 of 18
11/12/04 at 2:44pm
I dont think that we will see Little Dorritt soon. But readers of this thread may be interested that BBCAmerica will have a Dickens box(much like the Jane Austin set)
out in the spring. Titles are unknown with the exception
of Our Mutual Friend, but I am betting on Martin Chuzzlwith,Bleak House, Great expectations, Hard times
and possibly Old Curiosity Shop. Recently WGBH has released
the recent version of Oliver Twist, Copperfield and Expectations all containing the Masterpiece theater introduction. Other classic literature film adaptations
to be released in the Spring are Jane Eyre(with Timoth Dalton.), Barchester Chronicles and He knew he was right. Hopefully some of you find this news of interest.
Best
Greg
Reply
post #6 of 18
11/12/04 at 11:01pm
That's good news, Greg. Wish they'd get around to releasing the Louis Jourdan Count Dracula from the '70s (my favorite adaptation of that story). And I hope you're wrong about Little Dorrit, though unfortunately I have little reason to think you are. . . . Still, good to hear about the Dickens set.
Reply
post #7 of 18
11/13/04 at 4:55am
This is one of those bizarre situations where it was a Cannon production (which would make it owned by MGM) but I think they sold the video rights to WB in exchange for more production money (a pyramid-like plan that Cannon used to live on for years). As such, I think Warner still controls this title for DVD, as they do BARFLY and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE.

Kind of a shame too, because if MGM owned this movie for DVD, I think we'd have a better chance of getting it out sooner than later.
Reply
post #8 of 18
4/13/08 at 3:01pm

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

Little Dorrit is coming...
The long awaited DVD of "Nobody's Fault" and "Little Dorrit Story" is on its way...
The films were released 21 years ago this December!

There is a mailing list for the many "fans of Little Dorrit"
who wish to be informed about the DVD as it becomes available:
send us a message: LittleDorrit @ sandsfilms.co.uk
you can see the trailer on youtube and on sandsfilms web site

Little Dorrit is on its way...
Reply
post #9 of 18
4/13/08 at 3:48pm

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

It's good that this film will be released on DVD and Alec Guiness did a fine job playing Mr Dorrit, one of the greatest literary creations (Dorrit also saves a dour book IMHO). The two parts were shown on different nights during its UK release which was pretty annoying because it meant two trips to London, the only city in the UK showing the movie at the time. I'm not a fan of the film. I hated the soundtrack above all with its choice of Verdi's Force Of Destiny. I couldn't reconcile an Italian opera as the background for an English novel. But - as with Branagh's Hamlet non-Brits may well take a different view.
Reply
post #10 of 18
4/13/08 at 7:53pm

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

I'm not a big fan of this, either, though like The Magic Box, it gives just about every character actor in Britain at the time a turn before the camera. As to why I don't care for it, it plays as if the makers planted a camera center stage and had every actor parade there to say his lines. It makes no apparent effort to use the medium of the cinema to tell its story. And I'm not speaking of fancy things,either. Intercutting goes all the way back to D. W. Griffith; its use alone could have shorthened the six-hour length without doing damage to the story. I don't like padding, but I am not opposed to long films. Given appropriate bathroom breaks (so easy with DVD ), I'm more than happy to watch all three pieces of LOTR, which beats hell out of Little Dorrit, speaking lengthwise).

PatH
Reply
post #11 of 18
10/27/08 at 2:56pm

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

Oct 27 08

hi

Am looking for Little Dorrit on dvd too for region 1 if you know where to get it on the internet please? Thanks. Elizabeth Osborne
send the information to elizagadute@hotmail.com thanks.
Reply
post #12 of 18
10/27/08 at 4:36pm

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

Little Dorritt will be part of the Dickens Celebration on Masterpiece Classic in 2009. DVDS of Little Dorritt, Old Curiosity Shop and Oliver Twist will be released by BBCAmerica after they are broadcast. Far from the Madding Crowd will come later on Masterpiece. No word on Lost in Austin, but I am expecting it to be released on Acorn DVD before the end of 2009.
Best
Greg
Reply
post #13 of 18
10/27/08 at 10:33pm

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

Greg, will the Masterpiece Classics version be the new Andrew Davies adaptation? If so, I think I'll wait to see that version before deciding to buy the 1988 one. I'm usually the first person to bleat on and on about preferring the older version of series (i.e. Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House) but I don't remember the older version very well and was very recently burned by buying another Sands production, a region 2 movie called "The Fool". I hated it, and thought it an incoherent mess.
I'll probably Netflix the older version to refresh my memory of it prior to buying.
Reply
post #14 of 18
10/28/08 at 4:25pm

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

This is the Andrew Davies version and should run about 7 hours. They are running it in half hour segments in England, but will run it in longer segments here.
Reply
post #15 of 18
10/29/08 at 9:23am

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

I'm a little disappointed that the old BBC version of "A Christmas Carol", starring Michael Hordern as Scrooge, hasn't seen the light of day, even as much as I LOVE the Alistair Sim version. I was hoping that when Little Dorrit was released (the new version which will be BBC not the Sands production) there would be a 3rd Dickens set with this, some version of Barnaby Rudge, A Tale of Two Cities, etc. on it--without which the Dickens cannon is still incomplete.

I don't know if any dramatizations of Dickens' ghost stories has been done, but some of them are great reading. I don't know how they would come across dramatized, but would like to see them included in a set.
Reply
post #16 of 18
10/30/08 at 12:05am

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PattyFraser
I don't know if any dramatizations of Dickens' ghost stories has been done, but some of them are great reading. I don't know how they would come across dramatized, but would like to see them included in a set.

The Signalman was dramatised by the BBC as one of their Ghost Stories for Christmas in 1976. It was available on DVD in the UK from the BFI, but it's been deleted.
Reply
post #17 of 18
12/14/08 at 7:19pm

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

So, has anyone purchased the Derek Jacobi "Little Dorrit?" I'm dying to know how the video looks before I take the plunge for the region 2 which runs nearly $50 on Amazon.co.uk. I just watched my tape and the sound quality for it is terrible, so I'm interested in buying this dvd if the transfer is good.
Reply
post #18 of 18
12/15/08 at 9:28am

Re: Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?

I bought a copy and was quite happy with it, although I've only played it on my PC so far. Still, I used to own a copy of the LD, and this seems a much better presentation image-wise. Don't really remember what the sound on the LD was like.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: DVD
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Little Dorrit (1988) by Charles Dickens - any chance of a dvd release?