I've never seen either of these two movies, but The Haunting of Hill House and The Turn of the Screw are two of my all-time favorite stories, and from what you've written here, it sounds as if both of these film adaptations were pretty faithful to the originals.
They are, very much so, I'm happy to say!
It's not just that they fantasize a lot: they both do this very specific thing where they take things from the outside world and then imaginatively reconfigure those things to be all about themselves - or to be parts of the self-centered narratives they use their imaginations to create. They don't just imagine.
Oh yes, that's just it. And I'm glad you remembered the other excellent example of Eleanor's, the child's cup of stars that Eleanor also co-opts for herself. I was very happy to see the movie kept at least one of these examples because they're pretty much the key to Eleanor.
The tension seems to be part of what makes it compelling, that Eleanor and the governess are both outwardly nothing, but inwardly narcissistic. It's all or nothing. Eleanor's life until Hill House is so sterile with her taking care of her mother and then living with her sister (a sister who acts as if *she* was the one who cared about her mother's well-being while Eleanor let her die). And yet Eleanor seems to consider herself responsible for her mother's death as well, and possibly was responsible for choosing not to help her at the wrong time.
There was a wonderful article in the magazine "Scarlet Street" about these two movies and reading it again it gets into some of the same things. It also made me make this weird connection--Eleanor describes Mrs. Markway (which I am now spelling correctly!) as having "taken her place" in the house, though she could also mean with her husband. It made me think of a line in "When Harry Met Sally..." of all things where Carrie Fisher advises Sally to remember that if she misses her change the guy for her will get married and she'll have to "spend the rest of her life knowing someone else is married to your husband." It's just funny in that movie, but really Eleanor does seem to look at the world as having cheated her. While she was taking care of her mother and being denied a life other people bought "her" stone lions, she got no cup of stars. So now she's collecting things to build her own life, only it's all imaginary, really belonging to other people. Eleanor is halfway excited even as she's being killed that something is at least happening to her.
Both women are in their own way very aware of life as a story; people with no stories have no lives. Since they don't seem to be the heroine of any story, they create one. Eleanor is the sought-after bride in hers, the one being pursued by the house, while Miss Giddens is the one who's going to save the children from evil. She even has a line in the movie (can't believe if it's in the book) where she tells Miles her father taught her to help people even if they refused her help.
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Re: Part I
Date: 2005-10-12 05:46 pm (UTC)They are, very much so, I'm happy to say!
It's not just that they fantasize a lot: they both do this very specific thing where they take things from the outside world and then imaginatively reconfigure those things to be all about themselves - or to be parts of the self-centered narratives they use their imaginations to create. They don't just imagine.
Oh yes, that's just it. And I'm glad you remembered the other excellent example of Eleanor's, the child's cup of stars that Eleanor also co-opts for herself. I was very happy to see the movie kept at least one of these examples because they're pretty much the key to Eleanor.
The tension seems to be part of what makes it compelling, that Eleanor and the governess are both outwardly nothing, but inwardly narcissistic. It's all or nothing. Eleanor's life until Hill House is so sterile with her taking care of her mother and then living with her sister (a sister who acts as if *she* was the one who cared about her mother's well-being while Eleanor let her die). And yet Eleanor seems to consider herself responsible for her mother's death as well, and possibly was responsible for choosing not to help her at the wrong time.
There was a wonderful article in the magazine "Scarlet Street" about these two movies and reading it again it gets into some of the same things. It also made me make this weird connection--Eleanor describes Mrs. Markway (which I am now spelling correctly!) as having "taken her place" in the house, though she could also mean with her husband. It made me think of a line in "When Harry Met Sally..." of all things where Carrie Fisher advises Sally to remember that if she misses her change the guy for her will get married and she'll have to "spend the rest of her life knowing someone else is married to your husband." It's just funny in that movie, but really Eleanor does seem to look at the world as having cheated her. While she was taking care of her mother and being denied a life other people bought "her" stone lions, she got no cup of stars. So now she's collecting things to build her own life, only it's all imaginary, really belonging to other people. Eleanor is halfway excited even as she's being killed that something is at least happening to her.
Both women are in their own way very aware of life as a story; people with no stories have no lives. Since they don't seem to be the heroine of any story, they create one. Eleanor is the sought-after bride in hers, the one being pursued by the house, while Miss Giddens is the one who's going to save the children from evil. She even has a line in the movie (can't believe if it's in the book) where she tells Miles her father taught her to help people even if they refused her help.