A Tale of Two Cities (1991)

Dickens' tale of love, politics, and the aristocracy during the French Revolution.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: UN
Release Date: 2-OCT-2001
Media Type: DVD Product Description

Brilliantly acted, and faithful to the text

A classic novel can have strong characters, elegant English, deep philosophy, a good historical setting, engaging dialogue or a gripping plot. A Tale of Two Cities has all six, and has them in abundance! It's the 19th century's "crème de la crème" and suffers few rivals. It is a far, far better novel than any I've ever read. For this reason, no screen adaptation will ever do justice to the original words as set on paper or narrated on CD.

That said, Arthur Hopcraft & Philippe Monnier have done an outstanding job. France's history has always held a fascination for me personally. By the age of 21, I'd TWICE spent Bastille Day in France. Even back home in Ireland I vividly recall July 1989 when "Revolution Fever" was in the air. What excellent timing to coincide this film's release with the bi-centenary of the storming of the Bastille! Among the acclaimed cast is the irreplaceable John Mills. Having stolen the show as Pip in the 1945 "Great Expectations", he turns up 44 years later only to excel himself again - this time as the learned banker Jarvis Laurie. Other lead roles are played by Xavier Deluc (Charles Darnay), James Wilby (Sydney Carton), Serena Gordon (Lucie Manette), Jean-Pierre Aumont (Alex Manette) and Kathie Kriegel (Therese Defarge).

So bake a little garlic bread, crack open your best Rhone Valley Shiraz, then put your feet up for three-and-a-half hours of sheer entertainment pleasure. It's impossible to over-recommend this movie.
February 11, 2008

Good production

This version of A Tale of Two Cities was good and entertaining, but I would not rate it as excellent since it does not captivate the viewer with exceptional production nor cinematography. However, I did enjoy it and would recommend it to others. October 21, 2007

Worth watching. Worth owning.

Within my admittedly limited experience, Masterpiece Theater dramatizations of great books are well produced and faithful to the original. This is no exception.

Well, Dickens's famous opening lines, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times," etc. do not come at the beginning of the production but are inserted into a monologue by Sydney Carton shortly after the start of the second DVD. Otherwise, the plot, details, and characters seem much the same as I remember from when I last read the book several years ago.

My wife and I bought this set to help a young friend who is close to graduating from high school at a public school and therefore has problems with reading comprehension. We are well satisfied that she can watch this, then read, and perhaps profit in several ways.

Anyone looking for dazzling FX and computer-generated panoramics will be disappointed. This was made on a budget for television in 1989.

Otherwise, it is a capable -- sometimes very good -- and certainly a moving production. I think Dickens would have approved. June 21, 2007

where to rent?

can anyone tell me where I can find this movie to rent in DVD? March 4, 2006

Good but not Excellent

I was studying this novel at university, so I wanted to understand the novel more. The accent used in the movie are little strange for me, I wasnt able to understand some conversations. Also, here is no English subtitle, to know what they are saying. There are some differences between the movie and the novel, e.g Gaspard is mentioned in the novel to be a tall man, while he was shown to be little short man. January 2, 2006

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