11 · 09 · 12 Charles Dickens at FICM Share with twitter Share with facebook Share with mail Copy to clipboard Wooton spoke with the public in the Aula Mater at the Universidad de San Nicolás de Hidalgo about the influence of Dickens' literature in cinema. The English curator explained that Dickens drew heavily on the realities of new urban life in Victorian England to fashion his stories. He emphasized the descriptions Dickens employed as a social commentator, as a keen observer of society and human character in his stories. Fragments of some of his emblematic films, such as David Cooperfield (1934) by director George Cukor and A Tale of Two Cities (1935) by Jack Conway, were screened in the Aula Mater, accompanied by Wooton's comments. Wooton pointed out that the work of director David Lean, using Dickens as a springboard for his own filmmaking ambitions, reflected the spirit of a new, transformed sociopolitical order, and a reinvigorated notion of Britishness, and set the benchmark for Dickens in cinema with two of his films – Great Expectations (1946) y Oliver Twist (1947). Dickens' literature is important to world cinema not only because of the stories that have been adapted throughout history, but also because of the language itself, in which reality inserts itself like another character, Wooton added. Dickens continues to be an important and influential author 200 years after his birth, he said. The 10th Morelia International Film Festival screened Arena: Dickens on Film (2001) by Anthony Wall; Great Expectations (1946) by David Lean; The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947); Oliver! by Carol Reed (1968) and The Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton (1955).
