{"id":8858,"date":"2019-12-25T19:39:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T03:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=8858"},"modified":"2019-12-25T20:03:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T04:03:45","slug":"a-new-christmas-carol-explores-the-roots-of-scrooges-scorn-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=8858","title":{"rendered":"“A New \u2018Christmas Carol\u2019 Explores the Roots of Scrooge\u2019s Scorn”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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[A Christmas Carol<\/em> aired on December 19 on FX in the US, from December 22 through Christmas Eve on BBC One in the UK, and again on Christmas Day on FX. It is available on demand and by streaming.]<\/p>\n

By Roslyn Sulcas, Dec. 13, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cEvery generation needs its own interpretation,\u201d he [director Steven Knight] said, adding there were issues that Dickens couldn\u2019t have raised explicitly but his audience would have understood, like the sexual abuse of children and women, which feature in Knight\u2019s version. \u201cI wanted to look at these things, not to disrupt or be shocking, but to say the things one can say now,\u201d he said. \u201cI am trying to make some suggestions about why Scrooge is Scrooge.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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A new version of \u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d starring Guy Pearce, right, as Ebenezer Scrooge and Andy Serkis as Ghost of Christmas Past, arrives Dec. 19 on FX.\u00a0<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Robert Viglasky\/FX<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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BOVINGDON, England \u2014 \u201cI\u2019ve never done a mouse decapitation before,\u201d the actor Johnny Harris said, standing before a canopied bed in a gloomy, almost empty room.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer name is Brenda,\u201d the mouse-handler said helpfully.<\/p>\n

There was silence as Brenda was carefully placed in Harris\u2019s hand, and cameras began to roll, moving in on a close-up of the actor\u2019s ferocious scowl. With a guttural grunt, he mimed a swift slicing stroke of a knife.<\/p>\n

\u201cCut,\u201d called out Nick Murphy, the director of FX and BBC One\u2019s new three-part \u201cA Christmas Carol.\u201d<\/a> \u201cAnd well done, Brenda!\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodent murder doesn\u2019t generally figure into adaptations of Charles Dickens\u2019s perennial Christmas favorite. But this new version, which debuts Dec. 19 in America via FX, was created by Steven Knight, who conceived and writes \u201cPeaky Blinders<\/a>.\u201d As anyone familiar with that gritty, violent period series or Knight\u2019s other work (\u201cTaboo,\u201d<\/a>\u201cEastern Promises\u201d<\/a>) might imagine, his \u201cChristmas Carol\u201d isn\u2019t the usual sentimental tale of exaggerated miserliness vanquished by seasonal good will.<\/p>\n

Instead, there is a relatively young, embittered Ebenezer Scrooge (Guy Pearce) with obsessive-compulsive tendencies and a history of family trauma. When he revisits his youth with the Ghost of Christmas Past (Andy Serkis), the memories mostly hinge on a terrifying and neglectful father, played by Harris, who abandoned Scrooge to an abusive schoolmaster \u2014 but not before killing young Ebenezer\u2019s little white mouse in a wanton act of cruelty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d is the first in a projected series of Dickens adaptations by Knight to be produced by the BBC and FX. Such coproductions, as well as a growing appetite stateside for British television, have allowed the BBC to become more ambitious with its literary adaptations. \u201cNow that we have the luxury of the eight-hour box set, there is a real opportunity,\u201d Knight said.<\/p>\n

He began with \u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d he added, because its story of Scrooge, Jacob Marley and the three spirits is shorter and simpler in structure than the complex novels he hopes to take on next (\u201cGreat Expectations,\u201d \u201cA Tale of Two Cities,\u201d \u201cDavid Copperfield\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it could be three-parts, not eight,\u201d Knight said, adding that the story has been so popular for so long that \u201cthere is clearly something in there that is universally appealing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Serkis<\/picture><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Serkis as the Ghost of Christmas Past. \u201cEvery generation needs its own interpretation\u201d of Dickens\u2019s story, said the creator Steven Knight.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Robert Viglasky\/FX<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That\u2019s for sure. Within a year of the 1843 publication of the 66-page novella, there were several productions of the story on the London stage. Public readings of the tale were also popular, with Dickens himself performing in both England and America. A New York Times <\/a>account of his appearance before a packed crowd at Steinway Hall in 1867 reported that he gesticulated freely, making \u201ca face of infinite wonderment and exultation when shouting, in the piping tones of the two youngest Cratchits, \u2018There\u2019s such<\/em> a goose, Martha!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In addition to the countless theater productions, screen adaptations of \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d have appeared almost as regularly as Christmas itself, starting with the 1901 British silent movie, \u201cScrooge, or Marley\u2019s Ghost.\u201d<\/a> To date, over 20 feature films and around 30 television versions have been made. The Muppets, Mr. Magoo and Bugs Bunny have all had their own \u2014 there has even been a \u201cDoctor Who\u201d episode<\/a> based on the tale.<\/p>\n

So what did Knight feel he could bring to \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d that made it worth yet another retelling?<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery generation needs its own interpretation,\u201d he said, adding there were issues that Dickens couldn\u2019t have raised explicitly but his audience would have understood, like the sexual abuse of children and women, which feature in Knight\u2019s version. \u201cI wanted to look at these things, not to disrupt or be shocking, but to say the things one can say now,\u201d he said. \u201cI am trying to make some suggestions about why Scrooge is Scrooge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy said that although he initially hesitated in directing the series (\u201cthe Muppets had done \u2018A Christmas Carol,\u2019 and who could top that?\u201d), he was attracted by Knight\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked the idea of examining not just why Scrooge is a bad person, but why do bad people become like that. At this time, there are people on the international stage who seem to live in a moral vacuum, and it\u2019s important to think about how people can convince themselves they are doing absolutely nothing wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s a big step away from the more usual caricature of Scrooge as a wizened old miser who is frightened into repentance. \u201cHe is usually a bit like Santa Claus in that you don\u2019t really think about him,\u201d said Pearce (\u201cThe King\u2019s Speech\u201d), who is almost never offscreen during the three-hour show. \u201cIt\u2019s just one of those Christmas things: tree, figgy pudding, presents, Scrooge.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Pearce first talked to Knight and Murphy about the part, he said they made it clear to him that they wanted a young, robust Scrooge, in the prime of his working life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Scrooge is actually someone with a puffed-out chest, who has swagger and arrogance and a cynicism that is in some ways very healthy,\u201d Pearce said in a telephone interview. \u201cHe is depressed by the hypocrisy in the world, he has his own very high moral standards, and it has turned him into a warrior, although he uses his weapons in all the wrong ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

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From left, Charlotte Riley, Pearce and the director Nick Murphy on set. This Scrooge is far removed from the usual wizened old miser.<\/span>Credit…<\/span>Robert Viglasky\/FX<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Knight and Murphy follow the traditional outlines of the story, beginning with Scrooge and Bob Cratchit (Joe Alwyn) in his office, a visit from Scrooge\u2019s nephew and two men seeking donations for the poor. But their interest in the principal character\u2019s psychology keeps the focus tightly on Scrooge throughout the series. Even the settings feel reflective of Scrooge\u2019s personality; his office and home are large but palpably cold and devoid of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted his surroundings to be an expression of the emptiness of his soul,\u201d Murphy said, adding that he had been inspired by the bleak interiors in the work of the 19th-century Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi<\/a>. Scrooge, he added, \u201cis independent in the frame in those early segments, and gradually, as the story unfolds, it becomes a little more cluttered until we end up tight and close together in the Cratchit house.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Scrooge\u2019s journey through his past and toward a more hopeful future involved a rethinking of the role his sister Lottie (Charlotte Riley) has played in his life, as well as a subplot involving Mary Cratchit (Vinette Robinson), the wife of his clerk and mother of the disabled Tiny Tim (Lenny Rush). Both women are minor, almost voiceless characters in the Dickens story, but they have significant roles here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you need that in a story you are telling in 2019,\u201d Robinson said in a telephone interview, adding that her character\u2019s new prominence also helped reveal aspects of Scrooge\u2019s character. \u201cShe has her own power and importance,\u201d Robinson added. \u201cPerhaps she is even the one who summons the spirits?\u201d<\/p>\n

The suggestion of supernatural forces at work \u2014 and a question-mark over Mary\u2019s possible powers \u2014 is \u201cpart of the fun,\u201d Knight said. \u201cIt\u2019s very much part of the book, and I hope I\u2019ve retained some of the Dickens chocolate-box warmth about that spooky element.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy said that he had set out to make the supernatural elements \u2014 ghosts, miraculous changes of time and place, fantastical events \u2014 feel \u201chandmade\u201d rather than through impressive visual effects. \u201cI don\u2019t want audiences to think, \u2018Oh, cool,\u2019 and admire the director\u2019s ideas during the film,\u201d he said. (\u201cI don\u2019t mind if they give me awards afterward though,\u201d he added, deadpan.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a world informed by a child\u2019s imagination,\u201d he added. So while computer-generated imagery is used, Ali Baba\u2019s palace, for example, is evoked in the style of Arthur Rackham illustrations<\/a>. \u201cIt has a na\u00efvet\u00e9 and clunkiness, like something dreamed up by a Victorian magician.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the story ends, as it must, with Scrooge\u2019s remorseful realization of the wrongs he has done and his newfound desire to make amends, he does not seek forgiveness. Unlike the near-total redemption Scrooge enjoys in most adaptations of \u201cA Christmas Carol,\u201d in this version he clearly understands that the sufferings of his childhood don\u2019t excuse the behavior of his adult self, and that the consequences of his past behavior can\u2019t be changed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t exist in a world where we say, \u2018Oh, O.K., you\u2019re forgiven,\u2019 and crack on; it\u2019s about what actions we decide to take after that,” Murphy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s Dickens\u2019s message in the book,\u201d he added. \u201cI feel that the old guy would have liked what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[A Christmas Carol aired on December 19 on FX in the US, from December 22 through Christmas Eve on BBC One in the UK, and again on Christmas Day on FX. It is available on demand and by streaming.] By Roslyn Sulcas, Dec. 13, 2019 \u201cEvery generation needs its own interpretation,\u201d he [director Steven Knight] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8861,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8858\/revisions\/8861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}