Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe [DVD] [1985]

I cried many years ago when I first saw this adaptation and I cried again this time. The most sublime casting, pace, dialogue and beautiful rendition of Silas Marner. The countryside is a valuable cast member too! The relationship between Silas and little Eppie is utterly bewitching and handled so magnificently by Kingsley and the child!! Now I can watch it again and again!

….DVD……Classic period drama, based on the original novel. High quality respected actors.The story offers the message, never make assumptions about people whose behaviour may give an impression that is not factual.Thought provoking and leads to reflection and the consideration of factors which may appear surprising.

A good attempt at turning the book into a film, and it nearly gets there in my opinion ... but not quite. The acting is a little wooden at times. It is interesting to watch the special feature on the life George Elliot.

I first read Silas Marner when I was nine years old and, although I've read the work many times since then, I've never grown tired of it, besides which I love this adaptation of it for TV. Good adaptations do not have to be precisely like the written word: different genre require different approaches and it's hard to see how this adaptation could be much improved upon. Ben Kingsley is superb in the title role; he looks and acts like Silas just as I've always imagined him.For me, George Eliot understood people better than any of the other great Victorian authors. She got right into the minds of her characters enabling the reader to actually see and think as they do just as if they were real people and not mere caricatures of a certain type of person. She doesn't say: here is a weaver and weavers think and behave like this. She says: here is a unique person with his own unique character and personality who happens to be a weaver. The badly wronged Silas never married, but he has much of the caring father in him and mother too, all of it just waiting to be triggered into action by the right sequence of events.For me, Silas Marner will always be one of the greatest stories ever written and this production does it justice. It is well produced and directed and the supporting cast all give of their very best, presenting the viewer with realistic characters. Different genre require different approaches and I like to think that George Eliot herself would be well pleased with this interpretation of her masterpiece.

Banished from his community after being wrongly branded a thief, Silas Marner hikes to a remote village many miles away, where he spends the next 15 years as a miserly hermit, working only for the gold he earns. When his precious hoard is stolen, he is forced to turn to his neighbours for help. They try to aid him, but he is utterly inconsolable over his loss, until a little girl toddles into his humble cottage, into his life, and into his heart. Silas adopts her, naming her Eppie. She changes his life, he intergrates with his neighbours, & we & they see his true self. For 16 years, he is completely happy, but there is a dark cloud on the horizon. Eppie's birth father wants her back, but which of them will she call her father?This is a fine, moody piece, but I would have liked a little more detail, such as the trip back to Lantern Yard which appears in the book. However, this is just a minor niggle about an otherwise excellent drama.The cast do a fine job, but this is Ben Kingsley's film. His performance as the weaver should have won him the BAFTA - it was that good. Even his accent is authentic, (he sounds a bit like Wallace). Overall, top-quality drama from the Beeb, and accompanied by a fine documentary about Silas Marner's creator, George Eliot.A fine bargain!

I wasn't that struck and wouldn't watch it again.

Vintage story but good actors

One of my favourite books of all times. "Silas Marner" is a masterpiece, a classic which contains themes as relevant today as they were in 1850.George Eliot vividly portrays life in a rather insular rural community of the early 19th Century. The story of Silas's rehabilitation through the love and care he gives Eppie, and his gradual reintegration into society after his unfair banishment from his own town for a crime he did not commit, is told with concision, but we are totally drawn into his world. The themes are universal: love, and social contact, not money, are what redeem us, but the writer never moralises, she just shows us through the narrative and the wonderfully drawn characters that it is so. This is a book which I could read again and again, and still be delighted by it: complex and far reaching, but a simple tale in essence A work of genius.

1985年のBBCの作品、古いながらも良かったです。ジョージ・エリオットの作品の中では一番単純で物語はわかりやすかったです。パソコンで再生し、英語字幕がありました。嬉しかったのpは映像特典で、同じBBCの2002年のGeorge Eliot: A Scandalous Lifeが付いていたことです。こちらは字幕がありませんでしたが、ドラマドキュメンタリーで、他の作品の映像なども使われていて面白かったです。

This DVD includes a very special bonus: the BBC 60 minute production of "A Scandalous Life." This is a stunning video biography of George Eliott that alone is worth the purchase price of the DVD. The production stars "Harriett Walter" as George Eliot. Her performance equals Ben Kingsley's performance of Silas Marner in every way. She is a perfect and courageous actress. "A Scandalous Life" was informative and deeply moving. I knew the basics of George Eliot's relation with Lewes, but this production puts things in wonderful context. George Eliot was arguably the most fascinating woman of 19th Century England, surpassing even Queen Victoria. When the full-featured biographical film of Eliot's life is made, I hope Harriet Walter is around. Perfect addition to this DVD.As for Silas Marner. I finished the novel a few hours before watching the movie. I think the movie is worth five stars, but it does seem slightly dated, and the director was unable to fully capture the emotions of the terrible injustice suffered by Marner as a young man and the psychological trauma of being robbed, all of which is so necessary to appreciating the beautiful redemptive joy Eppy brings to Marner and the contrast between Marner and Godfrey. Still very good, with Ben Kingsley doing a fine job."A Scandalous Life"Harriett Walter

I watched the movie, Silas Marner, several years ago with my children and most recently read the book. I was pleasantly surprised to find the movie on DVD and at a reasonable cost through Amazon. Those same children, now grown up, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie again. It's a simple yet touching tale and a lesson in humility and human kindness -- so far removed from so many of today's productions in which horror and gore is so much a part. Definitely Silas Marner is a family watch!

Trasposizione di ambiente : buona; di storia e di emozioni: povera. Recitazione : decente ma non sufficiente per trasmettere i sentimenti dei personaggi.

Todas las producciones de la BBC son una garantía de calidad. Partiendo de esa base, debo decir que la película sobre la famosa novela de George Eliot (pseudónimo de Mary Ann Evans) no me ha defraudado en absoluto. Ben Kingsley interpreta magistralmente al personaje central de la novela que da título a la película, Silas Marner. El argumento es precioso y está muy bien ambientada.Si no le he dado 5 estrellas es tal vez por algo insignificante, pero soy muy exigente. Aquí va el motivo: la actriz que hace el papel de Eppie cuando llega a la edad adulta, Patsy Kensit, no tiene el mismo encanto y dulzura que la niña pequeña, una deliciosa muñequita rubia interpretada por Elizabeth Hoyle y más tarde por Melinda Whiting. Patsy Kensit actúa muy bien, pero creo que su elección no fue afortunada para interpretar a la joven Eppie.Lo más hermoso de la película: la relación entre Silas y Eppie. No quiero desvelar nada más.