Hi Dear Folk,
We are having a binge watching of Murder On The Orient Express. From Agatha Christie's 1934 novel. Obviously she very much set the premise of the book on the Baby Lindbergh kidnapping and killing.
Mr. B. and I went to see the latest movie at the cinema, staring Kenneth Branagh . Mr. B. has never really followed David Suchet as Poirot, so I said lets go home and watch that movie, but Mr. B. pulled up the wrong movie, the old one from 1974 with Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. That 1974 version certainly had a star studded cast. We decided to watch that.
David Suchet is hands down my favorite Hercule Poirot, Kenneth Branagh comes no where close he is too tall, Poirot was only five foot four and we could not get past his terrible mustache. Albert Finney falls somewhere in the middle, but doesn't capture Poirot.
It's interesting to compare the cast of each three, you start wanting to swap different actors in and out. What about the train inside and the shots outside? Now this is a hard choice. The 1974 film has some lovely train shots, obviously a real train and the 2017 has some very spectacular shots, but they are so stylized as to have been done on a computer. With the train stuck on a high trestle bridge, stopped by an avalanche. The 1974 train inside was lovely with inlaid wood panels. I also liked the 2017 train, with the lovely Deco lamps, so that was on the downside in the 2010 version. Also of interest is how they shoot the train station in Istanbul, the 1974 version being the most diverse and coloruful.
Hercule Poirot running around with a gun, tackling people and everybody sitting outside at tables in the snow does not in any way seem at all probable and Poirot is not even wearing an overcoat. Liberties were taken rolling the doctor and Collonel Arbuthnot into one character, calling him Doctor Arbuthnot, which I did not like. So the 2017 version is at #3, the 1974 at #2 and 2010 is my #1, with a couple of things they did in the other films that I would add to the 2010 version, mostly more cinematic the inside and outside of the train, the station at Istanbul.
"A man like your friend always has a choice, he does not have to lie." Says Poirot, one of the lines at the beginning of the 2010 movie. In the 2010 version at the end I especially like how David Suchet played Poirot, how torn he was with letting them go, it cost him, his conscience to do that. It was a lie that he went along with. No longer were things black and white, what is justice?
Would love to hear your comments.
Christine
We are having a binge watching of Murder On The Orient Express. From Agatha Christie's 1934 novel. Obviously she very much set the premise of the book on the Baby Lindbergh kidnapping and killing.
Mr. B. and I went to see the latest movie at the cinema, staring Kenneth Branagh . Mr. B. has never really followed David Suchet as Poirot, so I said lets go home and watch that movie, but Mr. B. pulled up the wrong movie, the old one from 1974 with Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot. That 1974 version certainly had a star studded cast. We decided to watch that.
David Suchet is hands down my favorite Hercule Poirot, Kenneth Branagh comes no where close he is too tall, Poirot was only five foot four and we could not get past his terrible mustache. Albert Finney falls somewhere in the middle, but doesn't capture Poirot.
It's interesting to compare the cast of each three, you start wanting to swap different actors in and out. What about the train inside and the shots outside? Now this is a hard choice. The 1974 film has some lovely train shots, obviously a real train and the 2017 has some very spectacular shots, but they are so stylized as to have been done on a computer. With the train stuck on a high trestle bridge, stopped by an avalanche. The 1974 train inside was lovely with inlaid wood panels. I also liked the 2017 train, with the lovely Deco lamps, so that was on the downside in the 2010 version. Also of interest is how they shoot the train station in Istanbul, the 1974 version being the most diverse and coloruful.
Hercule Poirot running around with a gun, tackling people and everybody sitting outside at tables in the snow does not in any way seem at all probable and Poirot is not even wearing an overcoat. Liberties were taken rolling the doctor and Collonel Arbuthnot into one character, calling him Doctor Arbuthnot, which I did not like. So the 2017 version is at #3, the 1974 at #2 and 2010 is my #1, with a couple of things they did in the other films that I would add to the 2010 version, mostly more cinematic the inside and outside of the train, the station at Istanbul.
"A man like your friend always has a choice, he does not have to lie." Says Poirot, one of the lines at the beginning of the 2010 movie. In the 2010 version at the end I especially like how David Suchet played Poirot, how torn he was with letting them go, it cost him, his conscience to do that. It was a lie that he went along with. No longer were things black and white, what is justice?
Would love to hear your comments.
Christine
I keep going back and forth about whether I want to see the new version or not. I am such a huge David Suchet fan and in my eyes he IS Poirot. I might just wait until I can see it on Netflix (and turn it off if it doesn't appeal - lol).
ReplyDeleteCatching up on some blog posts after being off the computer for 5 days. Your shawls in your last post are gorgeous! and I love the coat your sister crocheted for you - gorgeous!!
That's an interesting comparison. I can't comment on that film but years ago a new version of The King and I came out and I couldn't even watch it through. I told a friend I preferred the old version and she preferred the even older version which I didn't know about. I think some of it is what we have been used to. To me Poirot is David Suchet.
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