The title was familiar, the back cover blurb somewhat confirmed it: I’d seen the 1963 movie based on this novel many times. The minute I came up upon the character of Eleanor in the book, I thought of Julie Harris’ portrayal in the movie. Antsy, nervous, making the viewer as scared of Hill House as Eleanor was of life.
There was another updating of this film version, a 1999 production starring Liam Neelson and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I’ve seen this one too.
As with A Clockwork Orange, I’m tempted to put together a comparison of text as written by Shirley Jackson with the two videos. There’s so much to be learned from method, and even if it’s just for my own study, I think it would be well worth the effort to take advantage of the opportunity and explore the nature of the media to learn not only advantages or disadvantages of means of telling story, but to enhance writing skills as well as assist in my playing in the new fields of audio visuals.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology