"No One Survived", "Plaintiff Witness", "Murder on the Orient Express"... Looking at the latest film list of Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center in 2019, it can be found that the adaptation of the British "detective queen" Agatha Christie is still fashionable. Similar creative trends are more prominent in the UK, in recent years, bbc remade several times "Agatha" works, but unfortunately, the ratings and word of mouth are not good.
The most recent one was "ABC Murders," which was released on Christmas last year. There is a well-known and popular character in this novel, Poirot the Great Detective, so it is highly anticipated by readers and audiences. However, when John Markovich, who plays Poirot, appears on the dark style poster with his eagle-like eyes, a bony face and a slender figure, the audience already has a score in mind, and the show is afraid to be "cool" again.
Poirot's literary image was established by Agatha through "Captain Hastings" in the Strange Case of Stiles Manor: "Poirot's appearance is very special, less than five feet four inches tall, but with a very noble sentiment. His head is shaped like an egg and is always tilted to one side. The upper lip has a straight and neat figure-eight beard. The whole body remained spotlessly clean. I believe that if he had the choice, he would rather have his body shot than have his clothes stained with dirty ashes. ”
The classic Poirot screen image, there is David Sucht's version (British drama "Poirot the Great Detective").
In the 1973 film Murder on the Orient Express, Poirot, played by British actor Albert Finney, was also widely acclaimed. Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film is the only film adaptation that Agatha is completely satisfied with, especially the performance of Albert Finney, which she considers very close to the image of Poirot in her mind. She hoped Poirot could have the fluffiest and thickest beard, the "most remarkable" beard in Britain.
In addition, Peter Ustinov's version of Poirot is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, especially Chinese audiences, remembering the chubby, ice cream-loving cute and wise Poirot in the movie "Sins in the Sun" and "Massacre on the Nile". Either of these successful "Poirots" is optimistic, humorous, and resilient, especially as an important instrumental character, leading the audience to uncover the truth of the murder step by step.
There are "routines" in such works, and what the audience is waiting for is that the clever and wise protagonist will finally gather everyone together, tell the reasoning process, and then pull out the real culprit in one fell swoop in the crowd of "sitting in rows" to reach the climax of the whole play, which has become a kind of "ritual" of the genre novel. Unfortunately, the mini-series "Abc Murder" not only revokes this "cool point" in the original work, but also thinks that it will intelligently weaken the instrumentality of Poirot's character and expand the character's past and present lives. As a result, Poirot in "ABC Murder" is always trapped by memories and has nightmares. BBC's ambition is undoubtedly to tell the complexity of human nature through detective dramas, but the most wonderful parts of genre novels have been dissolved, and there is no pleasure in watching dramas.
Sarah Phelps, who served as a screenwriter, is also the same screenwriter of the previous new version of "Prosecution Witness", "No Senseless Disaster" and "No One Survives", all of which have triggered the "spitting" of the original fans.
On Christmas Day 2015, BBC launched three episodes of the same name miniseries from Agatha's most iconic novel, No One Survives. The drama does not hesitate to destroy the suspense atmosphere again and again, but also constantly flashes back to the past lives of ten people, which is unclear.
In 2016, the short story "Prosecution Witness" was adapted by BBC into a two-episode miniseries, and in the same way as "ABC Murder", it turned a detective drama into an ethical drama. The three-episode mini-series "Innocent Disaster" was delayed until April 2018 due to the actor's storm. "Prosecution Witness" and "Innocent Disaster" did not score 8 points on Douban and IMDB. Some viewers commented on the adaptation: Acting, the murder case is no longer important, it seems that everyone has a "reasonable motive", which is simply a tragedy that all living beings suffer.
In recent years, Europe and the United States have set off a boom in remaking classics. It is reported that this year's BBC has a number of literary adaptations, such as the BBC and lookout point co-production of "Les Misérables", British actress Lily Collins as Fantine. Judging from the currently exposed film information, Fantine, who does not have much space in the original work, will brush up on the sense of existence in this mini-series. Could this be another classic deconstruction of chicken ribs? It can be seen that there are countless previous works based on the classic adaptation will only become more and more difficult in the future, and sacrificing the classic IP in the gap between "drama famine" is probably not a panacea for ratings.
Author: Tong Weijing
Production Editor: Tong Weijing