A film by Christmas Carol by Robert Eggers can really capture what most adaptations are missing

The new immortelle of Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” was published in 1843, a year firmly in the Victorian era. Meanwhile, England saw the gulf between classes – which had existed for a long time, of course – increasingly wide. The industrial revolution has brought with it a lot of progress and prosperity for people at the top of society, and has enabled the middle class to extend to the point of becoming a major cultural influence. However, it left people below, feeling their misery more than ever. Dickens was moved to write his story because of the fate of the working class children whom he observed in the first hand, combined with the growing popularity of the Christmas celebration and his accent on charity during this season.

The author also had deeply personal reasons to tell a story about the villain old Ebenezer Scrooge by learning the error of his ways, because Dickens came from a middle -class family who found himself in difficulty when his father, John, was attached to a prison of debtors in London when Charles was only 12 years old. As the tale of Dickens of Scrooge lasted over the centuries, it has become diluted and homogenized without any fault of its own popularity. Very few adaptations of history forget the social and ethical power behind, although some emphasize it more than others.

Although it is generally traditional to keep history in its original time, some adaptations have updated it for modern times. The only aspect that many adaptations are lacking, whatever their framework, is that “a Christmas song” is not simply a character study in which a singular man must be bought. It is rather a story about kindness overcoming capitalism, a story of three spirits which gives way to a fourth invisible but deeply felt: the spirit of giving. The fear inherent in history – and “a Christmas Carol” is a story of horror with ghosts, do not be mistaken – consists less in not being loved, and more on the way in which capitalism can rot souls of all humanity if we do not pay attention. With today’s announcement (via the deadline) that Robert Eggers will write and direct a new cinematographic version of “A Christmas Carol”, with Willem Dafoe d’Eggers, hopefully, with Scrooge, it seems that we can expect an adaptation that nails all aspects in the work of Dickens.

The most common error that pop culture has continuously committed about Dickens’s news is that it is a story for children, something to present them as a way to install a feeling of morality. Although it is not false in itself, it is allowed “a Christmas song” to reduce its impact on the way in which too much material intended for children is often. Not only is it an important story for adults to consume (especially wealthy adults), but it is also the one that should not be trivialized. Like many fans of “The Muppet Christmas Carol” of 1992 often say it, even the director Brian Henson and the people behind the Muppets knew, as the performance of Michael Caine as a scrooge, as well as the basic principles of Dickens’s tale, is delivered naturally). Until now, Eggers’ filmography has not been adapted to the family, so even if it may be possible that his film of “A Christmas Carol” can alleviate violence and sexual content, he will probably not have the tone of a toy advertising.

What will undoubtedly be seen in “Christmas Carol” of Eggers is a remarkable attention given to the period, which is often overlooked in most adaptations. If it is possible to preserve the power of history while divorcing it from the Victorian era, it has become commonplace to see the story told in an excessive version of the 1840s, something that the “scrooged” still unique of Richard Don “made a smart cynical meal. Since” A Christmas Carol “takes place only six years after the film of” nosferatu ” filmmaker was partially inspired to fight the news of Dickens because of the richness of the research he finished during the realization of this film.

Using “nosferatu” as a comparison point (mainly because the previous films of Eggers were not strictly adapted from the pre -existing equipment), one of the most impressive elements of this film was the way in which he kept a large part of the work of Bram Stoker and FW Murnau while incorporating so many myths of the real and folklore vampire as well as the cinematographic tradition. Regarding the character of Vampire, the Orlok account (Bill Skarsgård) resembles and looks like a Solomonar, has the complexion of the skin of a corpse, and nevertheless has a romantic and grotally sexual look. Eggers does everything possible to include all these elements of the unique character, demonstrating how he does not neglect what was preceded. In doing so, he pays tribute to the past without simply being servile, using it rather in order to feel both precise and fresh.

For this reason, Eggers will probably not neglect the horror elements inherent in “Christmas song”. While Jacob Marley’s visit to Scrooge is often described as something annoying – probably a by -product of people thinking that it is too early in the story that the character of Scrooge is modified – it is always a dead colleague from a man who returns from an infernal purgatory to warn him bitterly on the way he condemned. It is not friendly and it is not pleasant; For my money, Frank Finlay’s performance as a character in the 1984 film is as close to being as disturbing as it should. There is no doubt that Eggers will capitalize on this element, then some, and will not simply leave the scary content for the traditionally frightening ghost of Christmas to come.

“A Christmas Carol”, while being a tender, thoughtful and ultimately comforting story to open your heart to others, is also a story about the horror of inhuman. One could say if the nature of humanity is intrinsically selfish or giving elsewhere; The story of Dickens postulates that true humanity lies in kindness, and capitalism is the death of the soul. Our collective souls have failed lately, so I hope that Eggers will be the man to come and scare a real meaning in us at the time of time.