The Anne of Green Gables books are my favourite childhood books. I first read them when I was 9 or 10 and the rest, as they say, is history. My copies are all creased and crumpled from too much love and if I ever have children, I hope they will love them just as much as I do. However, in this post I'm going to be talking about the wonderful 1985 Canadian mini series adaptation (which I always think of as a film...).
Because Anne is so well known and loved all over the world, it could easily have been a shambles if it didn't remain faithful to the book, but Sullivan Entertainment didn't let us down. Yes, there are certain parts that deviate a little from the book, but personally I can forgive that because it's so lovingly made. Just thinking about it makes me feel emotional - silly, I know, but I have so much love for the book and this mini series.
Megan Follows is fantastic as Anne, and really the entire cast is absolutely wonderful. Oh, and because this primarily a classic film blog, I must mention the fact the actress who plays Anne's "bosom friend", Diana Barry, is Katharine Hepburn's great niece. What a small world, eh?
Some other things that make this one of the most perfect things to grace our screens:
- The music
- The scenery
- The music
- The music
- The music
- The scenery
- The music
- Puffed sleeves
Still not convinced? Listen to this and tell me it doesn't make you weep tears of joy.
Finally, I want to share one of my favourite scenes from the entire 200 minutes...
"You know something, Diana? We are rich. We have 16 years to our credit and we both have wonderful imaginations. We should be happy as queens. Look at that! You couldn't enjoy it's loveliness any more if you had ropes of diamonds."Thanks for reading!
love love love! anne was such a wonderful character to grow up with, and I agree the miniseries is timeless.
ReplyDeletesidenote: what do you think of the capua biography so far? any good?
I loved the book! I have to watch this movie, thanks for the recommendation, Sophie :)
ReplyDeleteI stumbled across Anne of Green Gables back when I was in law school -- so long ago it was actually brand new. To say it was not in my usual wheelhouse would be a huge understatement, but I wound up watching the entire miniseries, and then the sequel when that came out a couple of years later, and read the book, too. Maybe it caught my eye because Anne Shirley reminded me so much of Katie-Bar-The-Door, right down to her red hair. In any event, great stuff.
ReplyDelete"Would you please call me Cordelia?"
ReplyDeleteClassic. Much funnier than it's given credit for.
ALWAYS. ALWAYS. ALWAYS.
ReplyDeleteI love Anne! This miniseries is pretty much my childhood. My mom taped it off TV when it first aired in the '80s and growing up I watched it so much that the tapes eventually wore out. I love the Prince Edward Island location shooting, too. That was actually one of the stops my parents made on their honeymoon and my mom said it's just as beautiful in real life. I am sad how they butchered the third volume of the series, making up a completely new and inaccurate new story. The books are SO good; I wish they would've just continued staying faithful to the original material as they did so well with the first two. So that's my only lament. Perhaps someone will come along and faithfully adapt, those. It's just hard to see anyone else playing Anne. I think they would just have to start over.
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