DICKENS ON FILM: A Case of Great Expectations with Mark Nicholls

Charles Dickens has been a virtual automatic ‘green light’ for any screen production throughout the history of entertainment cinema. With a particular emphasis on David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946), this talk will consider why Dickens’ work has found such a stimulating home on film and television.

Mark Nicholls is Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies at the University of Melbourne where he has taught film and television since 1993. He is author of Scorsese’s Men: Melancholia and the Mob (Pluto/Indiana Uni Press) and Lost Objects of Desire: The Performances of Jeremy Irons (Berghahn). Mark’s work as a film critic, over the last twelve years, has included regular reviewing and commentary for ABC radio and television and between 2007 and 2009 he was author of The Age EG’s weekly film column, ‘Buff’s Choice.’ Mark is active as a theatre writer, director and producer.

Jean Simmons, Martita Hunt and Anthony Wager in David Lean’s 1946 Great Expectations. Photograph: Allstar