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Far from the Madding Crowd starring Carey Mulligan: Put it on the Watch List.


I had this sumptuous period drama based on the Thomas Hardy classic on the TBD list for 2014, but the release date has been firmed up for May 1, 2015. Thanks to reader and blogger Louise at A Strong Belief in Wicker for the heads-up!




TBD (5/1):  Far from the Madding Crowd
Carey Mulligan stars as Bathsheba Everdene, the independent-minded young woman who finds herself involved with a trio of men and a series of adventures. Scripted by David Nicholl's who gave us One Day (both the moving novel and the mediocre film), Far From the Madding Crowd also stars Matthias Schoenaerts as Gabriel Oak, Michael Sheen as William Boldwood and Tom Sturridge as Sergeant Troy.


If you've been around as long as I have, Far from the Madding Crowd is one of those classics you think you've read. And then you wonder, hmmm, maybe I never read the book at all, maybe I only saw the 1967 movie starring Julie Christie as Bathsheba, Terence Stamp as Sergeant Troy, Peter Finch as Boldwood and Alan Bates as Gabriel Oak? Oh, Carey and Matthias, you have a lot to live up to!

Here's how they describe the novel over at Amazon, the paperback which weighs in at 362 pages:
Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most pastoral of Hardy's Wessex novels. It tells the story of the young farmer Gabriel Oak and his love for and pursuit of the elusive Bathsheba Everdene, whose wayward nature leads her to both tragedy and true love. It tells of the dashing Sergeant Troy whose rakish philosophy of life was '...the past was yesterday; never, the day after'. And lastly, of the introverted and reclusive gentleman farmer, Mr Boldwood, whose love fills him with '...a fearful sense of exposure', when he first sets eyes on Bathsheba. 
The background of this tale is the Wessex countryside in all its moods. 

Below are both the trailers for the original 1967 film and for Far From the Madding Crowd (2.0) coming in May 2015. The original earned a few nominations including an Oscar nomination for the score by Richard Rodney Bennet; he also got noms for Murder on the Orient Express and Nicholas and Alexandra. The Golden Globes were a little more generous giving the film three nominations — but no wins — Best Picture, Best Actor (Alan Bates) and Best Supporting Actress ( Prunella Ransome???). USA's National Board of Review called it one of the Ten Best films of the year, and gave it their awards for both Best Film and Best Actor (Peter Finch). Over at BAFTA, Far From the Madding Crowd got lauded for its cinematography and costume design.

It looks like Julie Christie and Terence Stamp, featured above on the poster, are the only ones who didn't get any of the little bit of love passed around! Both Christie and Stamp, who may be known best for The Limey, are still working. Julie Christie was in Robert Redford's The Company We Keep a couple of years back, while Terence Stamp is in this year's Big Eyes. He's still rocking those gorgeous deep blue eyes.

Alan Bates passed away in 2003; he was my idea of Mr. Sexy back in the day. Bates was nominated for Golden Globes for his work in Georgy Girl in 1966,  Far From the Madding Crowd in 1967, and was majestic and swoon-worthy in Women in Love in 1969. I was 13, 14 and sweet sixteen at the time, so yeah, I'm fairly emotionally invested in the remake! While Julie Christie was stunning and deeply sensuous, a vibe I don't get from Carey Mulligan, I'm a big fan and excited to see what she does bring to the part. She's certainly a better singer than Christie, it's Mulligan's voice you hear singing in the trailer!

Here we go then...


Far From the Madding Crowd 
1967 VS 2015 TRAILER WARS ... Which one wins?




By the way, this is the second time I've created this post today. I'm not sure at all what happened but I'd posted it earlier, some of you saw it, then at some point in the day, it vanished! Did I press some un-magic button? I don't know! But the post is back, with my apologies if this is familiar territory. Of course I took advantage of having to repost to correct some errors, and make some new mistakes, I'm sure.

The question is Will you be reading the book or watching the old movie instead?