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The City and The City

Started by Alberon, April 06, 2018, 11:24:45 AM

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Alberon

BBC Two's adaptation of China Mieville's The City and The City starts tonight. At first glance it seems just another crime procedural as David Morrisey's Inspector Borlu investigates the death of an American student.

But the story is really about the two cities, Borlu's Beszel and the neighbouring Ul Qoma. But unlike, for instance, Cold War era divided Berlin these two intermingle. Two streets might be in Beszel, but one in the middle of them might be in Ul Qoma. In the book at least there are areas that are in both cities at once. The inhabitants of both grow up learning how to unsee and unhear the neighbouring city and its people. But the case will, of course, involve both cities.

I really enjoyed the book which I read as a metaphor for the rich and poor in every city in the world, but I considered it unfilmable. So I'm interested to see how this TV adaptation manages it.

Spoon of Ploff

bugger. i just started a thread on this.

yeah. i felt the book left it open as to the exact nature of what these combined cities and their populations are experiencing... something that a TV show is going to find difficult to pull off.

Malcy

Don't know anything about the book but it has David Morrisey in it so it'll probably be good.

Phil_A

That was pretty good once it got going, but was it me or was the actress playing Corwi really, really bad? Everyone else was playing it super low-key and subdued, and she was delivering all her lines like she was playing the Artful Dodger in a local rep production of Oliver!. It was very distracting.

Dex Sawash


[tag] HBO series gets broadcast tv edit [/tag]

Spoon of Ploff

Quote from: Phil_A on April 06, 2018, 10:15:13 PM
..was the actress playing Corwi really, really bad?

Well... Corwi in the book is an effective but sweary cop but yeah, maybe directed to play it over the top. I thought Morrisey take on  Borlú was a little too understated... a bit mumbly at times and some extended frowning.. lots of temple massaging. Lovely beard though.

What I did find distracting was how much and how often at other times large parts of the screen were blurred or obscured through glass, lens flare, or just shallow depth of field. Especially early on where it seemed to be one shot after another. Actually, maybe that continued all the way through and I just got used to it... in which case I'll take it back and say it was a bloody clever device.

I wasn't keen on the presentation of Breach as something like the Stasi: any ordinary bod just ready to stick a needle in your neck. O-or giving Borlú a tragic back story, which suggests to me they've chosen a lazy route to explain some of his choices/behaviour later on in the series.

Having said that I liked it overall. I enjoyed the warning to Besźel commuters when their train passed through Ul Qoma, and the scene where the Ul Qoma girls toy lands in Besźel. Having read the book I don't know how effective the world building was overall but those scenes did it for me. I think the visual representation of Ul Qoma was about the only way they could have gone about it, that movement in the corner of your eye you've been trained to ignore.

Looking forward to the next ep.

brat-sampson

Looks like all 4 episodes are on the iPlayer immediately, so for those that fancy a bingey weekend, there's that option.

mjwilson

Watching this is just making me feel like I should read the book instead.

brat-sampson

I finished it, so it clearly wasn't bad. Also, I've not read the book so can't compare in terms of how much the viewer/reader is meant to know about the whole bizarre situation at any one point. Despite perfectly decent acting/writing etc, the overall plot of the case felt a bit by the numbers, while the setting managed to elevate it all a fair bit. Overall: Decent for binging over a weekend if you're not busy, but I wont be raving at folks about it.

Kishi the Bad Lampshade

Blimey, I read the book a year or two ago, no idea they were doing an adaptation. Will have a look.