DAS GEISTERHAUS - MOVIE [Blu-ray] [1993]

I must say that as in nearly every transcription of a literary work into a film context this is of course as near as one can expectof any film director. For simple reasons: 1. time limit of a film unless it runs into epic proportions can only cope with the main story line which here, Bille August has done excellently as the authoress states in her assessment of the film. 2 the need for various reasons which the viewing public cannot always appreciate, the setting of the film making has to be elsewhere than the original setting of the story which unfolds in Chile. 3. The use, mainly perhaps for box office reasons , or for quality of acting ability, of American and British actors , even though well done to the best of their ability, for me failed to bring to life the authenticity of a completly South American context which I so loved in the novel. It gave an otherwordlyness to the story which was somewhat lacking in the film, where the story could have been set anywhere. Why couldn't the children be given greenish hair as in the book, that can't be difficult to achieve and gave a sense of strangeness to the childrens' characters from the beginning- a quality in Marquez of magical realism.However I would advocate buying this DVD as it is no longer available in the shops as room is constantly given to horrendous Hoillywood crap.

Great movie but this version is edited

...and then it rather went downhill. However talented Meryl Streep might be, she doesn't always carry it positively, as here. The young Clara (her daughter, Grace) was magical. Glenn Close too was a powerful character. But it all left me quite flat having started so well.Perhaps it was because I was expecting more from the spiritual angle with the prophecy and the ghosts?Trying to cram in so much meant it became difficult to care about the characters. Perhaps the bstd son? But then he turned into an evil bully. Even the normally excellent Jeremy Irons seemed to play his part by numbers.All in all, a disappointment.

Great film and actors!

I read the book, I enjoyed the film too

I was truly overjoyed upon getting a copy of this movie on dvd which I saw on the wide screen many years ago. This is actually a rare movie because in the US, it is not available in the mainstream Amazon and a certain seller is selling his copy at an exorbitant price! Which is why I decided to check it out on Amazon UK. Lo and behold! They had a copy. While this movie borders on greatness, it was really the ultimate disappointment for me to find out that this dvd had NO SUBTITLES - in English or any other language. Isn't the subtitle feature BASIC in any DVD? At least the English one should be present. But there was NONE which is why I rate this only 3-stars. When I watch my favorite movies, I put on the subtitles for better appreciation but with this particular movie, I was so downhearted that there were no subtitles!

I already had this book earmarked to read for a course I am on. I had read it some years ago and loved but have forgotten some of the finer points and had given the original copy away

I loved the film. A star studded cast with the background of a beautiful country in turmoil. I preferred the book though and I was disappointed not to see some of the storylines of secondary characters. Good movie but the book is much better