He had huge success with the false paedophile-thriller The Hunt, but Thomas Vinterberg has always been an enormously talented Dutch filmmaker. He’s been working for a long time actually, associated at first with the Dogme 95 movement. But ever since the success of The Hunt, he’s slowly become more “internationally known” – as in, “known in America.”
The news that a hero of Dutch cinema is achieving fame in the US is exciting enough, but his big-budget adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Far From The Madding Crowd is looking like it could be the cherry on top of a slow-burning cake. Most likely set for release in 2014, his adaptation stars Carey Mulligan and Rust & Bone‘s Matthias Schoenaerts in the story of what you could call a love square, being Mulligan’s enticement of three different suitors – played by Schoenaerts, Tom Sturridge, and Michael Sheen.
The screenplay was written by One Day‘s David Nicholls, who also adapted the Tess of the d’Urbervilles mini-series for the BBC. If his work on Far From the Madding Crowd is anywhere near as faithful and inventive as his work on Tess, we’re in for a great time.
The first images from the film have been released today, and judging by what we see, it looks like Vinterberg has managed to really capture the beauty of the English countryside, in which Thomas Hardy set his greatest works.
We could get into how important the differences between town and countryside are to Hardy’s oeuvre, but what you really want is to see these pictures. I know it, and you know it. Even that quick history of Thomas Vinterberg’s career at the start of this item was self-indulgent.
So without any further ado, here’s the pictures you clicked here to see. Just remember: the world is bigger than images on a screen. Look at them, then consider your place in the world.
