a very much unsolicited rant abt the collector (1965)

the collector movie from 1965 was kinda a letdown… like it didn’t feel so observant of miranda despite a third of the book being written from her perspective (also the best part of the book imo… but im kinda biased because i hate clegg’s pov, but i can also acknowledge its extremely well written i just despise him as a character, he keeps the plot progressing, miranda adds insight into their actions) </3 yet they still added narration (albeit minimal) from clegg… i feel like they could’ve done so much more with it!!!!! 

they didn’t include crucial parts of the story about miranda’s life, they kinda just centered around what clegg knew. like G.P. for example, they didn’t focus on his relevance in Miranda’s life, but rather of clegg being jealous of spotting them in a bar one time. and like yeah it kinda helped progress the plot but a lot of miranda’s diary entries centered around him like she reminisces and draws a lot of her criticism and growing hatred of clegg and his lack of creativity and scope from him (like G.P.’s comment about art collectors, likening it to his butterfly collection) 

“The other thing I think about is G.P.

When I first met him I told everyone how marvellous he was. Then a reaction set in, I thought I was getting a silly schoolgirl hero-pash on him, and the other thing began to happen. It was all too emotional.

Because he's changed me more than anything or anybody. More than London, more than the Slade.

It's not just that he's seen so much more life. Had so much more artistic experience.

And is known. But he says exactly what he thinks, and he always makes me think.

That's the big thing. He makes me question myself. How many times have I disagreed with him? And then a week later with someone else I find I'm arguing as he would argue. Judging people by his standards.”

(and yes she does continue judging people by his (G.P.’s) standards)

and all of that could’ve helped develop her character more, like i wasn’t especially rooting for her for any particular reason other than she was an innocent girl trapped in a really awful situation, not because of her passion and wit which is clearly highlighted in her entries. 

“I know I also feel happy because I've been not here for most of the day. I've been mainly thinking about G.P. In his world, not this one here. I remembered so much. I would have liked to write it all down. I gorged myself on memories. This world makes that world seem so real, so living, so beautiful. Even the sordid parts of it.

And partly, too, it's been a sort of indulging in wicked vanity about myself.

Remembering things G.P. has said to me, and other people. Knowing I am rather a special person. Knowing I am intelligent, knowing that I am beginning to understand life much better than most people of my age. Even knowing that I shall never be so stupid as to be vain about it, but be grateful, be terribly glad (especially after this) to be alive, to be who I am-Miranda, and unique.

I shall never let anyone see this. Even if it is the truth, it must sound vain.

Just as I never let other girls see that I know I am pretty; nobody knows how I've fallen over myself not to take that unfair advantage. Wandering male eyes, even the nicest, l've snubbed.

Minny: one day when I'd been gushing about her dress when she was going out to a dance. She said, shut up. You're so pretty you don't even have to try.

G.P. saying, you've every kind of face.

Wicked.”

this is my favorite entry of hers (personality wise) but there’s so many more (and probably more descriptive) parts that show her character. in the movie it kinda paints her as a passive and non threatening character, whereas the dialogue in the book has her repeatedly insulting him and defying him, breaking his things, calling him ignorant, whatever. i think it also adds to the unnerving part of clegg because he’s generally unbothered by these comments, knowing that she’s at his mercy, and her defiance is kinda the only semblance of “control” she has 

(which feels fleeting since her words can’t affect him, it’s just to make her feel better and to take out her frustrations not only about her predicament, but also because she views him as everything wrong with society. there’s of course more nuance to this, her opinion of him generally stemming from a place of superiority, she views his mundaneness as his main virtue…clegg’s internal dialogue resented her higher class and privileged background… which also kinda ties in with society’s repulsion towards him, blaming everyone but himself as to why he’s lonely, specifically his lower middle class status. he feels capturing her would elevate his social status, become acquainted with her wealthier, pretentious, the other adjectives (idek i’m so tired rn)… friends, which is well communicated in the movie so i was satisfied with that)

idek how to describe it it’s just different reading from her, as opposed to clegg’s perspective. i think it also helps to explain the climax of the book, where he shamed miranda for trying to make a move on him (not out of love but because she thought it would let convince him to let her go) and the whole book he’s like “why would she be scared!!! i’m a whole lot nicer than the average kidnapper” and “i’m not asking for much… just fall in love with me! you could if you tried” it doesn’t communicate the fear she felt. i think that there are major points in the book that communicate his wickedness other than him just neglecting her. i’m not saying to include the scenes where he’d made her pose for those photographs without clothes, or where he’d taken hers off when she was unconscious to lead her to believe she was assaulted, but how they present him doesn’t even show a fraction of his… idk evilness… atleast as it is portrayed and played out in the book (via these and other scenes, but i think those were the height of his depravity) idk how to upload screenshots of the particularly brutal quotes from the book, but if you haven't read it, it's pretty disturbing.

it just kinda showed him having temper tantrums, whereas in the book he was generally calm (which made it even more unnerving rather than these spontaneous bursts of anger) up until the ending, but even then we don’t see these bursts of anger, it’s general communicated that he’s just cold hearted and uncaring (with one or two exceptions where he flew at her)

the ending was also so abrupt, but i guess the unfolding of events in the initial story were quick leading up her her death. and with their lack of examination of her character it just felt empty, atleast compared to how i felt reading the book. i know you can’t fit EVERYTHING of a 300 page book into a 2 hour movie but atleast put more effort into it, maybe including her begging not to die in a place like that, her last few entries, especially the ones detailing her assault and general degradation of her health were so haunting

the cyclinical ending can really be summed up in one sentence (from his perspective): 

“she’s only an ordinary common shop-girl, but that was my mistake before, aiming too high, I ought to have seen that I could never get what I wanted from someone like Miranda, with all her la-di-da ideas and clever tricks.”

kinda hard to mess that up so the conclusion was fine i guess.

idk maybe i had higher expectations bc i saw hype around it and it’s my favorite book so i’m maybe bound to be disappointed