The Ocelot Oxford and Newbury 121 July 2016 edition | Page 19

Film
Human beans,
whizzpoppers
and the
wonders of
Dahl...

The BFG has lols with his bff

Are You Talkin’ To Me?
A Film column by Jamie Hill
As a child books were my
playground. I loved stories. They
would take me on adventures
to worlds that only exist in the
imagination populated by characters
that were out of this world.
Chief amongst the authors that I
loved was Roald Dahl.
Alongside Quentin Blake’s delicious
artwork, the stories that Dahl penned
were subversive, cathartic and most
of all funny.
The thing about Dahl’s work is that
it always speaks directly to children
without any condescension. The works
subvert and make us question the
world around us in a good way.
It’s no wonder that Hollywood soon
came along to make his books into
films starting with the superb Gene
Wilder in Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory.
Since then we’ve had The Witches,
Danny the Champion of the World,
Matilda, James and The Giant Peach,

Fantastic Mr Fox and another version,
this time with Johnny Depp, of Charlie
and The Chocolate Factory.
It was only a matter of time before
Hollywood would come knocking
again for The BFG - the story that
really captured me as a child as it
involved man-eating giants.
In case you’ve been sleeping under
a snozzcumber, the BFG stands for
Big Friendly Giant.
The story involves an orphan girl
named Sophie who encounters the
Big Friendly Giant during one of
his witching hour sorties to London.
The giant, despite his intimidating
appearance, turns out to be a
kindhearted soul who is considered
an outcast by the other giants
because, unlike them, he refuses to
eat children.
And it is with that simple leap into
the imagination that the stage is set.
There was an animated film
following his antics in the eighties
which was much loved but this will
be the first time that technology has

enabled to see the giant made flesh.
And bringing this to the big screen
is none other than the ‘best director
ever’ TM, Steven Spielberg, who
has managed to drag the actor
Mark Rylance, fresh from working on
Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, along
for the ride as the titular giant.
From the trailer it looks like
Spielberg has captured the heart of
the book with the portrayal of the
BFG as a simple soul with a good
heart.
The film is released in the UK on
July 22 and I’ll be first in the queue
with my family to watch it.
I’m now hoping that film-makers
start looking at some of Dahl’s
work again. A George’s Marvellous
Medicine would be good or maybe
even The Twits and The Witches and
Matilda could also do with another
version.
This would bring Dahl’s wider
work to a whole new generation of
children and that can only be a good
thing.

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20/06/2016 19:33