This new TV adaption of the story of Anne Frank produced by BBC is what I had been looking forward to for a long time. However, after watching all of the five episodes this week, I felt a bit disappointed.
As a big fan of Anne Frank all the time, certainly I have read her affecting diary that nearly everybody in the world knows about, as well as the memoirist written by the attic-helper Miep Gies and the biography written by Melissa Muller. Besides this new BBC version, I also had watched three dramas of her story before: one is a film and the other two are made for TV. The film adaption was made in 1959 by Americans, which is the first work about Anne on screen. Though I don't like this film at all since the cast and the set are far away from the truth in history, it still hold the value and importance for its first attempt of adapting her story. The second is a TV adaption made in 1988 by US, and compared to the film adaption, this one stepped forward quite much in any aspect. For the reason that it was mainly based on the memoirist “Anne Frank Remembered” written by Miep Gies, this little-known TV adaption only adopted the view of Miep Gies and thus overlooked most of the details in the attic as well as the content of Anne's diary. The third one “Anne Frank: The Whole Story” is still a TV adaption made by Americans in 2001, despite the fact that most of the characters are from Britain. This is the only adaption I am totally satisfied with and I can't help to watch it over and over again. It is based on the biography of Anne Frank written by Melissa Muller and covers the whole life of our little Heroin including her joyful life before hiding, the hard days in the secrete attic and the tragic last period in the concentration camp. I have to say the cast and set of this adaption are so appropriate and exact that it is just as authentic as the true history. The plot is intense, compelling and heart-warming, thereby making you feel like that you were trapped in the attic too and could be caught at any time.
This new BBC adaption, however, is more like an English soap than a serious historical drama. Anyway, the little starring Ellie Kendrick looks very witty and enchanting, but some of rest characters are quite boring especially her mother who just looks like suffering from the mental disease. Moreover, Mrs.Petronella Van Daan, her lips are always as red as cherry, and her untimely humor is extremely annoying and unnecessary. Meanwhile, the Sergeant in the last episode looks so kind and so English that we can't think him as a Nazi devil. On the whole, this diary based adaption gets some improper humor and the acts of some roles are a bit exaggerated from my point of view. It seems like they were threatening themselves deliberately rather than revealing the fear in their own heart naturally.
HD
