Un inspecteur vous demande

I have for a long time enjoyed J B Priestley's famous "time-play" having read it and seen it performed in the theatre more than once. This BBC Drama version plays it relatively safe, staying true to the era and by and large to the text. It's very well acted by its ensemble cast with David Thewlis almost ghoulish as the soft-spoken, avenging "Inspector" Goole, Ken Stott as the self-important patriarch Mr, soon-to-be Sir Birling and especially Sophie Rundle as the spirited but doomed Eva/Daisy/Alice whose fate casts a long shadow over the whole Birling family, father, mother, son, newly engaged daughter and her well-to-do fiancé Mr Croft, assembled at the Birling mansion to celebrate the engagement.

The play is opened up just enough so as you'd notice with some external scenes but mostly, as you'd expect it's played indoors, intensifying the drama to a backdrop of hypnotic chamber music as the plot edges inevitably to its climaxes. I say climaxes because of the two big reveals that Priestley employs, firstly exposing the hypocrisy of the staid pre-Great War English society in their links to this young woman's demise and then the brilliant twist at the end just when it seems as if they've all gotten away with it.

Some of Priestley's wider themes seem to be just that, i.e. wide of the mark, like his prediction of a bloody uprising by the downtrodden working classes, although considering the social upheaval later in the depicted decade, obviously with events abroad in Russia, Ireland and Weimar Germany to name but three, never mind the General Strike and Red Clydeside disputes of the post-War era here in Britain maybe he wasn't so far out either. It's only in the words and actions of the two youngest members of the afflicted Birlings that we see any hope of societal change in the future as we observe their conscience-stricken reaction to events, neither tainted by the jaundiced, self-motivated experience of their elders.

The treatment of the Inspector I thought played up the fantastic element just a little too much with the extended epilogue showing him as a sort of omnipresent spirit surrounding Eva as she comes to her fateful end almost as if the director felt the need to explain his unexplained presence,which for me reduced the character's effectiveness as the pricked conscience of the group, his last appearance should really have been after he finished with the family at the house.

Nevertheless, any production like this which respects the context of the original play as this one undoubtedly does, even if at times it creaked rather than crept along, still managed to entertain me just as it always has, as a taut, cleverly written, psychological thriller with a moral in the tale.

I loved the entire play. The thought of the play was amazing. I loved how the music blended so perfectly with the feelings of the characters and how the lighting always matched the mood. The producers kept you going with the entire thing and knew when to go to a another scene, which they executed it quite beautifully. The camera angles were great, the over the shoulder angles kept a kind of sense that this person was disgusted with them (mainly the Inspector). Also, the actors were a perfect fit. I adored Finn Cole, he was such a perfect fit to play Eric Birling. He provoked such feeling in the character and he just suited the role perfectly. But, all the actors were a perfect fit for their roles. Overall, thee play was phenomenal.

Believing that the original 1954 version of Guy Hamilton was on TV I actually watched the 2015 BBC version of Aisling Walsh. Aisling Walsh is an Irish director who has done much work for TV (in 2012 she also made a "Room at the top" remake for the BBC), but with "Maudie" (2016) she also made a feature film for theatrical release.

I can't compare (as yet) with the original version, but the 2015 version is very well, with good period atmosphere.

"An inspector calls" is based on the play of the same name by J.B. Priestley (1945). Earlier Priestleys novel "Benighted" (1927) had been adapted by James Whale into the movie "The old dark house" (1932). Both novel and play are comments on the English class society.

The story of "An inspector calls" is about the suicide of a working class girl. During an interrogation by the mysterious inspector Goole (being a group interrogation, this gives the play / film a very Agatha Christie like flavor) it turns out that all of the members of a wealthy family have contributed in one way or another to this suicide.

The story has aged very well. I would like to call attention to a couple of things in particular.

In the beginning of the film the father of the wealthy famlily says "It is not important where you start in life, it is important where you finish". The old American dream phrased differently. His own family is the living proof of the fact that it does matter where you start in life.

Inspector Goole is very mysterious. He seems to be omniscient, interrogating to force a confession and not to learn more himself. He makes a very moralistic farewell speech, in which he says there are thousands of people like the poor working class girl in the story. It is obvious that he is not an ordinary police inspector. It is for the spectator to decide who or what he really is.

The members of the family ar all guilty of the suicide of the girl. There guilt is however ethical and not legal. It is disenchanting to see how quickly some members of the family recuperate when they become aware of this distinction.

As an English student who recently read thoroughly the play this movie is based of, my main thoughts about this film is that it's a perfectly crafted piece that follows the plot of the play quite accurately, but I also consider myself quite "unexperienced" in the matter because I have only seen this adaptation and not the rest- so maybe by watching the rest of the movies my opinion on the quality of this movie may differ, but I hope that not drastically.

To be honest, right at the beginning when the characters were presenting themselves at the dinner table I found most of their portrayals quite bland and out of character in a sense- especially Eric and Sheila. I found them lacking that strength and uniqueness that had made me strive for them while reading the play, but then again it's true that at the beginning their personalities were much more superficial and that were mostly developed as the play progressed- something which was shown naturally in the film.

Nevertheless, as soon as the plot starting moving the skepticism faded away and I was left awestruck by the actors' outstanding performances; Mr and Mrs Birling were just how I pictured them throughout the story; Gerald was given much more emotional depth than what I had imagined and Eric even though it wasn't how I initially thought of him made me comprehend a completely different interpretation of his character. I am not quite sure of Sheila yet, but I do have to admit that Chloe Pirrie reflected her major character development, but I imagined Sheila as a more immature and naive girl in the beginning. Let's not forget about Sophie Rundell's breathtaking job as Eva: taking only brief descriptions from a dead girl and turning that into a round character with a profound, political and representative meaning behind it.

Even if the characters' portrayals is essential to the film, what really sticks to the audience are the audiovisuals, and I can assure you this film excelled in that job. The shots were beautiful and gave the story a deeper meaning for me as a viewer and indeed hinted many subtle messages that otherwise wouldn't have made much sense. Above all, what most impressed me was the score; from the beginning until the very end the score was used skilfully to match the characters' emotions in certain scenes, but the feeling of strings and a piano matched the main themes of the play, and probably may be the main reason for my passionate liking of this film.

I saw the 1954 version and although I liked it very much I didn't cry. I saw this version and I just couldn't stop crying. The ending was utterly heartbreaking and although I usually disagree with changing the endings of well known books, plays etc (for example Agatha Christie's works that on the newest adaptations it's some kind of a "norm" to change the endings) I hoped down to the last second of the movie for the ending to change. An amazing adaptation. One I will never forget.