Interesting Times

George Orwell: journalist, novelist . . . psychic? Yes, when Orwell published 1984 in 1949, he certainly had an inkling about the way the world was headed but the politics of the Cold War and the successive fifty-odd (and they have been odd) years turned out to follow pretty much the entire playbook of his seminal novel much closer than he could have ever feared. Yes, we all have a Big Brother now, but unlike the one Momma gave us, this guy is less interested in helping us change our oil and more interested in our voting records and our sex lives. Michael Radford’s cinematic adaptation of the novel remains pretty faithful to the book’s bleak outlook and while it’s not exactly a fun night out at the cinema, 1984 stands as one of the better novel-to-film translations and in this day and age, it might be wise to take notes.
Thu., Aug. 21, 7 p.m., 2008