page_title: The Turn of the Screw (2009 film)
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: The Turn of the Screw (2009 film) / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Henry James
context_page_description: The Turn of the Screw is a British television film based on Henry James's 1898 ghost story of the same name. Commissioned and produced by the BBC, it was first broadcast on 30 December 2009, on BBC One. The novella was adapted for the screen by Sandy Welch, and the film was directed by Tim Fywell. Although generally true to the tone and story of James's work, the film is set in the 1920s—in contrast to the original 1840s setting—and accentuates sexual elements that some theorists have identified in the novella. The film's story is told in flashbacks during consultations between the institutionalised Ann and Dr Fisher. Ann tells how she was hired by an aristocrat to care for the orphans Miles and Flora. She is met at the children's home, Bly, by Mrs Grose, the housekeeper. Ann soon begins to see unknown figures around the manor, and seeks an explanation.
  Critics were divided in their reviews of The Turn of the Screw. The acting and tone of the production were generally praised, but the plot's divergences from the original story were less well received.
context_section_description: The BBC had previously adapted several horror stories as Christmas films, with their series A Ghost Story for Christmas including adaptations of the M. R. James stories "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" (filmed as The Stalls of Barchester), "A Warning to the Curious", "Lost Hearts", "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" and "The Ash Tree". The Turn of the Screw fits into this "mini-genre" of the Christmas horror film. The BBC executive and drama commissioner Ben Stephenson, discussing The Turn of the Screw, said that "Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a ghost story for the adults to watch in front of the fire when the children are in bed, and they don't get more chilling than this bold reimagining of the classic Henry James tale." The film was commissioned by Stephenson and Jay Hunt, then controller of BBC One. It was directed by Tim Fywell, and produced by Colin Wratten; the executive producer was Jessica Pope.
  The film is an adaptation of Henry James's 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw. As one of his more popular stories, it had already been adapted for films and television many times, although not previously by the BBC. The adaptation was screenwritten by Sandy Welch, who set the film in the early 1920s, in contrast to the novella's 1840s setting. This allowed the introduction of the Freudian psychiatrist interviewing the main character; this framing device is not used by James, but both the novella and the film share a first-person narrator. The updated setting also allowed the First World War to account for the lack of male staff at the house. The Freudian and libidinous elements some literary theorists have seen in James's story are particularly prevalent in the film, with Ann's repressed sexual feelings for the Master resulting in a number of highly sexual sequences. Further, Welch added a theological element not present in James's story; Ann's father is a preacher, although Ann herself is unsure of her faith. The psychiatrist, by contrast, is an atheist. When he asks Ann about her faith, she replies that she believes in the Devil.
  The changes to the story were mostly superficial, and the adaptation generally mirrors the novella's tone. The television critic Matthew Baylis observed that the film creates unease and horror through distortions of reality, and that The Turn of the Screw is not a "screaming-banshees-and-horrible-corpses style of ghost story". The film utilises subtle horror, including details such as a broken doll on a window ledge, and the fact that viewers never discover certain elements of the story (for example, it is never revealed why the character Miles has been suspended from his boarding school). This, for Baylis, ties to the title of the film: "it's the writer who puts the screw in the hole and the best ones ask the audience to turn it themselves".
  The Turn of the Screw was filmed on location in the West Country of England, beginning in August 2009. The scenes at Bly were filmed at Brympton d'Evercy, a manor house near Yeovil, Somerset. Brympton was chosen because of its similarity to Bly House, as described by James, including its extensive grounds and large lake. The railway scenes were filmed at the East Somerset Railway.
  The Turn of the Screw starred Michelle Dockery as Ann, Sue Johnston as Mrs Sarah Grose, Dan Stevens as Dr Fisher, Mark Umbers as the Master, Nicola Walker as Carla, Edward MacLiam as Peter Quint and Katie Lightfoot as Emily Jessel. Corin Redgrave, who played the professor, was the son of Michael Redgrave, who starred in The Innocents, a 1961 adaption of The Turn of the Screw. The children, Flora and Miles, were played respectively by Eva Sayer and Josef Lindsay. However, due to the sexual content of the film, the child actors did not attend the preview screenings.
caption: Henry James, author of The Turn of the Screw (1898), in a photograph published in 1904
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