Great Expectations

Summary

This 1917 iteration of Charles Dickens’ seminal work serves as a haunting, monochromatic exploration of social mobility and the corrosive weight of unearned status. The narrative follows Pip, an impoverished orphan whose mundane existence in the mist-shrouded marshes is abruptly shattered by a clandestine windfall. Orchestrated by an anonymous benefactor, Pip is thrust into the labyrinthine artifice of London’s elite, shedding his blacksmith’s apron for the velvet trappings of a gentleman. However, his metamorphosis is fraught with the spectral influence of Miss Havisham—a woman ossified in her own bitterness—and his unrequited devotion to the frigid Estella. As the source of his fortune is unmasked, the film deconstructs the Victorian myth of the 'self-made man,' revealing a visceral landscape where past sins and present aspirations collide in a tragic, shadow-drenched struggle for redemption.

Synopsis

A humble orphan suddenly becomes a gentleman with the help of an unknown benefactor.