Christine Edzard

February 17, 1945

Paris, France

Edzard founded the Sands Films studio and production company in Rotherhithe, London in 1975 with her husband film producer Richard B. Goodwin. The building of the Sands Films studio and production company was awarded a Blue Plaque in 2009. Edzard’s collaborations with Richard Goodwin, and John Brabourne include two films which feature animation - Tales of Beatrix Potter, populated by Potter’s animal characters, and Stories from a Flying Trunk, based on three tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Modern London locations were used in Andersen’s “The Kitchen”, in which utensils come to life; “The Little Match Girl”, the story of a young girl who attempts to find the queen with only a box of matches to light her way; and “Little Ida”, a young dancer who dreams of dancing with vegetables. Dancers of the Royal Ballet perform in this last sequence, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton. Edzard’s films include Little Dorrit, the fifth film version of the long Dickens novel. Little Dorrit is actually a pair of three-hour films, telling the same story, but each through the eyes of a different character. The first, Nobody’s Fault (Dickens’s original title was “Poverty”), is an interpretation by the novel’s hero, Arthur Clennam (played by Derek Jacobi). The second, Little Dorrit (original title, “Riches”), is the story according to Amy Dorrit—known as Little Dorrit—who was born and raised in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison with her father, Mr. Dorrit (Amy is played by Sarah Pickering and her father by Alec Guinness). Dickens’s own father had been a resident of Marshalsea. Little Dorrit’s life of poverty and Clennam’s of wealth become intertwined and finally reversed with a change of fortunes. “I do want to show life as it was at the time and as people perceived it then,” Edzard remarked to Fuller in Film Comment. “Imagine living in one room in the Marshalsea for twenty years! Conditions we’d regard as intolerable, they’d regard as normal.” The cast received high marks from reviewers; and Richard Corliss, in a Time review, remarked that “the film belongs to Guinness. His boldness, precision and feline slyness make him an ideal Dickens interpreter.” “A sweeping fresco of mid-Victorian society,” is an Economist reviewer’s description of The Fool. This film is based on the works of Dickens contemporary Henry Mayhew, who interviewed the poor of London between 1848 and 1861, and who used those interviews as the basis for his writings. Although set in 1857, The Fool is filled with contemporary relevance. The IMAX Nutcracker is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice”. John Hartl wrote in the Seattle Times, that the film “is dominated by its eye-popping production design”. The movie was filmed in 3-D for theaters equipped to show it.

Christine Edzard Edit Profile

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Background

Ethnicity: Her father was German, while her mother was Polish.

Christine Edzard was born in Paris, France, on February 17, 1945. She was raised in Paris by her parents, who were painters.

Education

Edzard has a degree in economics.

Career

Edzard founded the Sands Films studio and production company in Rotherhithe, London in 1975 with her husband film producer Richard B. Goodwin. The building of the Sands Films studio and production company was awarded a Blue Plaque in 2009. Edzard’s collaborations with Richard Goodwin, and John Brabourne include two films which feature animation - Tales of Beatrix Potter, populated by Potter’s animal characters, and Stories from a Flying Trunk, based on three tales of Hans Christian Andersen. Modern London locations were used in Andersen’s “The Kitchen”, in which utensils come to life; “The Little Match Girl”, the story of a young girl who attempts to find the queen with only a box of matches to light her way; and “Little Ida”, a young dancer who dreams of dancing with vegetables. Dancers of the Royal Ballet perform in this last sequence, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton.

Edzard’s films include Little Dorrit, the fifth film version of the long Dickens novel. Little Dorrit is actually a pair of three-hour films, telling the same story, but each through the eyes of a different character. The first, Nobody’s Fault (Dickens’s original title was “Poverty”), is an interpretation by the novel’s hero, Arthur Clennam (played by Derek Jacobi). The second, Little Dorrit (original title, “Riches”), is the story according to Amy Dorrit—known as Little Dorrit—who was born and raised in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison with her father, Mr. Dorrit (Amy is played by Sarah Pickering and her father by Alec Guinness). Dickens’s own father had been a resident of Marshalsea. Little Dorrit’s life of poverty and Clennam’s of wealth become intertwined and finally reversed with a change of fortunes. “I do want to show life as it was at the time and as people perceived it then,” Edzard remarked to Fuller in Film Comment. “Imagine living in one room in the Marshalsea for twenty years! Conditions we’d regard as intolerable, they’d regard as normal.”

The cast received high marks from reviewers; and Richard Corliss, in a Time review, remarked that “the film belongs to Guinness. His boldness, precision and feline slyness make him an ideal Dickens interpreter.”

“A sweeping fresco of mid-Victorian society,” is an Economist reviewer’s description of The Fool. This film is based on the works of Dickens contemporary Henry Mayhew, who interviewed the poor of London between 1848 and 1861, and who used those interviews as the basis for his writings. Although set in 1857, The Fool is filled with contemporary relevance.

The IMAX Nutcracker is based on E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “The Nutcracker and the King of Mice”. John Hartl wrote in the Seattle Times, that the film “is dominated by its eye-popping production design”. The movie was filmed in 3-D for theaters equipped to show it.

Achievements

Edzard's film adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel became very popular, and Little Dorrit was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA (British Academy Film and Television Arts) Award for the best adapted screenplay and a Los Angeles Film Critics Award for the best film. The film Little Dorrit was named the best picture of 1988 by the Los Angeles Film Critics, as well.

Works

Tales Of Beatrix Potter Tales Of Beatrix Potter

Stories from a Flying Trunk Stories from a Flying Trunk

movie
- Watch The Fool
  (Set in the 1850's, a humble clerk living in a garret abov...)
  1990
- Little Dorrit
  (Part 1)
  1987
- Little Dorrit
  (Part 2)
  1987
- As You Like It 1992
- Stories from a Flying Trunk 1979
- Tales Of Beatrix Potter 1971

Connections

Richard B. Goodwin was Edzard's husband.

husband:: Richard B. Goodwin

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