Vanity Fair: Bringing Thackeray's Timeless Novel to the Screen

Combining pretty pictures, fascinating background information and an overall lovely story as its subject, this companion to the Mira Nair film based on Thackeray's classic novel offers more than the usual""behind the scenes"" film book. Vanity Fair was published in monthly installments beginning in 1847, and it merrily exposed every bit of English society's two-facedness, money-oriented desires and social fronts. Director Nair (Monsoon Wedding) spent months doing""homework like a schoolgirl"" in order to prepare for the film version, and she shares her lengthy e-mail correspondence with screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) about adapting Thackeray. These messages make up the book's most captivating portion, as director and screenwriter bat around ideas such as adding more emotion to certain scenes, staying true to Thackeray's concepts and disguising an actor's pregnancy. Fans of Nair and Fellowes will delight at reading the notes; the two share a strong friendship and frequently profess their admiration for one another. The rest of the book consists of bits of the screenplay, Nair's journals and photos of cast members in costume.