Good readers make good cinemagoers

When The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  was released some days ago, I made a point of watching it because a long time ago, I had felt intrigued by such a long and funny title when the novel was on display in bookshops shorlty after its release. As the film hadn´t had so much hype and the time I had chosen for the performance isn´t usually one of the most popular ones, I was surprised to discover that the cinema was packed, the  answer was simple: most cinema-goers  were readers of the story who enjoyed the novel and were looking forward to watching it on the big screen. I enjoyed the film a lot and I have the feeling that it also lived up to the expectations of most of the people who were there, probably of most of the readers of the novel. Enjoying a story which is new to you, even if you are roughly acquainted with the plot, is a a very different experience from enjoying a story you are already familiar with, especially when you have a very clear idea of what the characters as well as the setting must look like since you have a very good grasp of the“literary” lives of the characters and the age they live in. The cinematic terms into which the book story is translated usually involve changes that cannot be avoided so to put in a nutshell, you can´t expect the film to  be just the same as the novel. However, readers of a novel aspire to find the essence of the story that grabbed their attention for a while, the essence of the characters that lived with them for some time, the essence of the story that made a difference in their lives as readers and as human beings. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  tells us the story of a group of people in 1946 Britain after the war is over, but it tells us about the harsdships of the characters during the war, about being hungry and lonely all the time and about the importance of being with other people in order to cope with those difficult times and above all, it tells about our love of books and how that love helped the characters to tackle one of the darkest periods of their lives.

                                          The historical novel on which the film is based.

                 The official poster for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.  

 Today it is Armistice Day, a day to celebrate the end of the first world war and today too we mark the centenary of the armistice. It may be just a coincidence but I think that watching this film can be a good way of understanding the meaning of such a day. As historians explain, the end of the first world world was somehow the origin of the second world war.