--- product_id: 101400755 title: "Little Dorrit [1987] [DVD]" price: "₩43275" currency: KRW in_stock: true reviews_count: 8 url: https://www.desertcart.kr/products/101400755-little-dorrit-1987-dvd store_origin: KR region: South Korea --- # Little Dorrit [1987] [DVD] **Price:** ₩43275 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Little Dorrit [1987] [DVD] - **How much does it cost?** ₩43275 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.kr](https://www.desertcart.kr/products/101400755-little-dorrit-1987-dvd) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Product Description Two-part TV adaptation of Dickens' novel. The Dorrit family have spent years in a debtors' prison due to the financial mess in which father William (Alec Guinness) managed to land himself as a youth. Youngest daughter Amy (known as Little Dorrit) finds work with the wealthy Mrs Clenham but knows that her father will, in all probability, spend the remainder of his life in gaol. However, when Arthur Clenham (Derek Jacobi), recently returned from abroad, comes to suspect that his late father was in part responsible for the Dorrits' plight, he becomes determined to make amends. But as he continues to delve into the mysteries of the Dorrits' and his parents' shared past, he is unaware that his own mother's house has been placed in peril by the arrival of a sinister stranger. Review About LITTLE DORRIT in ICONS IN THE FIRE by Alexander Walker, 2001 The decade s most eccentric film, Little Dorrit, was produced, appropriately, in the area of London whose economic difficulties simultaneously foreshadowed the recession of the early 1990s. Little Dorrit, a six-hour-long, two-part version of Charles Dickens s novel, was made in studios at Rotherhithe, on the very same swath of the Thames, known as Docklands, where developers were holding their corporate breath to see if the strapped-for-cash yuppies could fork out the cash to pay for their new riverside homes as the property boom reached an unheard-of peak, 27 per cent higher than in 1986, while the stock market went into free fall in October 1987. Apart from Abel Gance s Napoleon, few film makers attempted what Christine Edzard did or with so few resources except abundant human talent. Her film was compared at the time with the populous stage production of Nicholas Nickleby. A poor comparison. With her producer husband Richard Goodwin, and his partner John Brabourne, she made Victorian London arise in all its greatness and meanness under the ships timbers that still held up her warehouse studios roof. The other miracle was one of imagination, not construction: she did not let the movie sink under the logistical weight of its own populous authenticity. She made it live. Such numbers, such faces and figures, and such performances. After Lean and some said better than Lean it is the best Dickens film. Or films since, aping the Victorian stereopticon toy, Edzard filmed the story in double vision. By aligning two separate viewpoints on its characters and events the first entitled Nobody s Fault , being that of a good-hearted but weak young man, while the second, called Little Dorrit , being seen through the eyes of a resilient and strong-willed girl Edzard produced a single stand-out view of era, place and people. The Thatcherite values were implicitly under attack in the first 177 minutes: corruption, heartlessness, get-rich-quick fever of the speculative classes were contrasted with the inner-city desolation of the poor caught in the debt trap. The cast was contemporary, in attitude if not apparel: slum landlords, crook financiers, uncaring bureaucrats, ruined speculators and front-page suicides. In its edifice, in which the indolent and incompetent served their time and filled their places, the Circumlocution Office had its parallel in present-day Whitehall. But just sas one is lying back, drained and exhilarated by people s misfortunes and miracles like the Dorrit family released from the crumbling hive of the Marshalsea Prison, a boarding house with bars for bad-debtors Edzard proceeded to tell the same storyover again, from a fresh angle, filling in the gaps, fleshing out the characters, all in ways that shaped the political focus and altered the perspective on the social scene. With 211 named players, the cast list was like a National Gallery of all the talents: too many to name or even to apologise to for not naming. Pre-eminent, though, was Alec Guinness as William Dorrit, the haughty gentleman-sponge. Among Guiness s six best screen performances, it is at the very top. He has never held us so breathless as during Dorrit s dementia at his elder daughter s sumptuous wedding feast, when the old lag in him, shifty but without shame, his mind wandering back to his prison cell and genteel knavery, bids the throng of titled grandees, Welcome to the Marshalsea . Edzard released in Guinness what other directors, including Lean, never managed to reach: his instinct for self-dissimulation as a cover-up of himself from himself. In the part of William Dorrit , Guinness later said, I probably exploited unpleasant things in myself . --Dennis Grunes Wordpress.comHaving launched his screen career with memorable performances as Herbert Pocket and Fagin in David Lean s Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), it was somewhat apt that Alec Guinness should give his last display of cinematic excellence in another Dickens adaptation. Capturing the shabby grandiosity and brazen duplicity of William Dorrit, the Oscar-nominated Guinness provides a touchstone of flawed humanity that stands between the dutiful virtue of Sarah Pickering s Amy and the meek benevolence of Derek Jacobi s Arthur Clennam and the less shaded perfidy of Bill Fraser s Casby, Max Wall s Flintwinch and Joan Greenwood s pitiless matriarch. For all the brilliance of the ensemble playing, the strength of this fourth film version of Charles Dickens s eleventh novel lies in Christine Edzard s Oscar-nominated screenplay and the pacing and control of her direction. Originally published in 19 instalments between December 1855 and June 1857, the sprawling story exposed the inadequacies of the penal system, the iniquities of class division, the inefficiencies of government bureaucracy and the impossibility of family unity. Yet while George Bernard Shaw could call the book Dickens masterpiece among many masterpieces , it could also be used to validate George Orwell s contention that his writing combined rotten architecture and wonderful gargoyles . By dividing the narrative into two parts, Nobody s Fault and Little Dorrit s Story, Edzard rectified some of the weaknesses in the original structure. Her re-ordering allows us to get to know the characters before they become embroiled in the drama and allows us to sample the contrasting atmospheres of the Marshalsea debtors prison, the grindingly poor hovels of Bleeding Heart Yard, the oppressively gloomy Clennam resisdence and the soul-destroying corridors of the Circumlocution Office. So, whether watched in consecutive three-hour segments, in two parts or broken down into nightly episodes across a week, this stands as the most ambitious and considered take on any Dickens novel. Andrew Davies s forthcoming 16-week reworking for the BBC, therefore, has some act to follow. --David Parkinson Review: Flawed but still marvellous! - I own this DVD and also the Andrew Davies adaptation for the BBC and both are wonderful in their own ways. The Christine Edzard film is only marred by the poor sound transfer and the fact that it is studio bound for it's entire length. A few outdoor location scenes would have been nice. The positives far outweigh the negatives though and I would encourage any Dickens fan to get hold of a copy of this DVD. Adapting any novel for film or TV presents problems with what to include or leave out and Little Dorrit is one of Dickens longer efforts so it is impossible to include everything. Miss Wade and Tattycorum are left out of this production as is Rigaud but the film does not suffer as a result. Indeed it is better to omit some characters than include them and then twist the plot in order to imply elements entirely missing from the novel, as Andrew Davies does by seemingly hinting at a lesbian relationship between the two female characters already mentioned. Some of the reviewers of this DVD and the BBC adaptation freely admit they have not read the novel. I suspect this may be one reason why Sarah Pickering gets some poor reviews. In the book Amy Dorrit is a quiet, unassuming but honest and loyal daughter to her father and a never-ending support to her feckless and irresponsible siblings. She is the quiet heart of the book and Sarah Pickering brings this off to perfection in a role with no scope for over-acting or histrionics. The role is not made for Bafta or Oscar material. Why she has made no other films, I don't know, but there is no fault in this portrayal. The rest of the cast are exemplary also and this is one of the most satisfying Dickens adaptations I have seen, and I have seen most of them. I would put it on a par with the classic David Lean film of Great Expectations. I can not praise it more highly than that. Review: Little Dorrit - An interpretation for the dedicated Dickensian. This film of the novel is more than true to the book. It not only faithfully follows the plot(although one subplot is omitted altogether)and characterisation of Dickens, but looks at the story through the eyes of both priciple characters. The themes are curiously current. The pace and length of the film are a its only weakness. But watch it as Dickens published it, in episode, it is worth the watching. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | ASIN | B001CD3POM | | Actors | Alec Guinness, Bill Fraser, Derek Jacobi, Joan Greenwood, Max Wall | | Aspect Ratio | 16:9 - 1.77:1 | | Best Sellers Rank | 30,633 in DVD & Blu-ray ( See Top 100 in DVD & Blu-ray ) 890 in Historical (DVD & Blu-ray) 1,309 in Romance (DVD & Blu-ray) 6,958 in Television (DVD & Blu-ray) | | Customer reviews | 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (152) | | Is discontinued by manufacturer | No | | Language | English | | Media Format | Colour, HiFi Sound, PAL | | Number of discs | 2 | | Package Dimensions | 18.54 x 13.46 x 1.52 cm; 90.72 g | | Rated | Universal, suitable for all | | Release date | 27 Oct. 2008 | | Run time | 6 hours | | Studio | Squirrel Films Distribution Ltd | ## Product Details - **Colour:** Colour - **Format:** Colour, HiFi Sound, PAL - **Language:** English - **Runtime:** 6 hours ## Images ![Little Dorrit [1987] [DVD] - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81PpM8k+nsL.jpg) ![Little Dorrit [1987] [DVD] - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81pbtVki3zL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Flawed but still marvellous! *by D***H on 11 March 2011* I own this DVD and also the Andrew Davies adaptation for the BBC and both are wonderful in their own ways. The Christine Edzard film is only marred by the poor sound transfer and the fact that it is studio bound for it's entire length. A few outdoor location scenes would have been nice. The positives far outweigh the negatives though and I would encourage any Dickens fan to get hold of a copy of this DVD. Adapting any novel for film or TV presents problems with what to include or leave out and Little Dorrit is one of Dickens longer efforts so it is impossible to include everything. Miss Wade and Tattycorum are left out of this production as is Rigaud but the film does not suffer as a result. Indeed it is better to omit some characters than include them and then twist the plot in order to imply elements entirely missing from the novel, as Andrew Davies does by seemingly hinting at a lesbian relationship between the two female characters already mentioned. Some of the reviewers of this DVD and the BBC adaptation freely admit they have not read the novel. I suspect this may be one reason why Sarah Pickering gets some poor reviews. In the book Amy Dorrit is a quiet, unassuming but honest and loyal daughter to her father and a never-ending support to her feckless and irresponsible siblings. She is the quiet heart of the book and Sarah Pickering brings this off to perfection in a role with no scope for over-acting or histrionics. The role is not made for Bafta or Oscar material. Why she has made no other films, I don't know, but there is no fault in this portrayal. The rest of the cast are exemplary also and this is one of the most satisfying Dickens adaptations I have seen, and I have seen most of them. I would put it on a par with the classic David Lean film of Great Expectations. I can not praise it more highly than that. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Little Dorrit *by P***A on 4 February 2011* An interpretation for the dedicated Dickensian. This film of the novel is more than true to the book. It not only faithfully follows the plot(although one subplot is omitted altogether)and characterisation of Dickens, but looks at the story through the eyes of both priciple characters. The themes are curiously current. The pace and length of the film are a its only weakness. But watch it as Dickens published it, in episode, it is worth the watching. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Not everyone's cup of tea but an outstanding adaptation *by B***M on 3 September 2008* Christine Edzard's films (note the plural) of "Little Dorrit" make up perhaps the greatest and most comprehensive adaptation of Dickens ever produced for the big screen. I use the plural because the work comes in the form of two 3-hour films called "Nobody's Fault" and "Little Dorrit's Story". To get the best out of them, both must be viewed and in that order. The film is studded with great names - Derek Jacobi, Alec Guinness, Cyril Cusack, Joan Greenwood (in her last film appearance) and a host of mostly British acting talent including Robert Morley, Michael Elphick, Bill Fraser and Eleanor Bron, all in little more than bit parts. But for me, the star of the show has to be Sarah Pickering, the unknown actress entrusted with the title role. I have tried, without success, to find just one other film in which she appeared. The film is set mostly in the notorious Marshalsea debtors prison in Borough, south London, where Dickens' own father was once incarcerated. A debtors prison is a perfect example of what Joseph Heller would later dub "catch 22". A person imprisoned for debt was denied the right to work, hence had no means of earning the money to pay off the debt(s) of which he/she was accused. The film is essentially a story of the love between Arthur Clennam, a man in his 40s (Jacobi) and Amy Dorrit, usually called Little Dorrit, a young woman of 22 though, according to Dickens, she looked half that age (Pickering). It is set in the period preceding the Reform Act of 1855, and indeed, the novel contributed in no small way to the debate leading up to that piece of legislation. It is a very complex plot (this is, after all, based on a Dickens novel) but one of the devices used is a government department called the Circumlocution Office, in which Dickens and the film makers parody bureaucratic processes by taking them to extremes. Dickens did not go as far as Kafka, who saw authority as actively plotting the destruction of its victims, but he savagely attacks the processes and procedures whereby government is carried out and the means whereby people found their way into high office. At that time, progress through a civil service career was mostly through family connections, a process that enabled illiterates to attain high office. Edzard's 1987/89 adaptation of the novel is lovingly crafted and filmed exclusively on sets created for the purpose, i.e. there was no location shooting. The background music is adapted from the work of Dickens' Italian contemporary Guiseppe Verdi. This is not for everyone, but for those who like Dickens and like to see attempts to be true to his work it is an absolute must. Only now (2008) has it appeared on DVD, remastered from the negatives by the original production company. Guinness, Greenwood and Cusack are, sadly, no longer with us, but this serves as a wonderful reminder of the quality of their work --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.kr/products/101400755-little-dorrit-1987-dvd](https://www.desertcart.kr/products/101400755-little-dorrit-1987-dvd) --- *Product available on Desertcart South Korea* *Store origin: KR* *Last updated: 2026-04-24*