A film adaptation of Dahl's novel worked on by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, The Witches was the final film work of both Dahl and Henson's lives and is a fitting tribute to both men's genius with imaginative fantastical stories. (Dahl, for his part, called the film "appalling" in how it deviated from his original slightly strange ending). Dahl and Henson may have made for natural bedfellows, but the director of Walkabout, Don't Look Now, and The Man Who Fell to Earth was a more out there choice. Nicolas Roeg, however, proved an impressive match for the material, making a children's film with a genuinely dark and scary edge. The story, one of Dahl's best, draws on the contrasts between the writer's Norwegian and British heritage. Hero Luke learns all about witches thanks to the more ingrained superstitions of Nordic culture and his granny Helga (played by Swedish former sex symbol Mai Zetterling). Filming in Bergen, Norway and Newquay, Cornwall, meanwhile, gave the production a good sense of Dahl's locations. The jewel in The Witches' crown, and indeed the star turn in any Dahl film, is Anjelica Huston's joyously evil performance as the Grand High Witch. As she peels off her gloves and wig, revealing the clawed hag beneath, Huston is clearly having a ball playing an unredeemably evil part. She and Roeg know just how to play the role so that it manages to be both entertainingly fun and disturbing enough to give children nightmares. And that's why The Witches is the best attempt to adapt Dahl for film and screw what the writer himself thought. And what about you, readers? Do you perhaps agree with Dahl that Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was a travesty? Or with The Library of Congress that it was a classic? Add your thoughts on filming Roald Dahl to the comments below.
