84 Charing Cross Road

[StepAwayFromCake]

Re-reading for the millionth time, after a gap of about 10y. Still love it. Still moves me. Still choke up when I read the letter telling of his death. Still feel HH's thrill as she explores London - my city.

I've never dared to watch the film with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. How could it possibly match up to my visualisation? But every time I wonder...shall I...should I try it...maybe it will add to my pleasure?

I can totally see Anne Bancroft as Helene Hanff, but Anthony Hopkins isn't 'my' Frank Doel. OTOH, AH is a good actor. And how can you ruin a story where virtually nothing happens?

What do you think? Should I watch the film? How true is it to the book?

Oh I LOVE this book. I remember not wanting to get off the tube at my stop when I first read it. I haven't seen the film either but Hopkins just doesn't seem right as Frank. I have such a clear mental image of how everyone looked that I think the film would only disappoint me.

oh thanks, so my teenage self was right, trying to make it a bit more exotic!

Really loved the book and the film was good as well. I had no quibbles with it as I usually criticise films of books.

I watched Remains of the Day yesterday, and I have changed my opinion. Although Antony Hopkins was never 'my' Frank, I can now see him as Frank.

I cry when I read the letter about Frank's death, and I cried when Miss Kenton-as-was was going away on the bus, and Mr Stevens was looking at her in the rain, painfully aware of what his choices had cost him.

God, but I'm a soppy-socks.

(And, yes, I cry at "Daddy, my daddy!" in The Railway Children, film and book.)

I must be soppy too. I get teary just thinking about that scene from the Railway Children.

And yes, Hopkins is great in Remains of the Day. The film was fine, I suppose, but for me it didn't have the power of the book.

On the back of this thread I've been watching a few youtube clips of the film and am starting to feel that Anthony Hopkins may well be Frank. I think I do need to see the whole film.

Love the film but never read the book but will do now!

The site ite of the bookshop at 84 is a little saddening if you don't know? There is a plaque on the wall to recognise the significance of the address. The ground floor is now a MacDonalds. Bit sobering.

Remains of the Day was his film after his role as Hannibal Lecter. So that film cutely became known as The Silence of the Butler.

I first read the book when I lived in London. I already knew Charing Cross Road as a street of booksellers, so one day I wandered down there to have a look at No84. A faceless, characterless office block.

Charing Cross Road is not what it used to be, but there are still some good bookshops with decent stock. I like to think that www.henrypordesbooks.com/ is something of a remnant of what it was like in Hanff's time.

I recommend Underfoot in Show Business. Her account of the opening of Oklahoma - which everyone thought was doomed to abject failure - is hilarious.

Don't see the film, it's very disappointing after the book.

I used to love book shopping in Charing Cross Road decades ago, but went there a year or so ago and was saddened by how it had changed.

You need to have a heart of concrete not to well up a bit at "Daddy, my Daddy".