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J.M. Barrie is best known for writing "Peter Pan", one of the best-loved children's classics. The inspiration for the book came from his association with the Llewelyn-Davies boys. "Finding Neverland" tells the story of Peter Pan beginning with Baries and the boys that inspired him. This is the new Hollywood produced take on the Barrie story of the creation of Peter Pan. The film stars Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. Dustin Hoffman also makes a brief appearance, perhaps because of his role in "Peter Pan". A scene with Winslet as Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies with her four sons. It's interesting to compare the costuming with the BBC TV version. In the BBC version, "The Lost Boys", the boys wore berets and smocks. HBC is assessing the two versions to determine which costuming is more authentic.
Sir James Matthew Barrie is the beloved Scottish author of the classic children's story--Peter Pan. Barrie was a Scottish dramacist and novelist. He was born at Kirriemuir, Forfarshire. I have little information on his childhood or what he wore as a boy. James for the first 6 years of his life, lived in the shadow of his elder brother David. Just before his 14th birthday, David was killed in a skating accident. James soon realised that, by dying so young, David would
remain a boy forever in the minds of all those who had known him--just like Peter Pan.
Perhaps the most beloved literary characters of all time is Peter Pan. The story was written by J.M. Barie and first resented to the public in 1904. Stage productions appeared in 1904. The petic fairy-take play enchanted both children and adults when it was first presented and continues to do so today. Peter is a imaginary boy,
leading the nursery-bound Darling children through exciting adventures. Peter is remembered for the Peter Pan collar. This was an existing fashion, but acquired the name because of illustrations for the book and theatrical costuming used in for Peter.
This is the new Hollywood produced take on the Barrie story of the creation of Peter Pan.
The film stars Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet. Dustin Hoffman also makes a brief appearance, perhaps because of his role in "Peter Pan". Hoffman of course played Captain Cook in that production. The scene seen here shows Winslet as Sylvia Llewelyn-Davies with her four sons (figure 1). The boys were: Peter (Freddie Highmore), John ( ), George (Nick Roud), and . They are quite good in their roles, but I know lkittle else about their film careers. Freddie Highmore in particular receiced a good bit of critical acclaim for his performance as Peter. A HBC reader describes his perfirmance as "intelligent, sensitive and nuanced". He so impressing Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet that they both recommended him to Tim Burton for the role of Charlie Bucket in the remake of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".
J.M. Barrie is best known for writing "Peter Pan", one of the best-loved children's classics. The inspiration for the book came from his association with the Llewelyn-Davies boys. "Finding Neverland" tells the story of Peter Pan beginning with Barie and the boys that inspired him.
The boys were very imaginative. Peter wasdifferent, he does not believe in magic. In the film when Barrie meets the boys Michael is under the park bench where Barrie is sitting. Michael tells Barrie he can't come out because he is in prison. Barrie asks him why he is in prison and he says its because he is George's younger brother. The other boys then come along. The only one who is not imaginative is Peter. "It's only a play mother!' he remarks in one scene. Barrie added to and made there imaginative play more colourful by dressing them in costumnes and photographing the play for a book--The Castaways.
"Finding Neverland is an elaborately costumed film. We have some doubts, however, about the accuracy of the costumes. One important point here is that the family was rather an arts and culturally oriented family and thus the boys were dressed with a French flare that was not common for British boys at the time. There is a slight indication of this in the film--but not very accurately as best we can tell. It's interesting to compare the costuming with the BBC TV version. And in this case we have actual images of the boys to compare with the film costuming. In the BBC version, "The Lost Boys", the boys wore berets and smocks. HBC is assessing the two versions to determine which costuming is more authentic. We note the berets were worn by the boys. This is an accurate depiction. Many of the other outfits are more open to question. In "Finding Neverland" the boys seem to wear jackets rather than smocks. The costuming differs somewhat by age, but mostly the boys seem to weak Norfolk suits. We also notice some blouses without shirt tails. The boys do wear Eton collars. We notice in the bedroom scenes that the boys wear pajamas rather than nightshirts which would have been more common at the time. We would be interested in any assessments readers may have on the accuracy of the costuming.
A documentary was made abouting the production of "Finding Neverland". I think it may have been included on the DVD. I have not seen this documentary and do not know if any interesting information about costuming and clothing conventions were addressed in the documentary. Hopefully HBC readers will be able to provide some unformation here.
The BBC in 19?? profuced a made for TV film about J.M. Barie and the five boys of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. The film is based on the book Andrew Birkin and the Lost Boys published in 1979 by Andrew Birkin. The relationship is brilliantly explored in the book and summarized in the BBC film. The costuming in the film appears to have been reasobably accurate. The boys wear vack buttoning smocks and berets which is how the Llewelyn Davies were ctully dressed. I am
not sure, however, how accurate the colors were. In additioin, the smocks that the oys wore in the film seem rather shorter than the ones the Llewelyn Davies boys actually wore, or normally worn by other English or French boys.
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