Pbs Learning Media: David Copperfield 3: David and Aunt Betsey

Analyze the filmmakers' choices when adapting a Dickens novel into a film. In this pivotal scene from the 2000 Masterpiece production of "David Copperfield," David, destitute and desperate, approaches his formidable Aunt Betsey for the first time. The director and screenwriter had to make tough choices about what to keep and what to change or delete. As students analyze the scene by comparing Dickens's original text with the film adaption, they explore the challenges that confront filmmakers when interpreting a literary work for the screen. [2:05]