The conjunction of performances, dialogue and cinematography allows some slight modifications, elaborations and stresses which help the text come alive. Semi-senile Aunt Julia's singing becomes unsteady in the movie, while D'Arcy's is not affected by his cold, as in the story. The drinking Freddy produces pleasant new bits of comic relief business. When, in the nostalgic talk of past singers, Aunt Kate, the main host, speaks of the best tenor she had ever known, her performance adds to the text a strong sense of melancholy which heralds the emotions of scenes to come. Some Joyceans may cavil at certain aspects of the movie, but it is pointless to make intolerant comparisons between totally different media.
Oil is oil and vinegar is vinega.
We should be grateful when they combine into a good dressing. I will omit further examples, but I must mention the treatment of the musical passages in this very music-conscious, melodious film. You might expect John Huston, a very ill old man who directed this film from a wheelchair, and attached to breathing machinery, to have been an old man in a hurry. This he was emphatically not. This sort of completeness is filmic courage in an age of impatient publics,but is not new for Huston.