Benjamin Britten the apex of his reputation: it was almost universally hailed as a masterpiece." Shostakovich told Rostropovich that he believed it to be "the greatest work of the twentieth century". In 1967 the BBC commissioned Britten to write an opera specially for television. "Owen Wingrave" was based, like "The Turn of the Screw", on a ghost story by Henry James. By the 1960s Britten found composition much slower than in his prolific youth; he told the 28-year-old composer Nicholas Maw, "Get as much done now as you can, because it gets much, much more difficult as you grow older." He did
The Turn of the Screw (2009 film) highly sexual sequences. Further, Welch added a theological element not present in James's story; Ann's father is a preacher, although Ann herself is unsure of her faith. The psychiatrist, by contrast, is an atheist. When he asks Ann about her faith, she replies that she believes in the Devil. The changes to the story were mostly superficial, and the adaptation generally mirrors the novella's tone. The television critic Matthew Baylis observed that the film creates unease and horror through distortions of reality, and that "The Turn of the Screw" is not a "screaming-banshees-and-horrible-corpses style of ghost story". The film utilises