Weekend Jane Austen film festival

[pegkerr]

From work:

The home computer still is not fixed. Rob worked every day this holiday weekend. The girls still have that virus that spikes their temperatures up a little every day and so weren’t in the mood to go out and do anything very adventuresome outside the house.

I did laundry, but that hardly seemed enough to justify the weekend. To keep cabin fever at bay, we held an impromptu Jane Austen film festival. On Saturday, the girls and I wanted the A&E production of "Pride and Prejudice" (with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehl). The girls enjoyed that very much. I did have to answer a lot of questions: what’s this odious entail business all about, for example? What’s the "living" that Darcy refused to give to Wickham? Why on earth did Charlotte Lucas think she had to marry that smarmy Mr. Collins? We went to some friends for dinner on Saturday night. In the car ride on the way home, it was obvious that they were still mulling over Lizzie and Mr. Darcy. I was impressed by the level of their thinking about it. We talked about what pride is as opposed to prejudice, and how both can lead to mistakes, what exactly was wrong with Mr. and Mrs. Bennett’s marriage, and how it led to Lydia’s disgraceful behavior, how the arrogance of Mr. Collins’ proposal foreshadowed Mr. Darcy’s first proposal, and how Mr. Darcy and Lizzie both had to be humbled and learn from their mistakes.

Sunday we watched "Persuasion," the version with Amanda Root and Ciarin Hinds. I love it, but it was not quite as successful as P&P—a more cerebral production, and a bit trying for a six year old’s patience (Delia also kept mixing up the Musgrove girls, which made things more confusing for her). On Monday, we watched "Sense and Sensibility." About halfway through, they realized that Colonel Brandon was Snape, which caused much excitement.

Perhaps we’ll rent Gwyneth Paltrow’s "Emma" soon. I know I don’t dare show them the recent release of the Patricia Rozema production of "Mansfield Park"—the sketch book that Fanny looks through would be too shocking. There was a television production of "Northanger Abbey" in 1986, but it would be very difficult to find.

And I don't know anyone who has ever done a production of Lady Susan.

Peg

Comments

[bookshop.livejournal.com]

Awwwwww. I would love to have an experience like that with my daughters. It is almost enough to make me want daughters. I think only Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer could inspire maternal sentiments in me. Anyway, it sounds like you had a great time! You guys should get snowed in more often, you could go through the entire collection of Henry James or Edith Warton at the movies. Not that those would be entirely as good as the Jane Austen collection, but hey, conversation pieces. If nothing else maybe you can all watch and compare the 3 Emmas :D (for my money I think Clueless gets it "the most right," haha.)

pardon my babbling. :)

[skg.livejournal.com]

Colin Firth

*swoon*

I love Austen, and recently re-read P&P, Emma, and S&S. Impressed that your daughters liked the films at such a young age!!

Also (*fangirls*), I am using one of your books for a midterm project on modern fantasy for a Lit class...

[rivka.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful weekend! I recently saw the A&E Pride and Prejudice, and was quite impressed at the historical details (I recognized many of the dances from the Playford manual) and the fidelity to the book. I'm glad your daughters liked it.

On Monday, we watched "Sense and Sensibility." About halfway through, they realized that Colonel Brandon was Snape, which caused much excitement.

This makes my head swim. Plot twists just don't get any more intriguing than that, do they?

Northanger Abbey

[kalopsia.livejournal.com]

I did find a copy of Northanger Abbey at Borders starring a very likeable Peter Firth as Henry. Sadly, no relation to Colin.

[ias.livejournal.com]

I came across your post in Alex Malfoy's friends list, and being a rather committed austen fan (who's lucky enough to live in Bath), I though I'd do a bit of research into what else is available.

There's also a good recent ITV production 1997 of Emma with Kate Beckinsale as Emma and adapted by Andrew Davis (who also did the BBC Firth/Ehle P&P). It's available on video and DVD in the US:
http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0118308

The most recent BBC production of Mansfield Park was in 1983 and is available on video in the US:
http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0085052
I don't remember it being that bad, but it certainly isn't as engaging as the most recent production, but then it doesn't add non-Austen themes, unlike the (very good, imho) 1999 film.

The BBC 1980's Northanger Abbey production (which I thought was as good as their other Austen stuff but obviously without the huge budget of P&P, however many reviewers would disagree) is also available in dvd and video in the States:
http://uk.imdb.com/Title?0091649

Enjoy!

[irielle.livejournal.com]

You might be able to get "Northanger Abbey" through interlibrary loan. I checked out the video from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls library so I know there's a copy that's not too far away from you.

Northanger Abbey

[debellatrix.livejournal.com]

to buy the movie

For rental, you might also want to consider Netflix. I don't rent enough movies to justify it, but many of my friends use the service, and they love it.

[avengangle.livejournal.com]

There are actually four Emmas, and the one with Gwyneth Paltrow is my favorite. While it makes creative use of some of the elements of the story, I think it captures the actual flavor of the book the best. The very long BBC one from the seventies is rather tedious. The recent BBC/A & E one is just missing some element of cute-ness. And Clueless, well . . . :)

Which reminds me: I should go reread Pride and Prejudice.

--Stephanie (don't worry, there is no reason you should know who I am . . .)

[innerslytherin]

Northanger Abbey - delightful book which inspired my userpic. ^_^ I know we watched it in my horrendous Jane Austen class at university (Purdue, in Indiana), so InterLibrary Loan is a good suggestion. We all found it rather amusing as the book's point is that life is not like Gothic novels, but the movie's point seemed to be that life is just like Gothic novels. But a nice production, anyway.

Re: Northanger Abbey 1986

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lore/]

I owned the 1986 Northanger Abbey for about 5 minutes. This is what I wrote in my journal about it:

"On the other hand, the Northanger Abbey BBC production from 1987 is what surely instigated the 1990's drive for authentic Austen film remakes. While the costumes and settings appeared to be from the period, the music and tone were pure MTV. I have not read the book, but I am sure there is quite a bit left out of the hour-and-a-half movie. Plus, the actors' drive for intensity lead me to view some scenes and situations as naughtier than they were meant to be. All told, the movie seemed to be disorganized and creepy. I might try to watch it one more time, but I have a feeling the disk is going to wind up on Ebay sometime soon."

And, yes, some Ebay loon actually paid me a few dollars more for the disc than I spent on it in the first place. Rent/library loan/whatever for as little money as possible, and preview for your girls. I've read quite a few reviews from Austen lovers who like this version very much, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Mmmm Austen movie weekend. There are worse ways to be snowed in. :)

love, lore

Austen Films

[lapsus-0-calami.livejournal.com]

I have all of the Jane Austen movies (apart form Northanger, which I'm not too keen on) my current obsession is Mansfield Park, in fact I purchased a lovely shiny new Penguin Classics Paperback of it yesterday, so far I have only dipped in to it, it's wonderful stuff.

I studied Persuasion for my English A Level at school and loathed it. Since seeing the Amanda Root/Cieran Hinds version I have seen the error of my ways, and I now that it is the best of the adaptations and have grown to love the book. The emotions in the book are so subtle, but are portrayed as so strong in the film, in fact I think that this subtlety (in the book) are practically impossible for 17 year old school girls to grasp, unless they have very mature relationships.

*i'll shut up now*