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Pride and Prejudice

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Di of Long Cleeve
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Posted: Sun 11 Sep , 2005 5:11 pm
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Prim, trust me. :D :hug:

It does look good. Really. Even though I don't expect the Darcy/Lizzy chemistry to send me into the stratosphere like it does in the 1995 BBC.

But it does look very romantic :) and the sharp exchanges between Darcy and Lizzy are obviously there :) and the cinematography is GORGEOUS.

It certainly does NOT look like an unmitigated disaster!

So I doubt now I will be playing Wildwood to this movie. ;)

So reminds me of December 1999, all this. :D

"Peter Jackson is doing three films of LOTR? OMG, how fantastic!" :love:

"Arwen as an Elf Warrior Princess?! :Q OMG, I hate this film. :rage: "

"Is that Frodo? OMG, he's gorgeous!" :love:

"Arwen rescues Frodo at the Ford?! OMG, that sucks. :rage: "



:D

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Sun 11 Sep , 2005 5:30 pm
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Yes, of course. :D

But a good purist rant is fun. Improves the circulation, clears the pores, ventilates the lungs.

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Di of Long Cleeve
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Posted: Sun 11 Sep , 2005 6:16 pm
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Oh, definitely. :D

Although my rant had very little to do with purism, really, and everything to do with the fact that up til now I have not been mega-keen on Miss Knightley. :oops:

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Sun 11 Sep , 2005 6:37 pm
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Nor have I.

(She does, too, have collagen lips!)

However, on your recommendation, Di, I'm happy to give her a chance. :)

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Mon 12 Sep , 2005 3:50 am
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Courtesy of Oscarwatch, here's the review from Daily Variety:
Quote:
A movie for the age, and a keeper for the ages, "Pride & Prejudice" brings Jane Austen's best-loved novel to vivid, widescreen life, as well as making an undisputed star of 20-year-old Keira Knightley. Making positive use of thesps closer to the characters' real ages, but also benefiting from a visual approach by young Brit director Joe Wright that melds realism with romance in a canny balance, film looks set to appeal to more than just Janeites and upscale distaffers. Following its world preem at Toronto, pic goes wide in Blighty Sept. 16 and goes Stateside Nov. 18.

Aficionados of the 1995 five-hour BBC miniseries, with Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, won't necessarily be convinced by this bigscreen version. But anyone coming to the movie fresh and not demanding a chapter-by-chapter adaptation will respond to the pic's emotional sweep, sumptuous lensing and marvelous sense of ensemble.

Wright, 33, who comes from a realist tradition in Brit miniseries ("Charles II: The Power & the Passion"), and scripter Deborah Moggach, a novelist and miniseries adaptor in her own right, extract the youthful essence of Austen's novel, as well as providing a richly detailed setting. Scenes barely sketched in Austen's dialogue-heavy, description-light prose leap fully detailed onto the screen, thanks to Sarah Greenwood's terrific production design and Jacqueline Durran's textured costumes.

Taking their cue from when the novel was first written rather than published, both designers go for a softer, late 18th-century look rather than a stiffer early 19th-century one. More relaxed vibe fits better with an adaptation that gives a slightly modern twist to the characters. As an evocation of period English life in the shires, "P&P," though set around a century earlier, is the most flavorsome since Phil Agland's under-rated version of Thomas Hardy's "The Woodlanders."

Moggach's solution to paring down the novel is to concentrate on Elizabeth (Knightley), the second of five daughters belonging to a couple (Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn) of reasonable but by no way lavish means. When news comes that a wealthy young bachelor, Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods), has moved into a nearby stately manor, Elizabeth's mother smells a convenient match in the making.

Film's knockout first reel, composed of two long sequences, scoops the viewer up into late 18th-century market-town life and the main characters' lives. Opening sequence, with the first of many long steadicam takes, follows Elizabeth as she walks up to and inside the family home. Pic then cuts straight to a local ball, where Elizabeth's elder sister, Jane (Rosamund Pike), comes under Bingley's eye but Elizabeth herself gets off on quite the wrong foot with Bingley's handsome but standoffish friend, Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen).

As Elizabeth and Darcy start their convoluted, sour-sweet courtship, events swiftly etch the novel's main developments. Elizabeth becomes interested in a dashing soldier, Lt. Wickham (Rupert Friend), who has an awkward history with Darcy; meanwhile, she's pursued by a boring reverend, William Collins (Tom Hollander).

Initial set of romantic entanglements comes memorably together at the 35-minute mark in another, much more upscale ball, this time at Bingley's residence. Helmer Wright's use of long steadicam sequences and Moggach's ability to keep a large number of characters on the boil come into their own here. Elaborately but not showily choreographed, and giving the viewer a precise sense of social geography within the interlinked rooms, it's the movie's set piece, as Elizabeth negotiates advances from both Collins and Darcy.

Pic starts to tighten the emotional screws just prior to the hour mark, with the first entry of romantic piano-and-strings scoring. Darcy's passionate proposal, and Elizabeth's equally passionate rejection, show both thesps at the top of their game, emotionally fueling the long final act and coda.

Looking every bit a star, Knightley, who's shown more spirit than acting smarts so far in her career, really steps up to the plate here, holding her own against the more classically trained Macfadyen (as well as vets like Blethyn, Sutherland and Judi Dench) with a luminous strength that recalls a young Audrey Hepburn. More than the older Ehle in the TV series, she catches Elizabeth's essential skittishness and youthful braggadocio, making her final conversion all the more moving. Thesp's only weakness is her over-clipped delivery, more Kensington than rural Hertfordshire.

Macfadyen makes Darcy a more conflicted, softer figure than Firth's indelibly etched performance, but one that fits the movie's more realistic mood.

Other casting is aces down the line, with Blethyn reining back her Mrs. Bennet into a believable mother hen, Sutherland overcoming a sometimes wobbly English accent in a perf that pays dividends at the end (in a beautiful scene with Knightley), and Dench perking up the picture at key moments as a waspishly commanding Lady Catherine.

Mass of smaller roles add texture to every scene, increasing the sense of ensemble and keeping the screen busy. Pike's well-meaning Jane is a touching study in selflessness, while Kelly Reilly's Caroline Bingley brings a tart sexual jealousy to her early scenes with Macfadyen and Knightley.

Film's most controversial changes are in the characters of Collins and Bingley, both of whom are used for comic relief. But despite being completely different from the novel's Collins, both physically and emotionally -- as well as being considerably older -- Hollander does make the role work dramatically in Moggach's condensation, allowing modern auds a way into the social rituals without direct satire. Amazingly, given the book's enduring popularity, this is only the second bigscreen version of the novel, 65 years after MGM's Greer Garson-Laurence Olivier B&W starrer, typical of studio-bound English literature productions of the period. Current production was entirely filmed on location, using a variety of period structures all around England.

Camera (Deluxe color, widescreen), Roman Osin; editor, Paul Tothill; music, Dario Marianelli; piano solos, Jean-Yves Thibaudet; music supervisor, Nick Angel; production designer, Sarah Greenwood; supervising art director, Ian Bailie; art directors, Mark Swain, Nick Gottschalk; set decorator, Katie Spencer; costume designer, Jacqueline Durran; hair/make-up designer, Fae Hammond; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS Digital), Danny Hambrook, Catherine Hodgson, Paul Hamblin; choreographer, Jane Gibson; assistant director, Guy Heeley; casting, Jina Jay. Reviewed at UIP screening room, London, Aug. 17, 2005. (In Toronto Film Festival -- Gala Presentation.) MPAAMPAA Rating: PG. Running time: 126 MIN.
However, the Hollywood Reporter (courtesy of GoldDerby) takes a rather different view:
Quote:
Pride & Prejudice
By Ray Bennett
Hollywood Reporter


Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival

LONDON -- It's no wonder a great deal of the publicity for the new screen version of "Pride & Prejudice" boasts of its gorgeous settings and scenery, for they are by far the best things about a film that turns Jane Austen's nimble satire into a lumbering gothic romance.

Director Joe Wright and screenwriter Deborah Moggach seem to have confused Austen with the Bronte sisters, as their story pits star-crossed lovers against a backdrop of fierce landscapes and harsh storms. By robbing the story of its intricate framework of late 18th century social observation, the love affair descends into ponderous melodrama.

With the BBC's 1995 miniseries starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle still regarded as the definitive treatment of the book, it will be an uphill struggle to win audiences to what is neither a faithful rendition nor a very interesting new interpretation.

Everything feels rushed about the story as the five Bennet sisters, and their screechingly vulgar mother and indulgent father learn of the arrival at a local mansion of the wealthy and eligible Charles Bingley. Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) is keen to marry her daughters off to well-heeled gentlemen, and she is mightily encouraged when, at a local ball, Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods) fills the dance card of her eldest daughter, Jane (Rosamund Pike).

That evening, the daughter next in line, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), encounters a friend of Bingley, the gloweringly superior Mr. Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen), who not only rudely declines to dance but also is overheard belittling Elizabeth and the rest of the Bennet clan.

The familiar Austen plot is put on fast-forward as the odious Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander), who will inherit the Bennet home, arrives seeking a wife, and a regiment pulls into town, including the dubious Mr. Wickham (Rupert Friend), who always has an eye for the main chance.

Several of the best-known scenes from the novel are included, but the passage of the love affairs between Jane and Bingley and Elizabeth and Darcy play out with no rhyme or reason as the whole point of Austen's satire -- the English class system, especially as it treated women -- is given short shrift.

The brilliant humor of Mr. Collins' groveling snobbery is skipped, and there's no hint of a relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Wickham. The imperious Lady Catherine de Bourg, played at full throttle by Judy Dench, is given more time than necessary, and little is asked of Donald Sutherland, as Mr. Bennet, other than to be grumpily docile.

MacFadyen, a fine actor, is barely given a chance to compete with the memory of Firth's Darcy as, lacking the superb script of the BBC show, he is asked to do little more than appear handsomely annoyed. Knightley, giggly and juvenile, shows no sign of being up to the task of playing a woman with Elizabeth's intelligence and wisdom. Lacking Austen's subtle and witty insights, there has to be a reason for Darcy to fall in love with Elizabeth, but in this film you cannot imagine why.

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Di of Long Cleeve
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Posted: Mon 12 Sep , 2005 8:46 pm
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Hmmmmm. We wonders, precious, we wonders.

Well, I just watched the entire BBC P&P today. The entire thing. I had the day off work because I go to France on Wednesday - YAY! - and so spent the day getting my euros, washing, ironing, etc etc. And I bunged the BBC P&P in the video and away I went for six hours into Paradise.

And there is no freaking way that Keira and Matthew can ever top the glory that is Colin and Jennifer. NO FREAKING WAY.

Firth's Darcy is Teh Sex, baby, and his romance with Ehle's Lizzy is the sweetest, sexiest, most romantic romance EVAH.

:love: :love: :love: :love:

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:



I will certainly watch the new P&P and give it a fair chance. But there is no way they can top this. NOOOOOOOOOOO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Mon 12 Sep , 2005 9:02 pm
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Preach it, sister! :cool:

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Di of Long Cleeve
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Posted: Mon 12 Sep , 2005 9:53 pm
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Oh, I am, sister, I am! :D

I mean, Firth's Darcy is so definitive that it's impossible to imagine anyone else playing him. And OMG he is so GORGEOUS.

Matthew McFadyen is a good actor, I can vouch for that, having seen him in a number of UK TV productions. But I'm not sure he's a Darcy. And nobody can best the best Darcy ever.

I need me some Darcy dreams. :D

The Daily Variety critic is right about Keira's over-clipped Kensington tones. She's a nice girl but has too many plums in her mouth. I really don't care for that over-plummy type of posh English accent. (It annoyed the heck out of me when she was playing Lara.) She looks physically right for the part as Lizzy, I'll give her that.

Keira dear ... first you tread in Julie Christie's shoes, now in Jennifer's. You have your work cut out for you, my girl. :D

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EdaintheRanger
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Posted: Mon 19 Sep , 2005 9:11 pm
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Plummy accent for Lizzy Bennet?

Hmm doesn't sound right for a provincial girlie in my book... It's not so obvious to me where the Bennet family live, but I thought something like the area Jane Austen lived so that would be a slight Sou-Vesten Enguland accent then? ;)

:scratch: Keira, not really, PotC yeah that was good, but this? Nahh she's better playing waifs and strays really...

I only saw bits of the Dr. Z series adaptation, and haven't read the book so can't comment on that really.

I had to read this book for GCSE, so I suppose I could have hated it as a kind of proto Mills & Boon thang... But no I enjoyed it. :D Even read it all, and brought my own copy.

Can't really beat the '95 adapation, I loved that! Julia Sawalha. :D :drool: Very convincing. There was something about the Ehle/Firth pairing that worked too. I remember me and my Dad enjoying the dry wit of Mr. Bennet in the '95 adapation too. I suppose we could associate with that a little. I thought Mrs Bennet was a little OTT, but welcome comic relief, along with the giddy sisters. Mr Collins, eugh! Maybe Mr. Bingley was a bit of a grinning idiot, but heck I guess the actor's budget only stretches so far. Music was top notch too. Something about the theme music that got me tapping my foot, and I'm no real fan of classical stuff. Scenery and costume just felt right. Okay so I was not so picky about costume/history in those days, but it's strange how you can sniff out dodgy costume.

Thanx to DVDs, and a recent reshowing on Digital telly P&P is regular viewing in our house. Usually when I'm away for the weekend. :cool:

I remember my mom telling me that she read that originally they had pencilled in that: that Firth/Darcy scene as him being naked...

Anyway I suppose I'll get the DVD of this latest adaption when it hits the video shops...

Haven't read any attempts at follow ups to P&P, apart from something that was doing the rounds a few years ago called Pride and Promiscuity..

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Wilma
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Posted: Mon 19 Sep , 2005 9:28 pm
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I saw the press conference for it when it was at the Toronto International film festivel (yes if I had the money I could have frelling seen it already, Oh well). But I will say the press conference seemed a little stilled. Particularly the actor who will be playing Darcy he had this look on his face that he did not want to be there. The director had never seen the 95 adaptation. Keira answered some questions but she basically sat there and looked pretty. The actress who played Jane was trying to keep things upbeat. At least she tried. (For the film fest they air most of the press conferences uneditied and in full.)

They showed the trailer and hmmm.... they have that scene with Darcy's first uh marriage proposal. But they hhhmmmmm... they try and make it look really mushy romantic. They look like they are about to kiss at the end of that scene and that dosen't look right to me. I mean he just insulted her (and somewhere in there was a request for marriage). They are both hurt and angry about rejecting each other!!! They are not supposed to hop into bed. I dunno. At least I have heard there is no fake boobs so that is good. A reporter told them to never get a boob job. *giggle*

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Di of Long Cleeve
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Posted: Sun 25 Sep , 2005 7:37 pm
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EdaintheRanger wrote:
Hmm doesn't sound right for a provincial girlie in my book... It's not so obvious to me where the Bennet family live, but I thought something like the area Jane Austen lived so that would be a slight Sou-Vesten Enguland accent then? ;)
Jane Austen lived in Hampshire. :) Which is not the South West. Once you go into Dorset, you're heading towards the West Country.

Jennifer Ehle's accent is about right. Lizzy is a gentleman's daughter. :cool:
Quote:
Can't really beat the '95 adapation, I loved that! Julia Sawalha. :D :drool: Very convincing.
Sawalha is remarkable as Lydia. She was 25 at the time, and Lydia is 15 in the novel (going on 16.) Julia Sawalha looks and acts like a teenager with total conviction.

But now for the new P&P!
Well, my housemate saw the film on Friday night and told me that she preferred Matthew McFadyen's Darcy to Colin Firth's. :D She really really really REALLY likes Matthew McFadyen. :)

So I went to see the film this afternoon.

And ...


I enjoyed it.

With reservations.

The Hollywood Reporter is absolutely right about this being more Charlotte Bronte than Jane Austen. Nonetheless, the Hollywood Reporter is also a bit too harsh in its review. The film has some strong points in its favour ...

Great acting
Mr and Mrs Bennet, and Mary, are portrayed more sympathetically in this film adaptation, which immediately makes it less purist. Jane Austen was a lot less kinder to her characters.

I thought Tom Hollander was good as Mr Collins but more pathetic which made it harder to laugh at him, whereas BBC Mr Collins is so utterly ridiculous he deserves to be laughed at. I felt sorry for this Mr Collins.

The girl who plays Charlotte Lucas is very good.

Rosamund Pike makes a very winsome Jane.

Kelly O'Reilly as Caroline Bingley is a glorious bitch. She must have relished this role.

Dame Judi Dench ... say no more. One of the greatest British actresses of all time. Watching her is always a pleasure. Dame Judi could play Lady Catherine de Bourgh standing on her head for pete's sake (but Barbara Leigh-Hunt's Lady Catherine, in the BBC P&P, was SUPERB.)

Gorgeous cinematography
Not just beautiful to look at, but I loved the way they filmed the Netherfield ball.

Wonderful set design
The house interiors are gorgeous. I liked the gritty realistic feel ... a lot more than the too chocolate-boxey feel of the movie adaptation of 'Emma' starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

Knightley and McFadyen convince totally as two people falling in love with each other
The chemistry between them is believable, and Keira is very good. Her Lizzy has spirit and intelligence. Even if she's starring in the wrong sort of story. ;)

Matthew McFadyen is, um, sexy. But there is absolutely no way his Darcy can usurp Colin Firth's more macho, wonderfully judged and true-to-the-book portrayal. Colin's crown is undisturbed. :love:

The script is interesting, although terribly rushed
Deborah Moggach uses a lot of Jane Austen's dialogue but not half as much as the BBC adaptation did, and to rather different effect. Some of it was well done, I thought. Other bits ... hmmm, more the Misses Bronte than Miss Austen. Philippa Boyens comes to mind. =:)

CONCLUSION: I enjoyed it as a film, but as an adaptation it's pretty revisionistic, although not totally without merit.

Sound familiar, anyone? :D

PS. It opens in the US in November. I would recommend seeing it, it's certainly NOT some kind of horrendous disaster, and it's BEAUTIFULLY acted. But remember what I said: Charlotte Bronte rather than Austen. And I agree with Harry Knowles about the pacing. The film does feel very rushed in some sequences.

PPS. It's probably a lot better than the 1940s version with Olivier, which I've only ever seen clips of and thought it looked awful.

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fisssh
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Posted: Sun 25 Sep , 2005 8:57 pm
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Thanks for the report Di! I'll definitely give it a try. I'm a big Austen fan. And who can resist a film that is not some kind of horrendous disaster? :D

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Di of Long Cleeve
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:)


I've just finished reading the book. Total masterpiece. :cool:

One huge point in the film's favour is that Keira's Lizzy does NOT make me want to slap her the way that Gwyneth Paltrow's Emma does.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

I really did like Keira's performance. She is positively luminous. Her finest hour to date by a long, long way indeed.

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Primula_Baggins
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Posted: Sun 25 Sep , 2005 9:47 pm
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Di, you ease my nervousness considerably. :)

I will look forward to seeing this.

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fisssh
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Di of Long Cleeve wrote:
I really did like Keira's performance. She is positively luminous. Her finest hour to date by a long, long way indeed.
I was particularly worried about her performance, so it's good to hear you say that!

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Di of Long Cleeve
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Posted: Sun 25 Sep , 2005 10:01 pm
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*nods*

I think you'll be well able to tolerate it, Prim. :)

I'd label the film under Respectable Revisionism. ;)

I mean, it's not like we automatically dislike a revisionistic adaptation of a book we adore, eh? :devil:

As a film, it's better than the movie version of 'Emma', which I've always found too sugary. Even the excellent Toni Collette, as Harriet, was annoying in that. And Gwyneth's Emma is sooo slappable. (Don't marry her, Mr Knightley, marry ME!)

I feel duty bound to support any good British film, i.e. with an all British cast. Especially when it's a costume drama that is JUST THAT LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT. I think that's what sells this film to me, actually, even if it is revisionistic Austen.

And one of my friends on Live Journal has just told me that she, too, prefers Matthew's Darcy to Colin's.

The fanbase is growing. :D

PS. My housemate said she wanted to see it again. I think I'll join her.

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Queen_Beruthiel
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Posted: Sun 25 Sep , 2005 11:28 pm
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A brief review I've posted on a couple of boards:

================================

I saw the film on Wednesday.

I dunno about “gritty”. “Grungey” more like. The film-makers have knocked the Bennets down a few rungs on the social scale. They are more like a class we only hear of, but hardly see, in Austen-verse: respectable farmers. The Martins, perhaps, who befriend Harriet in Emma. Joe Wright’s Bennets live in a sort of familial huddle, with pigs and other critters wandering in and out of the house, which is an unglorified farm with scruffy servants.

The film is good and enjoyable, though not great. It skates along the surface. Wright’s style inclines to melodrama. He has Darcy played as a brooding Gothic anti-hero, like Rochester or Heathcliff. You could imagine this Darcy with dark secrets; maybe a mad wife in the attic.

Wright doesn’t really get irony. Jane’s Charlotte Lucas is “tolerably composed” after accepting Mr. Collins. Wright’s Charlotte shrieks and shouts.

Keira is surprisingly good. MacFadyen, who has the thankless task of stepping into Colin Firth’s breeches, is quite affecting in his big scenes, though dour rather than haughty.

The film cracks along at a fair pace.

The cinema was almost full: the audience predominantly female.


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Di of Long Cleeve
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Posted: Sun 23 Oct , 2005 4:07 pm
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Went to see it again, last night, with housemate.

For no other reason than to see that tantalising glimpse of Matthew Macfadyen's nicely hairy chest, as he comes striding through the morning mist.

Which I consider good enough reason. :halo:

The film grows on one. The soundtrack is lovely, the cinematography is ravishing, Keira really is EXCELLENT and very affecting as Lizzy, the way the balls are filmed is really brilliant ...

There's really lots to enjoy, in this revisionistic, and very romantic, take on Austen. :)

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vison
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Posted: Sun 23 Oct , 2005 4:35 pm
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Hmmmm..........

Any Austen is better than no Austen. Well, no, that's not true. I HAVE seen the Greer Garson version and it's so awful all the copies of that film should be burned. I really can't express how much I hated it. It's vile. It's ghastly. Lady Catherine simpers, and BLESSES Elizabeth's engagement to Darcy, and if that doesn't show you how bad it is, I don't know what will.


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Posted: Sun 23 Oct , 2005 5:26 pm
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Joined: Sat 29 Jan , 2005 5:54 pm
Location: Sailing the luminiferous aether
 
And . . . Greer Garson. . . . :sick:

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