Jane Austen discussion
Austen on Film
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Personally, I do not mind modern retellings - it is mostly this one-hour format that scares me. I cannot imagine doing any Austen novel within one hour, reimagined or not. :/
So many of these productions are just using the Austen name to get eyeballs. I watched a Sense and Sensibility modern knockoff last night that reversed the personalities of Elinor and Marianne and completely disappeared Willoughby. Two hours of my life I will never get back. It was like watching a cobra dance, I stared in horrified fascination.
Abigail wrote: "So many of these productions are just using the Austen name to get eyeballs. I watched a Sense and Sensibility modern knockoff last night that reversed the personalities of Elinor and Marianne and ..."the Christmas movie on Hallmark? I thought it was nice enough but not Austen.
That was it! I had a retreat-from-reality day yesterday. It certainly served my purpose! I thought the acting was pretty dreadful.
Abigail wrote: "That was it! I had a retreat-from-reality day yesterday. It certainly served my purpose! I thought the acting was pretty dreadful."Well, yes, the actors tend to be ex-soap opera stars, has been child stars and sometimes has been adult actors I recognize. The Hallmark movies are more in Austen's line than the sexy teen drama. I refused to watch Reign even though Megan Follows Anne of Green Gables is Catherine de' Medici.
You have a point there! Jane would probably be more comfortable at Hallmark.
If this is not what you are talking about, sorry but I need to rant. I watched the new Emma last night, or should I say half of it. I think Jane would be rolling in her grave. Mr Knightley naked!! I couldn't believe it. Then Emma pushing up her skirt, what!! No I am not a prune but I thought I would never see the day when I am watching a retelling of one of her stories and see a bare butt!! Jane I am so sorry girl. I think I will stick to the BBC version and let Jane be happy!!
Christine wrote: "If this is not what you are talking about, sorry but I need to rant. I watched the new Emma last night, or should I say half of it. I think Jane would be rolling in her grave. Mr Knightley naked!! ..."I know what you mean! I have not watched this Emma and I don't think I ever will, also for the reasons you mentioned. Quite frankly, I find stuff like that or like MMF's dishevelled Darcy striding into Elizabeth's bedroom in the middle of the night more offensive, because those are supposed to be period pieces.
victoria_tonks wrote: "Christine wrote: "If this is not what you are talking about, sorry but I need to rant. I watched the new Emma last night, or should I say half of it. I think Jane would be rolling in her grave. Mr ..."I know!! The new Emma movie was awful. if you watch it, which I hope you don't, you will hate Emma. The whole movie was not want Jane would have wanted! The only Jane Austen movies I watch is the BBC version. They are the only ones who gets it right!!
There were a lot of things I disliked about the new Emma movie, but its script did hew closer to the text than any other adaptation I've seen. Points for that. What annoyed me the most was not the bums on display but the fact that they made Mr. Knightley über-wealthy and living in basically a palace. Missed the whole point about Mr. Knightley—that he is not very wealthy but devotes what he has to sustaining the community. The whole thematic thread of old-school noblesse oblige without pride (Knightley) vs. newer-money symbolic charity (the Woodhouses) was lost.
It's often very difficult for directors, especially if they are not English (though that's no guarantee either!), to understand the subtleties and nuances of the British Class System. To be fair, the BCS is almost designed to 'fool outsiders' (ie, to prove they ARE outsiders because other wise they would know the subtleties and nuances - and know, of course, just exactly where each and every person is within the BCS....!)I've always though the director of the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice just didn't understand that although Mr Bennet was by no means 'rich', he was, as Elizabeth so roundly rebuffs Lady Catherine's fuming outrage, 'a gentleman' (like Darcy), and as such would not have lived in a house with pigs running around loose.
On the other hand, maybe even Austen herself could get carried away - she does record that Pemberley was inspired by Chatsworth (both are in Derbyshire!), which, as a ducal residence (one of the three largest private houses in England, along with Castle Howard and Blenheim)(the latter is the only non-royal palace), is really too large and grand even for the wealthy Mr D.
As for Mr Knightley's wealth, doesn't he state at some point that his carriage horses are being used to help bring in the harvest? That's hardly the thing a very very rich man would need to do!
Exactly! The Keira Knightley P&P got all the class distinctions so wrong, and this new Emma does the same.It’s not clear to me whether Mr. Knightley used his farm horses for his carriage because he couldn’t afford more horses or did so because he so rarely used his carriage that he thought it would be wasteful to have another team. Mr. Bennet also uses his farm horses for his carriage, but in his case it seems to be a necessary economy. Mr. Knightley’s economies seem more voluntary because he holds more extensive property, well managed.
I think he’s intended to be seen as the epitome of an ethical and responsible landlord, a private country gentleman who respects his tenants and neighbors and works for the good of the entire community. His type should be regarded as a contrast to the wealthy landowners who see their land only as a source of income while they pursue lazy lives or political careers in the metropolis, men who suck the resources out of the land without supporting their tenants.
In this sense, Emma is Austen’s most conservative novel, celebrating old-school values in a changing society.
Well I went and got it! I don't have cable and I miss the BBC, so I got Britbox. I am loving it!! I watch the BBC Version of Emma and it was excellent. I watched the new movie and I felt that Emma wasn't this stuck up in the Jane Austen book. Oh she had her problems and thank you Mr Knightley for pointing them out to her! So now having Britbox I am going to watch the rest of Jane Austen, Bronte, and even maybe Dr Who! I think I will be in trouble with this movie channel!!
Christine I reccomend the BBC from the 70s and 80s-Persuasion 1971 Mansfield park 1986 (like reading the book unbelievable the characterzations )Emma 1972( a perfect Emma)Sencse and Sensibility 1981 . The NA is aweful. IN P&P I personally dont like the Darcy at all so that ruins it for me sone of the others are good and a few are close to my understanding of JA ideas as she wrote (mrs Bennet and Mr collens are more realistic) from what I have noticted British veiwers do like davidRintoul so if you are British you might enjoy it. Have fun during these home bound days !
Jane Austen never visited any location in Derbyshire. That is one of the reasons why I was so careful, in writing my book Darcy's Story in 1996, not to distort anything that Jane Austen wrote in P&P.
I have visited Lyme Park in the county of Cheshire, which is the National Trust property used in the 1995 BBC TV series for Darcy's home.
Darcy's Story was my (first) novel (using the pen name Janet Aylmer for the author), and is still selling in 2020, 24 years after being published (!).
Over 160,000 copies have been sold in paperback since 1996.
Most copies are now sold in ebook format.
See www.janetaylmer.com for my other books.
Janet, are you sure Austen never visited Derbyshire? I'm sure she visited Chatsworth!! (I bought an Austen lit crit book there from the bookshop when I visited some years ago and why would they have it if there wasn't a connection?) I must go and check. And I'm sure Chatsworth is in Derbyshire. Must go and check that too! Hmm, totally doubting my (ageing!) memory now!
OK, Chatsworth is definitely in Derbyshire (its own website, www.chatsworth.org says so) . The same Chatsworth site also says:"It is believed that Jane Austen may have based her idea of Pemberley on Chatsworth House and written the novel while in Bakewell."
Bakewell's definitely in Derbyshire. :) :)
However, whether any of the above is verified in Austen records I've no idea!
Beth-in-UkMy husband's family comes from the village of Ashford in the Water, which is about 15 minutes drive from Chatsworth.
No, the hotel in the town of Bakewell, to the east of the village, likes to claim that she stayed there! But Jane Austen never visited Derbyshire, and she got her knowledge of the county from a cousin who had visited Derbyshire.
It is wonderful countryside, now in the Peak District National Park. Try "googling" images of the former railway viaduct at Monsal Head, and you will see what I mean.
Chatsworth portrayed Pemberley in the 2005 film but Jane never visited there. She never traveled north of London, I don't believe. She did, however visit Highclere Castle! But not the house and not the house we see on TV/the big screen on Downton Abbey. She saw an earlier house as they drove around the grounds.
You will find a map of places where Jane Austen lived or visited on this web page - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timelin...
Yes, thanks indeed Janet! I wonder why the hotel in Bakewell claims Austen stayed there then, or why the Chatsworth site repeats it? Good for publicity, obviously, but if it's not substantiated in the Austen records, how did they come up with the idea??As for me finding an Austen lit crit book at Chatsworth, presumably that is because of the Keira Knightley film locating Pemberley at Chatsworth, rather than any authentic link to Austen herself.
It's a nice link to our current fascination with life in 'olden days' that Austen did visit 'Downton Abbey' (or its precursor at least.) I hope the earlier edifice was more elegant than the one in Downton Abbey, ie, the 'modern' Highclere, as personally I think it's hideous!! (Not a fan of Victorian gothic or whatever style it is.)
I also rather liked from the wiki map you linked to that Austen seems to have visited Addlestrop! Nothing, alas, seems to remain of the original station in the poem, except the station sign, which is beside the little road, and one can pause and take photos of it (as I did when I passed by some years ago.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adlestr...
Overall, from the Wiki map in the link you provided, Austen does seem to have travelled pretty extensively in the south of England - she covered quite a lot of ground evidently!
I agree that the David Rintoul TV version of P and P was pretty good - it was on when I was young, we all enjoyed watching it. Lizzie was well cast too. It would benefit from being 'remastered' or whatever it's called, as the quality of the film/tape suffers in comparison with the quality of current transmissions.All the earlier TV versions do look very stagey overall, not just in the acting, but the settings too - they probably film less outdoors or in interior locations, and more in the studio I suspect?
I would say the Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds Persuasion remains the benchmark though - and it wasn't episodic I think, ie, you watch it as a film, all the way through?
The Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility is also definitive, thanks to her, and Hugh Grant playing an almost impossible role. Kate Winslett brings out Marianne's irritatingly teenage qualities v well!!
Pride, Prejudice and Mistletoe is on the Hallmark Channel tonight. It has nothing to do with Jane Austen but I watched it when it first aired anyway.
I love Katherine Reay books. She studied Jane Austen in college and it became her favorite author. So her books are like reading a Jane Austen novel. I have read all her works and because of the reference to Jane books. Now I love Jane Austen and read and watch anything I can about her or her books. Katherine Reay best book about a Jane Austen subject is Dear Mr Knightley. Amazing. So I went and subscribed to Britbox and planning to watch the Jane Austen movies as well. Yes I am officially addicted!!
Christine - you are joining a very large family of addicts, I promise you!!!! Welcome! :)
Christine - you are joining a very large family of addicts, I promise you!!!! Welcome! :)
Ugh no thank you. Teens will be sooo disappointed and hate Austen if they go in expecting a sexed up teen drama of the modern day and not a 19th-century comedy of manners.