Jane Austen, god love her...

[graculus]

Does the world really need yet another adaptation of Pride and Prejudice? Weren't the first twenty-seven enough? And honestly, who could hold a candle to the BBC version considering the fact that grown women's eyes still tend to glaze over when Colin Firth in a wet shirt is mentioned?

You know, I love Jane Austen. I've read all her books many times and own a number of adaptations of said books on dvd. My absolute favourite, in both versions, has to be Persuasion...

Every time I watch Sense and Sensibility (as I did this week again) I do so with a sense of hope that maybe this time around the hot dish of the day (Colonel Brandon, as played by Alan Rickman in the only non-Snape role I could ever fancy him in) won't end up with the simpering ninny (aka Marianne Dashwood, played by Kate Winslet throwing herself down hills and courting pneumonia at every turn) while the more sensible Elinor (Emma Thompson) gets landed with the biggest dullard ever to walk the face of the earth (Edward Ferrars, as played by Hugh Grant with tongue firmly in cheek). Brandon could do so much better but yet simpering ninnyhood is apparently the major trait of his ideal woman. Pffft. Love Hugh Laurie's cameo role as the put-upon Mr. Palmer who turns out to be a Good Sort.

And then there's Persuasion. Mmmm. It doesn't hurt that the role of the Cad Of The Hour (and in Austen there's always one) is taken by the delectable Sam West. It also really doesn't hurt that Ciaran Hinds scowls and smoulders his way round the story as Captain Wentworth. I guess it has more of a feel of rightness about it than Sense and Sensibility, particularly as in this story ninnyness is not rewarded by shacking up with the hot guy. ;)

Comments

[temaris.livejournal.com]

I watched the trailer to the Kiera Knightley version last night, and was unimpressed. I'm with you that the Jennifer Ehle/Colin Firth version was pretty much definitive; and I'd almost forgotten Ciaran Hinds in Persuasion. That adaptation actually made me like the book (which I'd read at school and consequently loathed :-( ). I must go find a copy of that one.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of Persuasion on sale. It's always been my favourite Austen novel (though I also love Northanger Abbey) so it's a pleasure when you enjoy the adaptation as much as you liked the original.

Of course, if I'd had it inflicted on me at school it might well be another matter - iirc, we had Brave New World as one of our books and even now just the thought of it brings me out in a cold sweat. ;)

[lukitas.livejournal.com]

as I really don't like jane Austen I'm with you, almost 30 adaptation are enough, don't need another one :p

[graculus.livejournal.com]

*boggles* How can you not like Austen?

And I was being sarcastic when I said 27, it can't be anything like that but it just feels that way... ;)

[lukitas.livejournal.com]

apart from don't like her, I've just show my ignorance about it, even doing the Jane Austen'tour on Bath doesn't help it. I'm sorry I can't. I've tried to read pride and perjudice 4 or 5 times and I can'tt pass chapter 4 or 5, the same with sense and sensibility and I think I tried Emma once. So it's not for lack of trying.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I looked it up, there's been 8 or 9 different adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, not 27... it just felt like 27! :P

Well, I don't know what to say. Perhaps it's easier to get into Austen if you've been brought up on a diet of BBC costume dramas?

[cara-chapel.livejournal.com]

Hugh Laurie is brilliant, and I adore him in that movie-- he's the very best thing about it, except possibly for Brandon, who is so hot the DVD player smokes every time he comes onscreen.

I can't abide Hugh Grant as Edward Ferrars. I'm not fond of Kate Winslett as Marianne, either, but I am amused by the very notion of Brandon teaching her what sex is all about. Wake up and smell the coffee, woman! Somehow, I don't see him as the "Close your eyes and think of England" sort with his bride.

Lucy Steele is extremely well-played in this version, I think, and I love watching her get her comeuppance from a woman who is exactly like her, plus 20 years and some money. I don't see how Edward got hooked up with her in the first place, though; they don't seem to have any chemistry at all.

I should re-watch.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Brandon certainly does smoulder, it's a very low-key and restrained performance from Rickman.

And as for the whole Brandon-Marianne thing, he's apparently so infatuated with her sheer ninnyness that he's not going to do anything that would upset her, is he?

[cara-chapel.livejournal.com]

It depends on what you mean by "upset." I rather think she'd be a good deal more fond of him in the morning, if he played his cards right. Heh!

[cycnus39]

Austen? Pointless drivel.
I object to the fact that Colin Firth's breeches made me read her.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Don't go taking the fact you're so easily led out on Jane! :P

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love that movie version of Persuasion. I always thought Wentworth was something of a jerk (in that classic Romance Novel way) -- but that letter that he(austen) wrote at the very end of the book was and is, simply a.m.a.z.i.n.g.

There's a NEW version of P&P coming out? You're not joking, are you. It's always going to be that Colin Firth/ Jennifer Ehle version for me. Is it a film version or something for television?

Oh, and I always liked the Kate Beckinsale version of Emma, the BBC/A&E series, better than the frothy film version with er...mindwiping on her name, but at least Collette whatsername was good in that, too. Garg. I can never remember actor's names.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

It's another movie version (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414387/), alas - this one with Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennet. Move along, there's nothing to see here.

And the missing Emma name you're searching for is Gwyneth Paltrow. I liked the TV version better too. ;)

[rhade-rad.livejournal.com]

The Ciaran Hinds/Amanda Root version of Persuasion was directed by Roger Michell - very, very good director both stage and Brit indies and most of the cast had worked for him at the RSC. Plus adaptation by Nick Dear, good playwright in his own right.

But then casting Ciaran in anything is cheating. He's so versatile: one of the few to play both villains and romantic leads .