Pride and Prejudice
First off, read the book. I don’t care who you are, just read it if you haven’t already (or even if you have). Actually, don’t if you’re a bloke and under around fourteen/fifteen years old, as you’ll probably hate it. I know I would have.
Okay, now that’s done I’ll get started by talking about the BBC adaptation. It’s very well done, and is incredibly faithful to the book. Both Lizzy and Darcy are well portrayed, Mr Bennet is as sarcastic as he should be, and the only thing that grated slightly was the character of Mary. I saw this version for the first time about four days ago. It was a brilliant drama.
Last night I saw the new film, which is a lot shorter and so by necessity doesn’t include all of the nuances. However, I found myself enjoying it even more than the BBC adaptation in places, though I was very disappointed with Mr Bennet. Mary was much more believable, Lizzy was even more vivacious than in the BBC version and Darcy just slightly more human, I felt. They’d changed scenery around (so instead of a conversation being in the morning out in a garden, it takes place after midnight in a candle-lit drawing room) and adapted some of the speeches slightly, but a lot of the dialogue was straight out of the book (as in the BBC version). There were lots of little things they’d changed which I felt made the film work better as a whole. As a faithful adaptation of the book, it was reasonably good, but nowhere near as accurate as the BBC version. That said, I felt I liked it as a film in its own right. The BBC version put into pictures the book exactly. This version told the story in its own way and was all the better for it. You couldn’t have been completely faithful in two hours, so they didn’t try to be; they did however keep every essential aspect, and filled out the rest to make the film better as a whole. It worked superbly.
These are my initial feelings about the film, which will no doubt change (if only slightly) once I see it again. Has anyone else seen it, and if so what did you think?
Matthew @ 13:53, September 18, 2005 to Reviews | Comments (6)
Comments:
Julie B.
So glad you went to see it, and so glad you liked it. There are costuming “issues” that will grate, but I think can be readily forgiven.
We over here have to wait a ridiculously long time to see it, as the word is they’re hoping a November release will make it an Oscar contender. It comes out the same day as Goblet of Fire, so it appears I’ll be seeing two movies that day. If I’m lucky. It’s slated for a “limited” release in the States which means it will show in tiny little arty movie houses which are all way too far from my house with inconvenient showing times.
Word is that the enormity of Darcy’s responsibilities are to be played up in this film. Did you find that so? If you consider what was dumped on him at such a young age, it was no wonder he was a bit uptight.
Comment added at 05:26, September 19, 2005
Matthew
I’m not so sure they were played up any more than in the BBC adaptation myself. As to the costuming issues, what sort of things do you mean? My mum felt that whereas the BBC version had Regency fashions, this new version was more Georgian. In other words, the fashions came from the time Austen wrote the book rather than when it was first published.
Don’t let the waiting give you a higher expectation than you should have!
Comment added at 12:43, September 19, 2005
Becca
It was okay. However Colin Firth IS actually Mr Darcy so I felt really sorry for the guy (don’t even know his name!) who played it this time. Found it hard to not be swayed by the friends I saw it with who all thought it was sacrilidge (their words not mine). But I thought it was okay, but a bit of a waste of money – I’d say wait til it comes out on dvd and rent it rather than spend silly amounts on a cinema ticket.
Comment added at 21:53, September 21, 2005
Julie B.
The costumes are supposed to be more Georgian. But. The hair styles are really, really awful—Lizzy’s bangs, for instance, and Lizzy’s deplorable no bonnet/no gloves policy that she has going. Lady Catherine and Mrs. Bennet’s costuming is dated—I can see them doing that for Mrs. B, but not Lady C. Caroline Bingley’s costuming is actually more Regency, not Georgian. The fabrics and colors were also wrong.
But from the photos I’ve seen, the biggest offender is definitely the hairstyles, including Lizzy’s lack of bonnets. (“Her hair, Louisa!”)
Comment added at 23:26, September 21, 2005
Martina
I actually think I preferred Matthew MacFadyen; Colin Firth never seemed to really play Mr Darcy in the way I saw him in the book.
Comment added at 12:29, September 22, 2005
Matthew
I preferred MacFadyen – sacrilegious he ain’t. Firth as Darcy annoyed me slightly sometimes, though I may be imagining things due to having seen the newer one more recently.
Comment added at 12:18, September 24, 2005
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