Price and Prejudice, or Lost in Austen reviewed
Posted: 28 December 2008 Filed under: Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: lost in austen, pride and prejudice 1 Comment »Lost in Austen, 4 episodes written by Guy Andrews, directed by Dan Zeff (Mammoth Screen, 2008) [imdb]
My year of Austen reviews wouldn’t be complete without this interesting mini-series that originally aired in the UK in September. It first aired in Canada in November on the digital channel that used to have the unfortunate initials CLT – can’t remember what that stood for. The W took it to standard cable this past weekend; both airings included Austen adaptations from the last fifteen years.
Review – Doctor Who: Frostfire
Posted: 25 November 2008 Filed under: Doctor Who, Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: 1st doctor, frostfire, review Leave a comment »Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles 1.1 – Frostfire, written by Marc Platt, directed by Mark J Thompson (Big Finish, 2007)
Earlier this year, I posted about the actors who have appeared in the new Doctor Who and the recent Jane Austen adaptations. I later commented in AustenBlog, confirming to the Editrix that the Doctor has met Austen before. In both cases, I pointed to the recent release from Big Finish, Frostfire.
Unlike Big Finish’s ongoing line of original audio plays featuring Doctors 5-8, the Companion Chronicles are essentially original stories of the first four Doctors, as re-told by one of the companions experiencing that story. In Frostfire, this companion is Vicki, who left the 1st Doctor in ancient Troy, changed her name to Cressida, and has moved on with her husband Troilus to Carthage in 1164 BCE. And she is recounting this tale to a mysterious Cinder.
The Doctor, Vicki and Steven land in London in February 1814. Encountering a frost fair, they come across a strange egg, the sight of which gets Vicki fainting. Helped by Miss Jane Austen, the Doctor and his friends discover the egg’s true purpose and manage to contain the creature within… or do they? The last five minutes, when the Cinder’s identity and future are revealed, do make sense when you re-read, as I did, the back of the CD case. It’s obviously only something that can be achieved with time travel, so that is a nice touch by Marc Platt.
Maureen O’Brien returns here as Vicki/Cressida, and she does breathe new life into a character she last played more than 40 years ago. She doesn’t attempt to re-create Vicki as she portrayed her then, but as a Vicki remembering this adventure from long ago (or is it the far future?). She even has the Doctor’s mannerisms down, with the “my boy”s and “hmm”s inserted at opportune moments. It is here that she describes her feelings for Steven: “dishy” as he is, she has always thought of him as a big brother whom she can tease and who can take the blame from the Doctor if need be.
Those feelings were prodded from Vicki by Miss Jane Austen. In terms of her literary career, it is correct that only two novels have been published (Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, both anonymously) when the Doctor meets her here, despite his awkward fan-gushing moment. (Marc Platt must have been influenced by that scene in “The Unquiet Dead” when the 9th Doctor discovers he’s in the same carriage as Charles Dickens.) Miss Austen, like Dickens, Shakespeare, and Christie in the new series, takes to the Doctor and his companions quite quickly, and the scene where she punches out a fire-eater has to be heard to be believed. And the description of her: “velvet paws and steel claws”! Forget ladylike – I’ll take this kick-ass, take-charge version of Miss Austen any day! Janeites would definitely cringe at the characterization, but I might believe this version better than that in Becoming Jane.
I quite enjoyed listening to Frostfire, and it will certainly be in line to be re-listened in the near future. It would be a good introduction for anyone interested in the 1st Doctor, or anyone who has seen the new series and how the Doctor has interacted with literary greats. This one could certainly be used as a new-series story, had Marc Platt been given the chance to develop it.
Quick thoughts on Sense and Sensibility (2007)
Posted: 9 April 2008 Filed under: Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: masterpiece theatre, sense and sensibility Leave a comment »Masterpiece Theatre‘s Jane Austen run has finished with the 2007 BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Andrew Davies gives us this version, and from that standpoint, works pretty well. The slightly longer allotted time (about 2.5 hours) for this adaptation gives it a better sense of pacing, at least relative to the other recent offerings in the Austen season.
Going through both parts within the same day (last week’s part 1 via the PVR and this week’s part 2 “live” on PBS’ HD channel – yeah it probably wasn’t HD, but far better quality nonetheless), I really liked the establishing shots of the Devon coastline. And in my mind, I kept thinking of the Ang Lee-directed adaptation from the mid-1990s, or at least in terms of how Margaret and Marianne Dashwood, and to a lesser extent, Edward Ferrars, looked similar in both versions. And I admit not even having watched all of that film.
Sense and Sensibility is probably the Austen novel I had the most trouble getting into. It might be because it was a novel that wasn’t covered in a course’s synopsis, and as such, was the last of Austen’s six novels to be read. But in terms of the plot, I think Davies covered it well for this adaptation. At least, I followed the story and figured out who was “sense” and who was “sensibility”, which could speak well toward Davies’ attempt to write an adaptation that can placate the Janeites yet remain accessible to the casual viewer. 8/10
Emma’s, like, such a ripoff of Clueless
Posted: 24 March 2008 Filed under: Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: clueless, emma, kate beckinsale, masterpiece theatre, olivia williams 1 Comment »
I’m sure that’s what some people would have thought when they’ve finished watching this on A&E or the film version starring Gwyneth Paltrow that came out around the same time. Clearly, Clueless was still fresh in my mind when I settled in to watch Kate Beckinsale as Emma, the sixth of seven films in Masterpiece Theatre‘s Complete Jane Austen. My sister and I were figuring out which characters in Emma translated into Clueless. We observed that one of them that didn’t seem to cross over was Jane Fairfax (possibly because the secret engagement thing can’t work in a high-school context). We also mocked that secret engagement between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax (played by Olivia Williams, who eventually played Austen in Miss Austen Regrets), at least in terms of how the film gave subtle hints of that before it was finally revealed. Example: Emma and Frank were flirting and talking about Jane, who was seated across and away from them. There was one shot with Frank catching a glance at Jane; it’s framed in such a way that it’s just the two of them in shot, with Jane slightly out of focus.
I liked Kate Beckinsale’s portryal of Emma. She exhibits that emotional range that would be required for Austen heroines, from flirting with Frank to the abrupt surprise of Elton’s proposal, and then with Knightley’s dressing-down at Box Hill. I think she really was at her element in her scenes with Knightley. There is that almost-familiarity of being siblings-in-law, but I cringed a bit when he told her about holding her as a baby… before they kissed. Overall, this Emma‘s good; there’s a lot to recommend it, and a good choice for Jane Austen City Limits. 9/10
Jane Austen City Limits bonus #2: Jane Austen Book Club
Posted: 20 March 2008 Filed under: Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: jane austen book club, karen joy fowler, robin swicord 3 Comments »
When I first heard about the novel by Karen Joy Fowler, I was automatically intrigued. Sure, it would make for a short-lived book club if that was its singular raison d’etre, as Prudie would put it. And I’m sure such Austen book clubs have existed, but I like Fowler’s twist of having the lives of the six club members parallel a portion of the Austen novel they were assigned. Some of it doesn’t feel contrived or an unnecessary tack-on to the character’s back-story, but it imbues the Austen aura on the novel as a whole. I also liked the Austen novel summaries and quotations both praising and criticising Austen in the last 200 years found in the back of the novel.
As for Robin Swicord’s film adaptation, I was having trouble distinguishing Sylvia from Allegra in some scenes when the book club gathered. I’m not sure if Swicord removed a decade from Jocelyn’s, Sylvia’s, Bernadette’s, and Grigg’s ages compared to the novel, but this is probably a better selling point to promote the film. (Who would then portray the age-appropriate characters if that were the case?) The flashback sequences were handled well, even if in dialogue. The flashbacks involving Prudie and Grigg would have been ones I wanted to see, had there been time for them.
Overall, I liked the novel, and I liked the film to the extent that certain liberties have been taken for the adaptation (not unlike, for example, the versions shown on Masterpiece Theatre so far, P&P 95 exempted). Novel: 8/10, Film: 7/10
Jane Austen City Limits bonus: Clueless
Posted: 2 March 2008 Filed under: Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: alicia silverstone, clueless, emma, jane austen 3 Comments »I think I’ve already mentioned that I love my new HD-PVR. So imagine my luck when I saw Clueless in the guide listings. I thus put it on record (it aired at an ungodly hour) and settled in to watch it when I would have watched something Austen-like on Masterpiece Theatre – not sure why PBS broke it up their Austen season like that.
I don’t know why I’ve avoided this film for so long; my sister had the VHS. And even after I learned that it was a modern retelling of Emma, I still didn’t watch it. But better late than never, so the saying goes.
As I watched Clueless, I marveled at two things. The first is how well I managed to pick out the Austen parallels, despite the fading memory from the last time I read Emma. Writer/director Amy Heckerling did a great job pulling in the plot elements and seamlessly dropping them in that harsh world known as high school. That leads me to my second point: the film is so quintessentially of the 1990s. I was just transported back to the time of grunge wear, skateboards, the swing craze, and a few songs I haven’t heard in a while.
I think Alicia Silverstone carried this film in her role of Cher. She had the right touches to take those varying elements of Emma Woodhouse’s character (the gleeful matchmaking, the concern over her father’s well-being, and the jealousy over Tai’s crush over Josh and her subsequent realization why) and create a convincing character that we can’t help but like. And the wide range of outfits didn’t hurt either…
I came away quite impressed with what I saw, and am still kicking myself for not seeing Clueless earlier. 9/10
Oscar Ruined My P&P Marathon
Posted: 26 February 2008 Filed under: Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: masterpiece theatre, pride and prejudice 1 Comment »Stupid Oscars. I was never intending to watch it, but just like every year, I get suckered in and I watch it to the unsurprising end. As a result, I missed an opportunity to watch the last four hours of Pride and Prejudice (1995): the first two (via PVR) and the last two “live” on my PBS station. That was tossed out the window, and now it became a bits-and-pieces viewing that involved PVRing the final part as well, and which had to be finished Monday night.
Never mind, it’s finished. Having gone through it from beginning to end for the first time, it’s clear to me that P&P95 set the bar, and set it high, for any subsequent Austen adaptation. The fact it went almost six hours gave the producers the opportunity to explore certain things in depth and detail. Example from part 3: Darcy scouring the depths of London in search of Wickham and Lydia. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Austen spent a lot of pages describing Darcy’s quest.
I was particularly struck with the delivery of lines in this adaptation. It seemed to me that every syllable was thought through before it was spoken out loud. Combined with the oh-so-Austen style of dialogue that is very striking in P&P, it seemed to enhance the viewing experience. This is likely the adaptation I would re-watch (if I ever get around to seeing it again in my own time!). 9/10
Going back through my computer files, I opened a short essay I had to write for a class in early modern Britain, in which we had to determine how well Austen described 18th-century English society in P&P. Reading what I’ve typed almost ten years ago, which is surreal in itself, I was surprised at how well I thought I picked up the societal implications of marrying outside of one’s social class, as well as the effect of primogeniture on the Bennet girls’ chances at financial independence on marriage, if they ever did so. I don’t remember the grade I received for this paper, but it looks like I might have done OK.
So, five down, two to go. After a so-so start to Austen City Limits, I think it’s improving. The next scheduled adaptation is not until March 23, with Kate Beckinsale as Emma. I might fill in the void with postings on my viewings of other films in the Austen canon. Jane Austen Book Club should be one of them, Clueless could be another.
(Note to self: try to find the code to insert extra white space between paragraphs.)
The Austen edits
Posted: 11 February 2008 Filed under: Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: edits, jane austen city limits Leave a comment »Moving sucks. It sucks so much time from you that it’s just draining. There’s too much to do, so little time, and that includes blog posts. At least there’s the magic of the PVR.
At the moment, I’m typing and watching the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. It’ll be over three weeks, and I’ll wait until the end to compile thoughts about it. Given that this is almost six hours long, the four previous entries in this Austen season pale in comparison in terms of plot and pacing. Even at 90 minutes or so, these films were still subject to editing, which leads me to two posts on AustenBlog:
A public service announcement of the Janeite Broadcasting Network
PBS responds
The uproar from more ardent Austen fans revolves around the slight edits of what are already condensed adaptations (if the Editrix at AustenBlog is right, the deleted scenes between the original UK airings and the Masterpiece versions are nothing to write home about), and that the DVD releases for Region 1 are not even the uncut, UK versions!
I’ve already mentioned in my post-Mansfield post that a certain plot point from the novel has been removed in that film. The lengths used here certainly weaken the stories (and any search will show the criticism to the lengths of these adaptations). Again, AustenBlog’s editrix says it best: “One of the selling points of the ITV “Jane Austen Season” was that “each generation deserves its own Jane Austen adaptations.” Too bad this generation gets the short-attention-span versions.” When this Pride and Prejudice is concluded, the difference will be like night and day.
And going through the first hour of P&P, I can add to my Austen-Doctor Who connection: Christopher Benjamin as Sir William Lucas and as the excellent Henry Gordon Jago in The Talons of Weng-Chiang.
No regrets watching Miss Austen
Posted: 4 February 2008 Filed under: Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: masterpiece theatre, miss austen regrets 2 Comments »I’ll admit right now that I have little knowledge of the biographical Jane Austen during the period covered in Miss Austen Regrets (mainly 1814-1816), but I do know of the letter burning performed by sister Cassandra after her death. I also admit not to have seen last year’s Becoming Jane, which, by all accounts, sensationalized certain aspects of Austen’s love life.
So, going in with no predispositions or expectations of any sort, I came away impressed with Miss Austen Regrets. It was well-written, well-directed, and well-acted. Well, it certainly was a refreshing change to the more predictable adaptations we’ve seen so far in Masterpiece‘s Austen season.
A big heap of commendation should go to Olivia Williams as Miss Austen: she certainly ran the gamut in this film, from the flirty to the morose. With that range and how Williams portrayed her, there is the possibility that Miss Austen was masking her inner turmoil from the “regret” with the bubbly personality that would otherwise seem natural. (I for one found it amusing Miss Austen writing to Cassandra about the social drinking and the hangover that results the next morning!) Now that I think about it some more, the Jekyll-and-Hyde persona of Miss Austen is almost mirrored in the film’s pace and mood (the lighting in particular seems to reflect this).
That second half, in which Miss Austen was more moody and combative, was far more interesting, not least for the dynamic between her and Cassandra. The scene in which she confides in Cass, unknown to either that niece Fanny was watching, was heartbreaking. The suggestion made in Regrets that Cassandra “persuaded” Miss Austen from breaking off at least one engagement evidently mirrors Lady Russell and Anne Elliot in Persuasion. I suspect screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes inserted other attributes of Miss Austen’s heroines and attributed them to the author herself. There could definitely be a whole film dedicated to the relationship between the Austen sisters; the plotline shown here probably is scratching the surface.
Miss Austen Regrets has much to recommend itself, and should be a highlight of Jane Austen City Limits. 9/10
Photo credit: PBS/Masterpiece
Doctor Who, Meet Jane Austen
Posted: 28 January 2008 Filed under: Doctor Who, Jane Austen City Limits | Tags: jane austen, mansfield park, masterpiece theatre 4 Comments »So, part 3 of “Jane Austen City Limits”: Mansfield Park. I was looking forward to this one because of Billie Piper’s starring role as Fanny Price. Despite a good performance, Piper as Fanny wasn’t given too much of a focus for much of this adaptation. Gillian Anderson, in her setup of Mansfield, emphasized Mary Crawford (played admirably by Hayley Atwell) as one whose wit and charm could be compared to Austen’s. I don’t know what that meant, but clearly almost all of the other characters are more interesting than Fanny.
I somehow managed to avoid, while watching this, comparing Billie’s performance here to that as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who, although I was half-expecting Fanny to tell Edmund that the planet of the Slitheen revolves around such-and-such star. I think from that scene, on the night of her birthday, the evolving chemistry between Fanny and Edmund was handled well. At least in the end, there’s no hesitation in their first kiss, unlike what we’ve seen previously.
I did notice that Fanny was not returned to Portsmouth after one of Henry Crawford’s proposals, which is probably another casualty of the sub-90-minute time limit imposed by Masterpiece Theatre. I’m sure there are edits from the original UK airing that make the PBS-aired version a slightly stilted affair. The weird fades to black (as if going to a commercial break) did not help either. 6/10
Changing gears slightly, an avid Doctor Who fan like myself would notice Billie Piper wasn’t the only one who has appeared in both the new series and in a recent Jane Austen adaptation. To wit:
- I’ve already mentioned Carey Mulligan (Isabella Thorpe in Northanger and Sally Sparrow in “Blink”)
- Julia Joyce, who played Billie’s younger selves in Mansfield and “Father’s Day”
- Anthony Head (Mr Elliot in Persuasion and the schoolmaster in “School Reunion”
- Penelope Wilton (Mrs Gardiner in Pride and Prejudice [2005] and Prime Minister Harriet Jones)
- Mark Gatiss (John Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility and Lazarus in “The Lazarus Experiment”, not to mention writing two other episodes)
Now if I can get a copy of the Big Finish Companion Chronicle Frostfire, in which the 1st Doctor and his companions meet Miss Austen.
![[P366:215] Jackson and me](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7105/7324784478_5e6254d996_t.jpg "[P366:215] Jackson and me")
![[P366:214] Bike on Main Street](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8148/7317898444_5d6e7976f2_t.jpg "[P366:214] Bike on Main Street")
![[P366:213] Bagel for breakfast](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7078/7312233124_a8b6a6c46d_t.jpg "[P366:213] Bagel for breakfast")
