PRIDE AND PREJUDICE to be shown in Montreal on Sunday, September 25
Alert Janeite Cinthia wrote to tell us that P&P3 will be shown at the New Montreal FilmFest, replacing the originally scheduled showing of DOMINO, which was withdrawn for technical reasons. The film will close the festival on Sunday, September 25 (that’s tomorrow!). It is unclear if tickets are still available for the showing. As Cinthia pointed out, presumably this will be the Smoochy Ending Version.
Alert Janeite Jennite also wrote to tell us about an article in the Brisbane Courier-Mail that compares several P&P adaptations (P&P3 opens in Australia on October 20). The author of the piece has clearly been keeping up with the press so far.
One British reviewer has suggested that “only a snob, curmudgeon or someone with necrophilic loyalty to the 1995 BBC version with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle could fail to enjoy Keira Knightley’s performance”, but even snippets of the new film, available on the website, make it clear that the 20-year-old British actor owes a great deal to Ehle. There’s something in her air, in her bearing, and indeed in her timing, that is so like Ehle that the necrophiliacs among us are hopeful this homage will revive the joy of that production, not frustrate it.
And the true fanatics are welcoming the new film with the verve of Mrs Bennet embracing her new son-in-law Mr Wikham – no matter his flaws, it’s always good to see him.
Huzzah for the Naughty Necrophiliac Nerds™!
Michael Sraglow, writing in the Baltimore Sun, talks about the many book adaptations being presented this autumn, including PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and shows that he knows his P&P adaptations.
Still, the content of live-action films will get the most sizable upgrade — often thanks to the novels or plays that preceded their scripts.
Movie critics like to sneer “Masterpiece Theatre!” as a putdown whenever a filmmaker gets a costume picture on the screen. It’s become a hilariously wrongheaded piece of hipster snobbery. For one thing, no adaptation of Austen has matched Masterpiece Theatre’s 1980 Pride and Prejudice, written by Fay Weldon — certainly not the later A&E bodice-buster starring Colin Firth.
Don’t know if we agree with his opinion but the “hilariously wrongheaded piece of hipster snobbery” part makes us want to cheer.
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About this comment in Brisbane paper – “I’m not at all keen on the wet-shirt business in the BBC serial,” Halstead says. “It was the only thing that really struck me as out of keeping with the era and Darcy’s character.
I’m curious to know what she has to say about the new Darcy ‘wandering’ in the mist.
I saw the controversial P&P3 yesterday. Well, call me Mrs Bennet embracing Mr. Wickham. The film has its flaws, but it also has its reasons for those flaws. Joe Wright doesn’t understand the spirit of Austen, which is obvious, but he has a great sense of presenting the many-faceted stories and characters with a stunning visual sense. I heard he’s dyslexic but has a huge artistic talents that admitted him to a prestigious art school, which shows in this film. I saw all those ‘verbal and logical’ flaws, deviations from Austen, but I cound’t hate the film as it is. It’s a wonderfully layered text, but the layers are not construed verbally.