Israeli Pride and Prejudice to be broadcast this summer
We blogged last year about this, and it seems that the Israeli P&P is ready to go. The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle has an interview with the writer/director Irit Linur, which has some more detail about the adaptation.
And in what other ways does your version depart from the book?
Well, Darcy remained 28, but Elizabeth became 36 and a divorcee. Darcy remains rich, but Elizabeth is quite independent. Both work in the high-tech industry. I felt uneasy about maintaining the line of a rich man who saves his lady from a life of poverty. I thought it was inappropriate, and diminishes her charm. I thought maybe a reasonable gap would be a younger man and older, divorced woman with a teenager. Plus, I’ve ignored two sisters. I really couldn’t manage five sisters. They wouldn’t have volume. They never do, they are glorified extras in all versions. In the book it works just fine. You have to give your characters volume.
In your version, England has been replaced by the Galilee. Is it unusual for an Israeli television series to take place outside of the city?
We have our limits—it’s a practical thing. If you want to film outside Tel Aviv, then the time it takes to get there comes out of the time you have for filming. If you have to travel one hour to get there, you have one hour less to film. So it’s not that everyone is so self-centered, and everyone wants to make films and TV series about their natural habitats—it’s more costly.
Have you decided on a title?
I really don’t like the name Pride and Prejudice and the series eventually is not about pride and prejudice. Those are two abstract nouns. But I haven’t decided on a name yet.
Is it just us, or does it sound like a fanfic? Thanks to Alert Janeite Julie T. for the link!
ETA: Alert Janeite Rebecca W. found a pic of the leads on the site where the article was originally published.
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This kind of thing makes me cranky. I have no objection at all at setting an Austen novel in modern times–Clueless being the best example–but to so severely change the ages and life circumstances of the hero and heroine, and to blithely state that “it’s not about pride and prejudice” makes me want to grab my dainty fan and wham these people upside the head. I wish that Jane WOULD come back as a vampire and bite them for so hashing up her fine bit of ivory.
Allison, me too! If they’re going to dispense with the characters, motivation, setting, theme, and doubtless most of the plot, why associate the name Austen with it at all? Why does poor Jane have to take the blame for cliched romance movies? Why are there no zombies when you need them?
Call it like it is. FAN. FIC.
Maybe they can call it “Chutzpah and Chuppah”
I love the line “Plus, I’ve ignored two sisters. I really couldn’t manage five sisters…”!
Kind of sums it all up, doesn’t it?
Sorry, but to say that “saving Elizabeth from a life of poverty” is innapropriate and diminishes her charm is so utterly pathetically wrong that I can hardly believe that she’s read the novel.
He doesn’t “save her” She rejected him, remember?
Her possible life of poverty inapropriate? It defines the novel and is essential in understanding the differences between Elizabeth’s character and that of Charlotte Lucas.
How on earth can something so character building as remaining true to your convictions and following your heart diminish one’s character?
Linur says “It’s an elegant and witty piece of art, why disturb it? It’s like taking beautiful flowers and dissecting them.”
Why then has she destroyed the essence of the novel?
I agree with Allison and Valerie
(and Lol’d @ Maria’s comment)
And to think that I have always found AD annoying…
Well, I don’t know how this series is going but I do know that Irit Linur translated Pride and Prejudice to Hebrew, and her translation is great. For many years, the only Hebrew editions of Jane Austen were stuffy, oldfashioned and stiff. The Hebrew language changed so much in the last few decades that the old translations did not reflect Austen at all. And my daughter for example who would love to read Austen feels daunted by the English original. Now she reads Linur’s translation and has as much pleasure as I had when I was her age and discovered Austen in German translation.
So Linur may have done a disservice to Austen in making the series (although I will watch it as I live in the Galilee) but if you see it from an Israeli point of view, she does make Austen more approachable for Israelis. And I think that’s a good thing.
I was totally floored when I read Irit Linur planned to make an Israeli adaptation of P&P. I think she should stick to the novel and not make crucial changes such as eliminating 2 daughters just because she “couldn’t manage five sisters” or the age gap between the Israeli Lizzy and Darcy. The problem is that the Israeli media belives that Linur is some kind of an Austen expert just because she recently translated the novel into Hebrew.However, I am looking forward to the final product, and I am very curiuos how it will be accepted among Israeli audiences. Moreover,I really can’t wait to see Dan Shapira as Darcy. Shapira is one of Israel’s finest Theatrical actors. He is a star and people go to theatre just to watch him on stage.
Based on Linur’s remarks and the foregoing comments — with most of which I wholeheartedly agree — I am unsure we can even call this fan fic. This may be an interesting series, it may turn out to be more than your average insipid romance (I won’t know, living in the US I won’t see it), but with all the changes made it appears there isn’t even enough of Austen left of it to have ANY association.
I hope our Israeli readers will report back once the series is broadcast–or even send in a reader review of it, which I’ll be happy to post.
It does seem to be an extremely loose adaptation at best. I just felt, reading the description, almost like I was over at the DWG reading the description of a fanfic!
I would think a divorcee in her 30s with a child would have need of four sisters for support, or not as the case may be *coughLydiacough*.
Other fanficcy adaptations have made more creative ways to use the sisters–for instance, in the Mormon P&P they were five college roommates, which also makes a good explanation why Lizzy and Jane are so different from Kitty and Lydia (and Mary for that matter).
I wonder what two sisters he ignored. Probably Kitty and Mary…
Well, I have the strong feeling that the divorced woman is a bit of a projection of Irit Linur herself. She writes about herself in her books, so maybe she found in Lizzy an identification figure?
I wouldn’t have believed that I could enjoy Lost in Austen… Although I feel that it totally mis-read Austen in a superficial manner, it was fun nevertheless. After all, there ARE Amandas who read Austen for the “courtesy”. So I will give Linur a chance and report back here, if I may.
The series “is not about pride and prejudice”? So, it is about what? My first impression is not good…