Jane Austen For Dummies (62 page)
Read Jane Austen For Dummies Online
Authors: Joan Elizabeth Klingel Ray
The first Austen adaptation for film was the 1940 MGM
Pride and Prejudice
starring Greer Garson, who despite her beauty, was at least a decade too old to be a believable Elizabeth Bennet. As of this writing, the latest versions of Austen's novels will be new television versions of
Persuasion,
Mansfield Park,
and
Northanger Abbey
that are in the works by Britain's ITV for autumn 2006 airing in the UK, as well as a new BBC
Sense and Sensibility
series, which will be shown in the United States on PBS's
Masterpiece Theatre
in 2007. Whether the three ITV Austen productions will be shown in the U.S. is yet unclear. The following sections include the current, most complete, listing of television and film versions of Austen's novels.
The BBC/A&E television version of
Northanger Abbey
(1986, 90 minutes), shown in the United States on PBS-TV's
Masterpiece Theatre
series, was directed by Giles Foster from a screenplay by Maggie Wadey, produced by Louis Marks. Here are some of its features:
It features eerie music, which includes very high and scary female voices, by Ilona Sekacz.
The music is undoubtedly meant to underscore the fears experienced by heroine Catherine Morland, skillfully played by Katharine Schlesinger, who in this version has an even more vivid imagination than the novel's Catherine.
The TV Catherine imagines herself wearing heavy eye makeup and seeing the hero's father placing a sword across her arm. No wonder the female chorus sounds scared!
The hero, Henry Tilney, is played by Peter Firth (not related to Colin).
This Gothic
Northanger Abbey
is still available on VHS and DVD.
The upcoming ITV film of
Northanger Abbey
is by the grand master of literary adaptations for television, Andrew Davies, and is sure to be closer to the novel.
The story goes that Davies had written the adaptation in 1998 and that Miramax was going to begin production the following year. Nothing happened.
Davies speculated to a group at a Humanities Festival at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that because of the poor critical and audience response to Miramax's
Mansfield Park,
discussed later, the production company was reluctant to invest in the filming of another Austen novel.
However, Davies's script is finally coming out of moth balls. Britain's ITV is using it for its series of three Austen productions.
Sue Birtwistle, the producer of the successful 1995
Pride and Prejudice
miniseries, is producing. Her involvement, like Davies's, suggests close adherence to the novel.
Adaptations of
Sense and Sensibility
go back to June 1950:
In 1950, NBC
Philco Television Playhouse
presented a one-hour live rendition of the novel, in which Marianne Dashwood was played by a very young Cloris Leachman.
In 1971, BBC-2 TV broadcasted in the UK a four-part miniseries of the novel in which the role of Elinor Dashwood was played by Joanna David, who in the 1995
Pride and Prejudice
miniseries played Mrs. Gardiner. Robin Ellis, later seen as the title character of the PBS
Masterpiece Theater
's
Poldark
series, was Edward Ferrars. David Giles directed a screenplay by Denis Constanduros. Martin Lisemore was the producer.
In 1981, the BBC's seven-part miniseries of the novel broadcast in the United States on PBS TV's
Masterpiece Theater
. Denis Constanduros again wrote the screenplay, with Alexander Baron. Rodney Bennett directed.
Constanduros's involvement with this screenplay undoubtedly accounts for its similarities to the 1971 version. The big difference between the two adaptations is setting. In 1971, most of the series was shot on indoor sets. But in 1981, the crew and cast went to locations. Irene Richards played Elinor, and Tracey Childs was Marianne. It's available on VHS and DVD.
The 1995 Columbia Pictures/Mirage commercial film version of the novel is based on Emma Thompson's screenplay, with direction by Ang Lee. Lindsey Doran produced. Thompson, though at least ten years older than Elinor, played the role beautifully, capturing Elinor's conflicted interior nature. Kate Winslet played Marianne; Alan Rickman was Colonel Brandon; and the charming Hugh Grant played the novel's unremarkable Edward Ferrars. The casting of Grant in the role was the least of the changes Thompson made in the story to make Edward, who in the novel is described as “not handsome, and his manners required intimacy to make them pleasing,” and who causes Elinor great emotional pain for about 95 percent of the book, attractive to moviegoers (SS 1:3). But the production values of the movie are excellent, with costumes that capture the period of the novel and beautiful on-location sites. The film is available on VHS and DVD, and Patrick Doyle's score can be heard on a CD.