Jane Austen For Dummies (63 page)
Read Jane Austen For Dummies Online
Authors: Joan Elizabeth Klingel Ray
The curious point about the Mariannes that I've seen on screen â Tracey Childs and Kate Winslet â is that they're fair-skinned blondes. But Austen writes that Marianne's “skin was very brown . . . and . . . her eyes . . . were very dark” (SS 1:10). I tend to think that Marianne might be considered Austen's “dark lady” â the woman of deep feelings or sensibility that critic Leslie Fiedler discusses in his classic book on American literature,
Love and Death in the American Novel
.
Only the future will tell the type of actress the BBC will cast in its new adaptation of
Sense and Sensibility
by Andrew Davies. We will get to see her when it is shown on PBS-TV in the 2007 television season.
In 2000, India's Bollywood tried its hand at adapting
Sense and Sensibility
in a film called
Kandukondain Kandukondain
, or
I Have Found It
. When I first viewed this long film, I thought I had the wrong film in the DVD case: It began with a group of Indian soldiers in a jungle creeping toward a schoolhouse, where they're riddled with bullets fired by children who've suddenly pulled out automatic weapons. The officer who's rendered lame from his wounds turns out to be the Colonel Brandon character. The beautiful Aishwarya Rai stars. Enough said. Directed and written by Rajiv Menon, it features lots of gorgeous musical numbers and fabulous scenery. Don't worry about the novel! Enjoy!
Because Jane Austen is so popular, filmmakers love to retell her stories. Check out these versions that read like a timeline of the classic
Pride and Prejudice:
1940:
The 1940 MGM film of
Pride and Prejudice
is a hoot to watch! Lawrence Olivier and Greer Garson star as a chronologically mature Darcy and Elizabeth, who tell each other that he represents pride and she prejudice. While this is too simple an understanding of the complexities that Austen pulls out of the title â with Elizabeth, Darcy, as well as other characters displaying both pride and prejudice of varying types â the film was a resounding success when it came out, breaking and holding the box office record when it was shown at NYC's Radio City Musical Hall, which originally always showed a film
plus
the Rockettes. (Ah, the good old days.) Watch the film and count the anachronisms!
1949:
In 1949, NBC's
Philco Television Playhouse
offered a one-hour black-and-white production of
Pride and Prejudice.
1952:
Not to be outdone, in 1952, the BBC showed a live six-part miniseries, in which Peter Cushing, later of horror film fame, played Darcy. Cedric Wallis did the script.
1958:
Six years later (1958), the BBC used the same screenplay, but with different actors, for another six-part go at the novel.
1967:
BBC's miniseries industry continued with yet another six-part miniseries, this time with a script by Nemone Lethbridge, in 1967.
1980:
The BBC didn't come up with another
Pride and Prejudice
miniseries until 1980 with a five-part screenplay by the British novelist and Austen fan Fay Weldon. U.S. television viewers saw this on PBS-TV's
Masterpiece Theatre.
Elizabeth Garvie rendered (for my money!) the definitive portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet. The excellent actor David Rintoul is Darcy. Irene Richard, who would be Elinor in the BBC's 1981
Sense and Sensibility,
plays Charlotte Lucas in this production. It's on DVD or VHS.
1995:
Then in 1995 came the mother of all television â indeed, even commercial film â versions of
Pride and Prejudice:
Andrews Davies's adaptation of the novel as a six-part, 300-minute miniseries, for the BBC and the Arts & Entertainment network in the U.S. For many viewers, Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth and especially Colin Firth's Darcy are definitive. When the final episode was shown in the UK, London suffered horrible traffic jams as people hurried home to catch the show, which broke viewing records. Sue Birtwistle produced the series. DVD and VHS versions? Of course. And there is a CD of Carl Davis's score.
2001:
Helen Fielding's riff on
Pride and Prejudice,
Bridget Jones's Diary,
was turned into a film of the same name in 2001. Fielding collaborated with Andrew Davies, the veteran novel adapter of the 1995
Pride and Prejudice
and other films drawn from classic novels, on the screenplay. Renee Zellweger stars as Bridget, a far-from-self-possessed and confident Elizabeth Bennet. Colin Firth, from the 1995
Pride and Prejudice
's Darcy, plays Mark Darcy, and Hugh Grant plays Daniel Cleaver, the Wickhamesque character. The cast reprised their roles in Fielding's 2004
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason,
very
loosely based on
Persuasion.
Both are out on DVD. When you're watching the films, try to catch all the little references to Austen's novels: Pemberley Press is named for Darcy's estate, for example. Both are on DVD.
2003:
Another, less well-known film version of
Pride and Prejudice
appeared in limited release in 2003. The posters added the words “
A Latter-Day Comedy
” with a colon after the PP title. Set largely in Utah, the film integrates an updated storyline from the novel with Mormon (or the Church of Latter-Day Saints) beliefs. The screenplay credits Jane Austen, Anne Black, Jason Faller, and Katherine Swigart; the director is Andrew Black. It's on DVD.
2004:
Gurinder Chadha's good humored 2004
Bride and Prejudice: The Bollywood Musical
is a visual and musical delight. Placing the story in India, London, and Los Angeles, Chadha, who with Paul Mayeda Beyes wrote the script, also directed the movie. She pays homage to Austen and shows us that the Regency English culture about which Austen wrote is not that different from a contemporary Indian culture in terms of mores regarding the marriage “choices” of young people. While not trying to represent the novel, the movie uses Austen's work as an inspiration. It's on DVD.