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Jane Austen - Masterpiece Theatre

INTJMom

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I just checked on the PBS Masterpiece Theatre forum, and it received good reviews there.
People seemed to like the cast, but once again, a lot of comments about the film being rushed.
Most liked it much better than Persuasion.
 

Jae Rae

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Husband (he's a Jane A. fan) and I just watched Northanger Abbey and thought it was quite enjoyable. The leads were especially good. Fabulous scenery. Some foreshadowing to P&P, with many of the same themes - marrying for money, adventuring men, ruined women, courtly dances, outspoken heroine.

By the way, we both adored the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version of Pride & Prejudice. Highly recommended.

Jae Rae
 

INTJMom

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...
By the way, we both adored the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version of Pride & Prejudice. Highly recommended.

Jae Rae
I liked it. too. I just got the DVD set for my birthday!
I prefer the casting, directing, filming and costuming of the 2007 version with Kiera Knightly, but I prefer the script of the Colin Firth version.
 
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Colors

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Missed "Northanger Abbey", but caught "Mansfield Park" last night.

Fanny and Edmund were all cute and all, but their romance was too sweet!- it felt somewhat silly/cheesy near the end where he finally sees her in the right light and all! I think what I don't like about these Jane Austen productions is that I never get a sense of what world they live in. It's all very stagey. Live in a world where all people seem to do is travel to places with names and impose on others at their great estates and gossip incessantly and fall in love. What do people do for a living? Sometimes they mention being poor or being in the army, but everything happens off stage. The heroine is stuck at home and others bring back dramatic news: Maria has run off!, etc. Though I did like that the rich sister (the snobby London one) didn't change at all. :D

It's just very disorienting, I guess. How can I understand their societal and monetary pressures, if we hardly see any!?
 

INTJMom

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Missed "Northanger Abbey", but caught "Mansfield Park" last night.

Fanny and Edmund were all cute and all, but their romance was too sweet!- it felt somewhat silly/cheesy near the end where he finally sees her in the right light and all! I think what I don't like about these Jane Austen productions is that I never get a sense of what world they live in. It's all very stagey. Live in a world where all people seem to do is travel to places with names and impose on others at their great estates and gossip incessantly and fall in love. What do people do for a living? Sometimes they mention being poor or being in the army, but everything happens off stage. The heroine is stuck at home and others bring back dramatic news: Maria has run off!, etc. Though I did like that the rich sister (the snobby London one) didn't change at all. :D

It's just very disorienting, I guess. How can I understand their societal and monetary pressures, if we hardly see any!?
I agree with you that they don't develop that very well. As a matter of fact, most of what I know about that I learned at a site called Pemberley.com.
Jane Austen's Writings

Austen's book are heavily filled with dialogue which I think is one of the things that makes the books transferable and believable once you put them to a script, and she spends hardly any time at all describing the physical surroundings or political setting. Those are all taken for granted. It's understandable that 200 years afterward, we would have a little difficulty imagining what life was like for people in her time. I will say that the more I learn about the social setting, the more understanding I gain into Austen's writing, and the films, in part, have helped me visualize better, how it could have been back then.

I will say this also, that the films just skim the surface, and there is much more meat to the books.
 

INTJMom

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Just watched Mansfield Park. Very enjoyable, but Fanny & Edmund waltz, which is off by several years.

A friend turned me on to an Austen blog: AustenBlog . . . she’s everywhere

Jae Rae
I bookmarked the blog.

So you're saying the waltz hadn't been invented yet?
 

INTJMom

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Miss Austen Regrets - Looks like it will be good!

"I have had the pleasure of viewing an advance copy, and am favourably pleased. I think that the writer Gwyneth Hughes and director Jeremy Lovering have handled a very sensitive subject with honesty and respect."
Miss Austen Regrets Preview: A Lively Curiosity « Austenprose

""The script is very tightly based on Austen's surviving letters to her sister and to her young niece, Fanny. So I must share the credit for quite a lot of the dialogue with Miss Austen herself!"

""Everyone knows Jane Austen never married. For her millions of fans this can only be a relief, because it's hard to see how a 19th century wife and mother could have found time to write her six wonderful novels! All the same, you do wonder whether she minded – how this spinster lady felt about the absence of a real Mr Darcy in her life."

"And then I read the most extraordinary fact. Jane Austen did receive a proposal of marriage from a wealthy young neighbour. And she accepted! She actually said yes to him – till after a long night of discussion with her sister Cassandra, she changed her mind. This intriguing decision inspired the story of Miss Austen Regrets.""
BBC - Press Office - Revealing the romance behind Jane Austen

"Miss Austen Regrets was written by Gwyneth Hughes, who based her script on Austen’s surviving correspondence with Cassandra and Fanny. The characters and incidents in the film are drawn from these letters, with Hughes reading carefully between the lines to fill in crucial gaps.

Cassandra notoriously burned many of her sister’s letters after Jane’s death—an act that was probably intended to spare the feelings of still-living relatives and acquaintances, who were the target of Jane’s famous barbs."

Olivia Williams as Jane Austen
Imogen Poots as Fanny Austen Knight
Greta Scacchi as Cassandra Austen
Hugh Bonneville as Rev Brook Bridges
Adrian Edmondson as Henry Austen
Jack Huston as Charles Haden
Phyllida Law as Mrs Austen
Pip Torrens as Edward Austen-Knight
Sylvie Herbert as Madame Bigeon
Tom Hiddleston as John Plumptre
Sally Tatum as Anna Lefroy
Jason Watkins as Rev Clarke
Miss Austen Regrets
 

Jae Rae

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waltz

I bookmarked the blog.

So you're saying the waltz hadn't been invented yet?

The waltz existed, but wasn't accepted by polite society in England until some years after it crossed the Channel. Fanny and Edmund were touching, not just hand to hand, but holding each other in their arms. They were married at the time, so it wasn't so scandalous, but as late as the mid-1800s many people were anti-waltz; then Queen Victoria came out as a waltz lover and the furor was over.

I don't know Austen well enough to know if she mentions waltzing in her books.

Jae Rae
 

INTJMom

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The waltz existed, but wasn't accepted by polite society in England until some years after it crossed the Channel. Fanny and Edmund were touching, not just hand to hand, but holding each other in their arms. They were married at the time, so it wasn't so scandalous, but as late as the mid-1800s many people were anti-waltz; then Queen Victoria came out as a waltz lover and the furor was over.

I don't know Austen well enough to know if she mentions waltzing in her books.

Jae Rae
Like a true nerd, I went and checked. The word waltz was not mentioned in Mansfield Park. I'm sure it was artistic license on the part of the scriptwriter, but I wonder why they bothered putting that in there since we know of no time before hand where they had time to practice. Kind of silly really.

I wonder how husbands and wives danced together at a wedding before that? Maybe they didn't?
 

Jae Rae

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They were trying to show that Fanny and Edmund were a different kind of couple, who married for love not money, in contrast to the mannered union of Edmund's older sister and the one envisioned by her family for Fanny.

Jae Rae
 

INTJMom

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They were trying to show that Fanny and Edmund were a different kind of couple, who married for love not money, in contrast to the mannered union of Edmund's older sister and the one envisioned by her family for Fanny.

Jae Rae
I suppose they accomplished that.
 

Jae Rae

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In a related vein - does anyone remember Poldark? It first appeared on Masterpiece Theater in the mid-70s. I fell in love with those characters, especially Demelza. It was set in post-Revolutionary War England.

Jae Rae
 

Hirsch63

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Poldark was a good show!

You know I watched a little of these last few Austen shows...it is as if they have pushed the pace and volume...they lack the subtlety of The Firth/Ehle PP and the Persuasion with Ciaran Hinds. And these along with SS (Thompson) had better musical scores. The newer versions seem to lack...soul and maybe a decent budget.
 

heart

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Yes, I remember Poldark. I agree it was a great show about a interesting time. My favorite Masterpiece Theater production will probably always be "To Serve Them All My Days." I loved that series so much. The character David Powlett-Jonesis just so great, I seriously adore that character. Probably one of my all time favorite characters in literature.

I have to agree with Hirsch about these new productions of Austen's works, souless, vapid.
 

Jae Rae

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I guess we're lucky we missed Persuasion. I liked Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park, but I've never seen other versions of them. My Janey friend said she was really disappointed in the casting of Fanny, and I agree she was a bit horsey-looking.

Jae Rae
 

Jae Rae

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Thank you, Heart for the recommendations. Is there a version of Northanger Abbey you like?

Jae Rae
 
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