Jane Austen - Masterpiece Theatre

[INTJMom]

Beginning tonight and every Sunday through March 30th from 9 - 11 PM, PBS stations will be broadcasting Masterpiece Theatre's presentations of Jane Austen films.

Persuasion is tonight.
It's a new 2007 version with Sally Hawkins.

Persuasion (2007) (TV)

 

[Apollonian]

*queue'd the DVR*

 

[heart]

This latest version of Persuasion was lackluster.

 

[INTJMom]

I thought it was too fast-paced. It didn't have the soulful depth of Pride & Prejudice, though I did like the parts when she wrote in her diary. I have no need to see it again.

 

[Hirsch63]

The last version with Ciaran Hinds (sp?) was the best...I tried about 10 minutes of this new one...ycch.

 

[heart]

The last version with Ciaran Hinds (sp?) was the best...I tried about 10 minutes of this new one...ycch.

I agree! That version was excellent.

 

[INTJMom]

The last version with Ciaran Hinds (sp?) was the best...I tried about 10 minutes of this new one...ycch.

Only ten minutes, huh?
I guess you were smarter than me and a friend of mine who watched the whole thing.
He preferred the 1995 version also.
I thought this new version was shallow. They didn't develop the characters.

 

[heart]

Only ten minutes, huh?
I guess you were smarter than me and a friend of mine who watched the whole thing.
He preferred the 1995 version also.
I thought this new version was shallow. They didn't develop the characters.

Yes, I agree, it was so deeply disappointing. But I am holding out hope that some of the others they present in the next weeks will not be so flat.

 

[Hirsch63]

One wonders: how can you screw up that writing? Unless of course you take liberties. And I see a trend of these latest interpretations casting youthful beatiful people without discernible character.

Emma Thompson had the experience and judgement to get away with some editing....and a fine cast.

Austen's heroines have to have a sort of deep, quiet strength or fire....other characters are well rounded and are people we can actually recognize...perhaps by MBTI type even. Casting here is paramount.

And why the drive to redo these recent (near perfect as far as I am concerned) versions?

I remember hearing that they were going to redo the Prime Suspect series here in the US...with Michelle Pfifer in Helen Mirren's role! I believe that I would like to employ an emoticon: :1377:

Okay I went overboard....

 

[heart]

It wasn't so long ago that they did such a great ( I thought) job on the The Forsyte Saga . What the heck happened?

I was laughing through parts of Dr Zhavigo because it was so fluffy for such a deep work. I really thought that Keira Knightley didn't have the earthy, sensual dreaminess needed to play Lara and Sam Neil as Komarovsky was a scream.

 

[Colors]

I caught the showing of Persuasion last night. I actually haven't had any other experience with Jane Austen other than this and Sense and Sensibility (the Ang Lee, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet version).

My thoughts:
Either romantic comedy storylines haven't changed much, or this adaptation was very reductionist/ made with very modern sensibilities. In the first half the characters meet cute and fall in love. In the second half they struggle to express this and/or realize this in a complicated plot that could generally be resolved by everyone confessing their feelings. Of course, Persuasion is somewhat missing the first half of this equation, and so perhaps it is a failure of this adaptation that I didn't really get to see what Anne and Captain Wentworth love so much about each other. (It's just a given.)

I wonder if I should read a Jane Austen novel. I don't know which one though! Maybe the shortest.

It also took me the entire movie to finally get that I recognized the actor who played Captain Wentworth from Masterpiece Theater's adaptation of Casanova with David Tennant and Peter O'Toole. That was genius.

 

[INTJMom]

Yes, I agree, it was so deeply disappointing. But I am holding out hope that some of the others they present in the next weeks will not be so flat.

The 5 hours with Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice will be quite satisfying! (I've seen it 3 or 4 times already!)

I'm not so sure about the new productions though. But like you, I am hoping.

 

[INTJMom]

I caught the showing of Persuasion last night. I actually haven't had any other experience with Jane Austen other than this and Sense and Sensibility (the Ang Lee, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet version).

My thoughts:
Either romantic comedy storylines haven't changed much, or this adaptation was very reductionist/ made with very modern sensibilities. In the first half the characters meet cute and fall in love. In the second half they struggle to express this and/or realize this in a complicated plot that could generally be resolved by everyone confessing their feelings. Of course, Persuasion is somewhat missing the first half of this equation, and so perhaps it is a failure of this adaptation that I didn't really get to see what Anne and Captain Wentworth love so much about each other. (It's just a given.)

I wonder if I should read a Jane Austen novel. I don't know which one though! Maybe the shortest.

It also took me the entire movie to finally get that I recognized the actor who played Captain Wentworth from Masterpiece Theater's adaptation of Casanova with David Tennant and Peter O'Toole. That was genius.

The part I bolded I believe is correct.
You will love Austen's writing if you like wit, a little sarcasm and nobility.
Pride and Prejudice is her best work in my opinion, though the others are good.

 

[heart]

I caught the showing of Persuasion last night. I actually haven't had any other experience with Jane Austen other than this and Sense and Sensibility (the Ang Lee, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet version).

My thoughts:
Either romantic comedy storylines haven't changed much, or this adaptation was very reductionist/ made with very modern sensibilities. In the first half the characters meet cute and fall in love. In the second half they struggle to express this and/or realize this in a complicated plot that could generally be resolved by everyone confessing their feelings. Of course, Persuasion is somewhat missing the first half of this equation, and so perhaps it is a failure of this adaptation that I didn't really get to see what Anne and Captain Wentworth love so much about each other. (It's just a given.)

I wonder if I should read a Jane Austen novel. I don't know which one though! Maybe the shortest.

It also took me the entire movie to finally get that I recognized the actor who played Captain Wentworth from Masterpiece Theater's adaptation of Casanova with David Tennant and Peter O'Toole. That was genius.

In my opinion Persuasion is the best of her novels, but don't let this latest version be an example of it.


I didn't like Casanova much. It seemed somewhat cheesy.

 

[CzeCze]

This latest version of Persuasion was lackluster.

Did you like the previous version where the main characters were older? I find it interesting how in this version the guy was younger and hotter and the main character was much more 'action oriented'...she ran a lot! They even used fake hand held shots with all that shaking and running. I never read Persuasion but thought it was supposed to be 'autumnal'. Wasn't she considered an 'old maid' by the time the story starts?

I like both versions. There was more angst in this latest one.

I love me some Jane Austen and Dickens on Masterpiece. My INTP friend is really into period pieces, more than me and I was the only person she knew who might even be interested in seeing that Jane Austen biopic that came out last year.

 

[CzeCze]

Also, 'Nicholas Nickelby' on Masterpiece is very entertaining. Plus, there is hotness all around.

 

[INTJMom]

...
I never read Persuasion but thought it was supposed to be 'autumnal'.
...

Anne is 27 years old. In her day, she was considered an old maid.

In Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte was 28.

 

[heart]

I was flipping through the channels after being totally put comatose by the first fifteen mintues of Northanger Abbey and the other PBS channel had the Masterpiece version of Dracula. They really did a good job with that one I think, which surprised me. It seems like they are going with the others so politically correct and staid that they drain all the vitality out of them. I saw a review for this version of Dracula calling it:

Dark, sexy and fresh...

-- The London Observer

I have to agree, they did a good job with that one, for whatever reason.

 

[INTJMom]

So Northanger Abbey wasn't good?
I couldn't watch it because every tv in the house was being used!

 

[heart]

So Northanger Abbey wasn't good?
I couldn't watch it because every tv in the house was being used!

I got really bored with it and I am very much into period pieces. However I saw people giving it good reviews on Netflix. Maybe I am hard to please, lol.