03.01.07
Filming Romance
“Filming Romance: Persuasionâ€
Tara Ghoshal Wallace
From Jane Austen on Screen
A Summary by Mary-Carolyn
The last of [Austen’s] novels is especially tough to handle because it deals with a romance that ends before the story begins and has it resumption just before the story ends. This is novelistic, not film, material. Nick Dear’s screenplay understands the dilemma but can’t solve it†–Stanley Kauffmann
In her article, Wallace looks at the strategies a filmmaker uses to “transpose Austen’s narrative about two romances (one between hero and heroine, the other between nation and navy) on to the screen; and what kind of audience is implied by the choices made by the filmmaker†(127). She begins her discussion looking at Austen’s narrative voice, saying how difficult it is to translate it onto the screen, as it is not straightforwardly omniscient. Wallace looks specifically at Roger Michell’s adaptation of Persuasion when she looks at the way these narrative subtleties are translated to film in the form of “more easily decoded visual cues†(128). Michell has received criticism on “dumbing down†Austen’s subtleties, but Wallace claims “it is not to the discredit of the either the film or the medium itself that its depictions of issues like class relations are more easily decoded and discerned than they are in Austen’s text†(129). In fact, Wallace points out that, while Michell has interpreted Austen’s text, the view must still interpret and read the film. In fact, she claims the film is, in its own way, complex, citing several instances of “visual intertextuality [which]…deepen its depiction of class and family relations†(129). One such is example are the different modes of transportation Anne and her father and oldest sister use. Sir. Walter and Elizabeth employ a carriage, while Anne is conveyed in a farm-cart. Another example is the use of food: what people eat and how the eat it delineate their character and social status.
Wallace moves on to an examination of the character of Anne, and the way actress Amanda Root portrays her. One of the difficulties Wallace sees in adapting Persuasion is of depicting Anne’s inner turmoil, which “much be represented through the bodies of the actors, through facial expression and physical gestures†(130). What Michell has done, Wallace says, is show this by taking away Anne’s control of her body. Rather than having her react when she is alone, Michell shows Anne running across the room when she learns of Wentworth’s return. However, she appreciates Michell’s choices in showing the viewer Anne’s gentle swoon and need to support herself with a chair on her first encounter with Wentworth. But Wallace still thinks Michell and Root fail in their interpretation of Anne, as nowhere in the film is there any evidence of “Anne beginning ‘to reason with herself and try to be feelingless’†(131). She also criticizes the depiction of Elizabeth as someone who only bullies and belittles Anne. Yet Wallace defends Michell and Dear, saying what they may be trying to highlight here is Anne’s lack of a supportive group of women. Wallace points out “Anne is silenced, over and over, by the selfishness of her sisters and the dominant ego of Lady Russell†(134). Wallace goes so far to posit that the film might depict a “trap and an escape†in which Anne finds freedom from the constraints placed on her by the society of her father and sisters “not only be finding personal romance, but by joining his world of ‘that profession which is, if possible, more distinguished in its domestic virtues than in its national importance’†(135).
Wallace then examines the role of the navy in Michell’s adaptation of Persuasion. She praises Michell’s choice to have the film open and close with images of boats, emphasizing the “centrality of the Royal Navy†(136). She also points to the sailor’s tendency to always wear their uniforms, referring especially to the scene in Lyme where Harville and Benwick both change into their uniform before walking along the beach, in effect claiming “a public identity conferred by that uniform†(137). But, she criticizes this adaptation for deglamorizing the soldiers to a much larger degree than Austen does, showing more than a gentle rift between the friends Austen shows. She thinks particularly of the Uppercross party’s first visit to the Harville’s, which dissolves into hilarity for no apparent reason. Wallace says, “it is as if, confronted with the poverty of a retired naval officer, aware of the differences in status and wealth, the country gentry can respond only with nervous hilarity†(138). Wallace then points to the film’s opening which both units and points out the disparities between the country gentry and the naval officers. The film opens with a montage, alternating between images of naval laborers and country laborers and images of Admiral Croft and Sir Walter. The first message this montage sends is that “labor is labor…the underclass, whether on board ship or on estate, are overworked, possibly mistreated, and probably discontented†(139). The other, Admiral Croft’s declaration that they are going home and Sir Walter’s comment he will not have a naval officer in his home, highlights “the irony…[of] national ingratitude†(139). Despite the shortcomings of Michell’s Persuasion, Wallace concludes her article saying “it achieve both a gratifying degree of fidelity and its very own authenticity as text†(141).