Mary-Carolyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts on Pride and Prejudice<\/i>, the 1995 version. My mom and I have been watching big chunks of the film at nights, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been enjoyable watching it with her, except when she makes comments like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How did Mr. Darcy get out of his engagement to Ann DeBourg?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Anyway, here are some of the things I noticed; most of these things are from the first part of the movie, where my mom wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t asking me so many questions. <\/p>\n
The film opens with sewing, embroidery and dresses, emphasizing that this is a women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s movie. The first scene with Lizzie and Jane isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t from the book, but it sets up their temperaments and well as their strong relationships to each other. I noticed Lydia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s height dominance over Kitty in several scenes, but particularly in the scene where they first discuss Mr. Bingley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrival, Kitty is sitting down and Lydia is standing, emphasizing Lydia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greater importance. Mary has a lot of great reactions to Mr. Collins. First, when he arrives, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preening herself and patting her hair. In any scene with Collins, Mary is usually \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hovering\u00e2\u20ac\u009d behind him. Later, when he asks Lizzy to dance, Mary looks like she thinks he will ask her, and is disappointed when he turns to Lizzy. Upon Mr. Collins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 arrival, Lizzy is seated next to him at dinner, and is singled out by her father when the conversation turns to a discussion of Mr. Collins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 home, foreshadowing, or at least setting up, Mr. Collins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hope that Lizzy will marry him. In the same scene, Lizzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s laughter and her father and Mr. Collins\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 discussion of compliments shows her personality and her relationship with her father, and to an extent, sets up Mr. Bennet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s parenting style as one that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t impose restraints on his daughters. That the girls are quite free to do as they please is emphasized throughout the film by frequently placing the girls out of doors. When Lizzy and Wickham talk about how he was poorly used by Mr. Darcy, Wickham always seems to be looking sideways, up or down, or past Lizzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shoulder rather than looking directly at her. But the two are sitting diagonally, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to tell where in Wickham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s line of sight Lizzy would be. Also in this scene, Wickham introduces the topic unprompted, like in the novel, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 think that is the case in the 2005 film (correct me if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m wrong, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem to remember). In any case, the 2005 version certainly diminishes Wickham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153crimes.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 When Lydia approaches the two at the close of this conversation, Wickham says he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a dance in three months. I wonder if this is an attempt to justify his behavior as he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153proper social channels\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to find a suitable wife. In various scenes in the film, Lizzy and Jane both wear cross necklaces (like Fanny Price), but none of the other girls do. This is a way, other than framing their more forward in the scene, to set them apart from their sisters. At the Netherfield Ball, Darcy is framed between Lizzy and Jane as they discuss his relationship with Wickham. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also some nice phallic imagery when Lydia runs around with Denny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sword, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be willing to bet there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some more in the film, especially centered on Lydia. Mrs. Bennet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insistence on Lizzy staying to hear Mr. Collins emphasizes her controlling, manipulating nature. Interestingly, we see similar characteristics in Lizzy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scheming to get Jane to London. Mrs. Bennet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious awe of Lady Catherine sets up what the book says is the reason for her improved kindness to Mr. Darcy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c her sheer awe of him. I also really like the choice of casting for Lady Catherine. While I love Dame Judy Dench in the 2005 version, I think she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit too intimidating for Lady Catherine as Mr. Collins actually has a reason to be frightened of her and always eager to please her. His reverence of her ought to be funny, and it is portraying Lady Catherine as a small, thin, slightly sickly looking woman that makes the amazing amount of control she has the fear she inspires funny. I also noticed that a fade is used to move from Darcy at the Netherfield Ball to an overview of the ball, and then pans over to Lizzy and Charlotte discussing Darcy. Other than the times the fade is used at the end of a segment, this is one of the very few times a fade is used, and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out why it is used. Any thoughts? <\/p>\n
Oh, on a fun note, I found out that the woman who plays Miss. Bingley, Anna Chancellor, is eight times the niece of Jane Austen; she is the direct descendant of Austen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eldest brother Edward. She has another relative called Fanny Rice (haha!). <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mary-Carolyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thoughts on Pride and Prejudice, the 1995 version. My mom and I have been watching big chunks of the film at nights, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been enjoyable watching it with her, except when she makes comments like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How did Mr. Darcy get out of his engagement to Ann DeBourg?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Anyway, here are some of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.elsweb.org\/janeaustenfilm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}