to think that the classic Pride and Prejudice costume drama with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle is actually...um...CRAP?

[GetOrfMo1Land]

When it came out in 1995 I was addicted as anybody.

But - 16 years later it is very dated and a bit naffola, really.

Really dozy acting in some bits, and all typical twee BBC costume drama. Someone says something mildly shocking and you have the 5-way reaction shots of everyone in the room.

And the but where it goes all misty when Darcy is reading out his letter to Elizabeth is cringingly silly.

It's a bit rubbish really, or at best very of its time.

Lordy. How can you SAY such things Gerorf?

I love it. It is like a warm blanket after a shite week.

I know - perhaps crap is too strong.

I hate it when things date. I used to love the film Pretty Woman, it was a favourite hwen I was a young teen, now I cannot bear it (the whole premise of the film is deeply dodgy) and think Richard Gere is a knob, and all the fashions look shite.

I actually thought Willoughby was very yummy. it annoyed me at the end though when he was riding off and his foot was up out of his stirrup letting it flap about.

Thanks the catspjs! Hmmmm WIBU to buy both...... :)

Wet Mr Darcy is my screensaver.

How very dare you, OP?

Clueless is utterly brilliant, I agree.

Pretty Woman is pants, Getorf, but still a good duvet day movie. "Rodeo Drive, baby".

Willoughby (Greg Wise) married Emma Thompson and is pretty much her house husband, lucky woman. Yummy yes, but no Rickman.

Yabu! The very thought of such heresy is giving me heart palpitations. Ehle/Firth P&P will be recalled as the peak of western civ, k?!

How can you not rate wotsername as Mrs. B? She was the personification of Mrs. B!

Imo Susannah Harker (1995 Jane) is really beautiful and suited the part well with her soft golden looks. I haven't seen the recent anorexics version, but by the stills I give Harker the edge.

What I always wonder with the 1995 version is whether ladies breasts really were pushed up for that restrained-helium-balloons effect?

We are of one mind on Kate Winslet as Marianne though. Perfect. Don't you always leave that book hoping Marianne will wise up to how lucky she is and appreciate it?

Can't bear Gwyneth so have never watched her Emma.

Really need to catch up with Persuasion as it is my #2 favorite Austen behind P&P. Early depiction of narcissism in literature with her family. She so nailed Anne's family - just like people one meets every day.

Why can't more books be more like Jane Austen? Delicious every time.

Clueless is great. It is brilliant writing.

Sacrilege!

bunnyfoof, Gwynnie is really annoying, and that's why I think she makes a decent Emma, because that character is a bit dislikable. I think Persuasion is JA's masterpiece, very dark, and you've hit the nail on the head re narcissism.

Re-reading the books you can see how great her dialogue is, the lines are brilliant, eg Elizabeth's put-downs of Darcy, the big show-down scene between Elizabeth and Lady C.

agree psychothreadkiller - I don't doubt Gwyneth was good casting since she comes across like a sanctimonious busybody already, and always has.

Austen makes you see how Anne's family sucks the life out of her in the most deadly way and that makes her escape into the sunlight so much more wonderful.

Btw, when I read this thread title, I became aware of a great disturbance in the Force, as if a million voices had screeched 'what?!' and then took a breath in order to respond.

yy bunnyfoof. I've read so much about NPD recently, thanks for making the connection for me to the family dynamic in Persuasion. I really have to re-read it now!

The genius of Austin is how she makes Emma inherently dislikable, yet you still root for her to get together with Knightly at the end.

What if there was a movie of just shopping on Rodeo Drive for two hours?

Do we really need the rest of the plot?

Yy Dozer the showdown scene has got to be among the 10 Best Scenes Ever Written. Do you think of it whenever you have to draw the line with someone?

If you have a suitable player, buy the Blu-Ray version of the BBCs P&P. The quality is SO much better and it looks far less dated.

Crispin Bonham-Carter reminded me of an excitable puppy - a bit like Ben Fogle!

I do love Clueless and, in a similar vein, 10 Things I Hate About You is a fabulous update of The Taming of the Shrew.

xpost, disturbance in the Force, brilliant .

Talking of which, please somebody agree with me that ObiWan/Ewan McGregor should never again be allowed near a Jane Austin adaptation. His Frank was an abomination.

Love 10 things I hate about you - I normally hate those American remakes.

Frank Churchill, I mean

Elizabeth's speeches/rants ARE good that is why KK is crap. She is not used to lots of lines, just simpering. When she was berating Darcy there was no passion at all, just 'get me to the end of this line so I can take a breath'.

10 things - YUP
Clueless - YUP
if a plot is that strong it is worth updating

Persuasion - Penry Jones version just does not get it.
Mansfield Park is too of its age to have lasted as well, let alone Northanger Abbey

AusTEN, people, not AusTIN.

Am I the only one to adore Mansfield Park, despite the colourless Edmund and Fanny? (I mean the novel, obviously - all screen adaptations have been awful, especially the one with Johnny Lee Miller as Edmund! What on earth was the casting director thinking???)

I really like the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility, because while it departs from the novel all over the place, it has to, or a modern cinema audience would never accept the premise. In the novel, it's clear Elinor, the sensible sister, is 'right', and that passionate Marianne has to learn to be more like her - whereas the film, by showing us Elinor going into hysterics when she discovers the man she loves isn't married, suggests Elinor needs more feeling, not Marianne less! We end up identifying far more with Marianne feeling Elinor has no feelings and far too much self-control.

And that film does a lot with casting - by making Hugh Grant's Edward bumbling and diffident rather than dull, and especially casting Alan Rickman as Col. Brandon. It's hard to remember that in the novel he is a boring, almost elderly figure, almost the same age as Mrs Dashwood, who wears flannel waistcoats and is perceived by the girls as a sort of uncle type- he's definitely the safe, staid consolation prize, and Austen is clear that Marianne only eventually loves him, after they are married.

Does no one remember the television version of S&S with David Morrisey as Brandon . He was easily as good in the part as AR. And Dominic Cooper as Willoughby? I thought it was much better than the film and much longer so everything got covered.

Oh and OP you are being totally unreasonable and a bit mad imvho !

I really don't like KK in the most recent one, the way she laughs reminds me of what's his face from Silence of the Lambs - but yeah some of the other characters are good.

I watched the beeb one twice (they repeated it each week), I have the dvd set and the KK one, they both annoy me in some ways, nothing beats reading it.

Obviously we need a new version done by the beeb.