To think that Jane Austen would be spinning in her grave...

[SaggyOldClothCatPuss]

If she could see 'no tits' Knightly playing Elizabeth Bennet?! And as for Matthew Mcfaddyan [sp] he just spends the entire film looking like he's had a bucket of water dumped over his head!

Yes I have read the book I am not just making wild statements. I do like the BBC Mr Bennett but I think Donald Sutherland was excellent.

Alison Steadman's performance was a caricature, Mrs B was a ridiculous character but there was a basis in her behaviour, that borne of the desperation of the situation exacerbated by her own silliness and lack of intellect. Brenad Blethyn acted that well I think, far better than Alison Steadman's shrieking overacting.

Anyway it's O-PIN-ION. I am not wrong, and neither are you.

I liked Alison Steadman best but I also liked Brenda Blethyn's drunk antics and hangovers and her look of total shock and befuddlement at the end when she'd told of Lizzie's and Darcy's engagement

Haven't read the whole thread but was disappointed today to learn that Keira Knightley is starring in Anna Karenina.

Why has noone noticed how wooden and uninspiring her acting is? And her grinning really irritates me. Sorry, that sounds a bit mean, but there are other English actresses out there!

You are wrong MamaMary, there are no other English actresses, not a single one. Or so it would appear . . . . .

I also liked the bit in the Kk film where they all manically tidied up and then looked prim doing their embroidery.

I also wonder why Kk seems to get all these marvellous roles. Cecilia in Atonement, Georgiana in the Duchess, Elizabeth Bennet and now Anna Karenina. She really is a limited actress imo, with a very wooden thin voice. I don't understand how she gets all these 'big' parts.

'No tits Knightley'

I like that woman who was in Shameless...Anne Marie Something.

I think she's married to the actor from Shameless who was in 'The last king of Scotland'...can't remember his name either.

She is a well good actress.

I think Lizzie is supposed to be 27, on the verge of being an "old spinster" or am IO getting it muddled up with Persuasion?

I think the BBC version has real chemistry between Darcy and Lizzy....nothing else matters!

I find KK annoying, but watchable (if not as Lizzie)

I find the "no tits comment" a bit like being back in the changing room after PE, when I was 13 ("Oy" no tits Chandon! You dropped the ball again, harharhar") not traumatised...honest, but a supporter of natural breasts in the media, obviously.

I do feel that Keira Knightley must have the best agent in the business.

Also, to be fair to her, her incredible ability to get the best roles suggests that she works unbelievably hard. If she's really easy to direct, takes criticism, turns up on time, stays cheerful through 300 takes of ridiculous crap, always knows her lines, is pleasant to the crew (and I can imagine all this as I always think she seems like a nice person), then IMO she's going to have more of a career than she otherwise would. Compare and contrast, say, Rupert Everett - who was is comparably pretty, but whose career keeps fizzling as clearly he is a nightmare to work with.

Lizzie is 21 isn't she?

Nooo Lizzie is 'not yet one and twenty'
Anne Elliot is indeed 27

No, Chandon, she's only 20 - you are mixing her up with Anne who's 27 - so prob J Ehle is too old, and Emma Thompson is absurdly old to play Elino in S&S (who is 19), but I don't care, because Emma T did the adapation and put a huge amount of work into it, so if you can't give yoruself the main part then, when can you give yourself the main part?

Elizabeth is 20 - when Lady Catherine asks her age she replies 'not yet one and twenty'.

Think Anne Elliot in Persuasion was in her mid to late 20s.

I think there is real chemistry between Elizabeth and Darcy in the BBc version but they were shagging in RL so perhaps it comes across on screen.

I think the actress is Anne Marie Duff married to James McAvoy?

x posts

I think GetORF and I should sit in a small quiche of our own, listing the age of all Jane Austen characters.

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, had reached the age of 21 years with very little to distress or vex her (or something of that sort)

I liked Sense and Sensibility at the time but again that has dated terribly. Most of the acting is appallingly stilted and strangulated. Best performances in that were Gemma Jones (Mrs Dashwood) and Harriet Walter (the witchy stepdaughter of Mrs D). Kate Winslet was rather good as well, but god knows what was going on with Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman.

Oh yes, Hugh Grant is bad, very bad indeed. But if you ignore him (i suspect they just put him in for the box office), I think it's a pretty good adaptation. I think she judges the finacial and social standing of the Dashwood family well, from what I remember.

that BBC version is my porn

p.s. who's planning to watch the new film adaptation of Anna Karenina? Apparently it's set in a theatre??????

I can't resist. Can't be too bad if by Tom Stoppard, surely, and I like the idea that it's all in a theatre.

!!

SHURELY je and cf weren't shagging were they?

je was PREGNANT and cf is seen in many media outlets with his gawjus wife

nobody has been known to have an affair in those circs have they??

Thingy Harker who played Jane Bennett was pregnant, not Jennifer Ehle, and this was before CF has met his wife iirc.

I used to love and adore the BBC version, I have happy memories of it because it was on telly in the winter of 1995 when I was pregnant with dd, and I remember my nesting feelings and warm glow when sitting down to watch that on a Sunday.

But some of it now is cringey. The bloke who plays Wickham is a git. Thingy Sawalha can't act. The bit where Darcy writes the letter and is all voiceovery with his face faded into the background is like something from a Hollywood TV adaptation of a Woman of Substance from the 70s. And it is a bit sanitised.

Yes they were definitely a couple!

Yes I agree regarding Wickham. He is quite gross and slimy and I don't believe that Lizzie would have been so taken in by him. He should have been more sexy I think, and less desperate.