Best Jane Austen adaptations?

[verdantverdure]

What are your favourite Jane Austen adaptations?

Mine are the BBC Emma series and the BBC Pride and Prejudice.

I am not very well at the moment and just watching the 1940 Pride and Prejudice on iplayer.

I'm very happy to get the opportunity to see it, but can't say it's going to knock my favourite version off its perch.

Any other gemsI may have missed?

I love the 2008 Sense and Sensibility too, if only because I think Hattie Morahan is a spectacular actress. Actually, the whole cast is wonderful, as is the cinematography. The script is slightly florid.

Agree with about Bill Nighy as Mr Woodhouse. I think he hammed it up and it was too much. Not nuanced enough.

Still love the film, though. That dance scene!

I thought Johnny Flynn was good but found his bad teeth unattractive and distracting.

The Emma with Anna Taylor-Joy made me gasp out loud when she put her friend down with how many banal things she could say. More so than the one with Gwyneth Paltrow

My absolute fave adaption is probably the 1995 P&P. It has its weaknesses (agree Mrs Bennett is just too OTT and it verges on charicature sat times), but the six episodes really gives the time to do the story justice. Plus, you know, Colin-fucking-Firth.

Coming in v close behind is the Cairan Hinds and Amanda Root Persuasion. It’s my favourite book and the two leads are just [chefs kiss]. The letter scene gets me every time. It’s only beaten by P&P because the latter has the edge of humour that I appreciate in my comfort watches, whereas Persuasion is more mature and somber.

I also really rate the 2008 S&S with Hattie Morohan and prefer it over the Emma Thompson version. The 1995 film is amazingly written and I can’t fault the perfomances of the cast, but literally all of them (with the exception of Kate Winslet and the actress who played Margaret brilliantly) was about ten years too old for their respective role. It takes me out of the story every time I watch it. Also David Morrissey is just an amazing Brandon, and the added time post-Willoughby allowed you to see the romantic relationship between him and Marianne take root. Also LOVE Janet McTeer as Mrs Dashwood.

Special mention has to go Death Comes to Pemberley though- Matthew Goode’s Wickham is the only portrayal of that character where I’m like “Ok I get it” when it comes to why he was supposed to have so many women falling over him!

Agree with all of this, but gosh can't believe that was 2008, I think of it as quite recent! Love David Morrissey.
Also enjoyed the Sally Hawkins Persuasion, BBC P&P, and Gwyneth Paltrow Emma (and Clueless, obviously ). I've also recently seen Death Comes to Pemberley and really enjoyed the cast in that, if not the story particularly.

The 1995 Persuasion and the 1971 version are both on YouTube, which I now remember is where I recently watched the one I like best (the 1995 one).

Jane Eyre with Samantha Morton and Ciaran Hinds. Perfect interpretation, especially of the man-child Rochester.

Yep!

Oh God, how embarrassing! I somehow skipped over Jane Austen!!!! Just focussed on Jane.

I’ll get my coat

(If anyone fancies a distraction from Jane Austen, though, Jane Eyre with Samantha Morton and Ciaran Hinds is well worth watching 🤣)

Love both of those.

The 2016 film Love and Friendship is also really enjoyable

I don't know how close it is to the book because it's based on some juvenilia and I've only read the 6 main novels.

Fully agree with rhe Amanda Root Persuasion as pretty much perfect.
Second would be the BBC Pride and Preducice.

The 00s film of Emma, just for Jeremy Northam as Mr Knightley. Be still my throbbing ovaries

What did they do to the ending? Another post mentioned it and I'm curious.

The Amanda Root version is my favourite JA. Amanda Root managed to perfectly pull off the premise that she had lost her bloom over the years. You see her looking more and more attractive once Wentworth comes back into her life, but in a really subtle way. It was beautifully done and the acting is wonderful. You really believe in them as a romantic couple. Love it.

Kate Winslet was nineteen when she played Marianne though - so a teenager?

I accept that at 48, Alan Rickman was about a decade too old for Brandon though!

Although having said that, he plays the role to perfection. That film is my favourite Austen adaptation there is. I’m one of the rare people who can take or leave the BBC P&P production but love the Keira Knightley version. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Anne doesn't do the "loving longest, when all hope is gone" while Wentworth is writing the letter. The tension of that scene is what the whole book's been building up to - and a TV producer decided that that speech isn't really important🙄.

He does give her the letter and leaves, and she runs after him through Bath to find him. Then they snog in the street, badly, but everyone around them ignores them as though it's something they see all the time in Regency England.

And as a wedding present, he buys her... Kellynch Hall. (Even though married women couldn't own property until 1882, so he literally couldn't have). Not like Amanda Root going to sea with him...

The House of Mirth with Gillian Anderson, wonderful though very sad of course.

Thanks for the reply LordEmsworth. That sounds like a travesty of an ending. The Amanda Root one is perfect in that respect. It's perfect from start to finish.

Of course Mr Knightly looks younger than his brother, he doesn't have all those kids!!

Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma was my favourite & I loved Toni Collette as Harriet.
Jennifer Ehle as Lizzie was superb so these are my favourite versions.
The chap who played Mr Collins was so oily and toady.

bbc p& P is on UKTV play

I have a cousin & we are a few months apart. Almost 60. I’m married with dcs. She’s never been married & has no dcs. She easily looks 10-15 years younger than me.

Came here to say that. Just unutterable beautiful in every way and the most faithful to the book imo. To be fair the Rupert Penry Jones adaptation is good too.