Emma Thompson brought in as script consultant for PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 2005
Alert Janeite Mandy sent in a link to an article in the Camden New Journal about Deborah Moggach, the original screenwriter for P&P3, which states that Emma Thompson, star and Academy Award-winning screenwriter of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY, was brought in as a script consultant for P&P3. This is good news as far as we are concerned. We confess to being a trifle boggled by the following:
Deborah, who likes to appear in all her films as an extra, says: “She re-wrote a scene where I was going to be drinking in a tavern, by setting it in an oak wood, so I didn’t do it.”
A scene where a woman is drinking in a tavern? Changed to a setting in an oak wood? In PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? Anyone else feeling a bit like they’ve fallen down the rabbit-hole?
We were also a little taken aback by this tidbit:
The film also puts the Bennett girls in a very old-fashioned house with dresses so old they’ve practically got stains under the arms. So it makes it really matter that they get married.
Remember our comments below about our internal film of P&P? Does not include armpit-stained dresses. Not even close.
Thanks to Mandy for this very interesting (and a trifle disturbing) link. We pray that Ms. Thompson was able to do sufficient repairs so that our sensibilities are not completely shattered by the film. Dorothy will be standing by with the vinaigrette and the Tullamore Dew.
July 2nd, 2005 at 1:02 pm
My knowledge of the 1790s is limited at best, but I wouldn’t have thought that inns were exclusively male at that time, so I don’t really see the problem with that bit. I’m curious about where in the story this scene is placed, though.
Another reaction from someone who’s attended a test screening can be seen here.
July 2nd, 2005 at 7:51 pm
Not a gently-bred woman; and I cannot imagine any inn that would have slatternly women sitting around drinking in it as a setting in P&P, especially a scene that could be transferred to an oak grove. The only place I can see such a thing is during Wickham and Lydia’s sojourn in London, and how could such a scene properly be transferred to an oak grove? There are a couple of scenes in inns, but a gentleman’s daughter would not enter such a skeevy sort of inn, except in some bizarro-world version of P&P. Thus my comment about falling down the rabbit hole.
July 2nd, 2005 at 9:55 pm
Hmmmm. Like Mags, I cannot imagine any tavern scene in P&P but during Darcy’s search for Lydia. But Oak Grove? Hmmm. Well, actually it’s good to have my expectations cooled down a bit like this from time to time…. Hmm.
July 3rd, 2005 at 5:27 am
In any scene in an inn having a female extra somewhere in the background drinking a glass of something wouldn’t, imho, be a problem.
But what scene in an inn could be relocated to an oak wood? Well, there is a still of Elizabeth and the Gardiners having a picnic. My guess would be that in the original script they were eating in an inn instead.
July 3rd, 2005 at 5:28 am
I think it might be the scene where Lizzy and the Gardiners are touring Derbyshire, and Mrs Gardiner asks Lizzy if she would like to visit Pemberley. Perhaps the conversation took place in the private parlour of an inn? Lizzy and the Gardiners stayed in inns on their holiday. It’s a bit of a stretch, but if there had been only one private parlour available, the Gardiners might have agreed to share it with another lady.
I think the scene could have been moved to an oak wood quite easily, with the Gardiners and Lizzy having a picnic, and Mrs Gardiner talking about Pemberley there. In the book, it doesn’t say where this scene takes place.
July 3rd, 2005 at 8:04 am
She doesn’t have to be a gentle bred woman, either. She could be a servant.
There were several settings in an inn, I believe - the first was when Kitty and Lydia met Jane, Elizabeth, and Maria on their return from the Gardiners (and Rosings). The second is where the Gardiners and Lizzy are staying/talking about Pemberley. The third is where Lizzy gets Jane’s letter and needs to find the Gardiners. They could show Darcy coming through the inn.
July 3rd, 2005 at 5:33 pm
The problem I see is having a woman “drinking” in an inn. If it’s a genteel woman enjoying a glass of wine, fine; but I’m getting a vibe of some blowsy doxy knocking back a pint. The Bennet sisters likely would not have been exposed to such places, certainly not by the Gardiners, who are one of Lizzy’s family’s saving graces in Darcy’s eyes. His main problem with the Bennets was not their lack of fortune but their vulgarity. But even Mrs. Bennet would have kept her girls away from low public houses.
July 3rd, 2005 at 5:51 pm
i’m a little relieved about emma thompson taking part in the screenplay (even if it’s still questionable to what extend…). i really loved her approach to “sense and sensebility”.
July 12th, 2005 at 10:25 am
“Besides, there are some pretty modern themes in it, like having embarrassing families, and that love stems from quarrels and friction. Pride and Prejudice is sexy. Young girls who don’t give a hoot about Jane Austen will love it.”
On the contrary, I found it far from that. I found it witty, funny, smart, hilarious and all together wonderful.
Ten years ago, the BBC sexed it up by having Colin Firth as Austen’s romantic hero Mr Darcy dive into a country pond and emerge dripping like an entrant in an 1800s wet T-shirt contest. “There’s a lot of rain in our version,” rejoins Deborah, “and as a homage to Colin, our Darcy writes a letter describing how he tore all his clothes off to go swimming, before the arrival of a gamekeeper ‘put a stop to such foolishness’.”
Uhhu. And who might this letter be to? And will he be reading it aloud?
“In the book he’s cold and snobbish and pretty unsympathetic but I’ve made him much more human by depicting him as an intelligent man rendered restless by endless female tittle tattle at a country house party which goes on for two months.”
You changed him!
“The film also puts the Bennett girls in a very old-fashioned house with dresses so old they’ve practically got stains under the arms. So it makes it really matter that they get married.”
As I remember, there is not uproar from Caroline about Lizzy’s out of date clothing……..
July 14th, 2005 at 9:58 am
Don’t you think you should wait until you actually see the film before being so dismissive about it ?
July 14th, 2005 at 11:14 am
That’s no fun.