Have a little compassion on my nerves
Joe Wright thinks empire dresses are ugly.
Joe Wright thinks empire dresses are ugly.
Joe Wright thinks empire dresses are UGLY!
Thanks to Alert Janeites Selena and Jen, both of whom sent us the link to the production notes from PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (PDF file), this costume geek was able to learn of the infamy described above.
Another early decision for the director was the approach to wardrobe, in tandem with costume designer Jacqueline Durran (Vera Drake). He explains, “I find empire line dresses are very ugly, so I did some research. Although the novel was published in 1813, Jane Austen wrote her first draft of Pride and Prejudice, then called First Impressions, around 1797. So we used the fashions of the earlier period, where the waist on dresses was lower and more flattering.
Curiously, the producers of the 1940 P&P thought the same thing, but they changed the setting to the 1840s, resulting in silly Gone With the Wind crinoline dresses. There’s nothing wrong with setting the film in 1796, but they did have a few pretty dresses then, too.
Also, if you’re so damn-fired concerned about “realism,” then how the heck does a man whose fortune is a mere £10,000 per year afford an estate like Chatsworth?
Here endeth the editorial.
In general the synopsis, etc. all sound basically okay except for a few things here and there, which is to be expected. But as a fun parlour game, let’s see how much of the commentary about “gritty realism” shows up in the reviews, with the syncophantic press parroting the company line.
Also, a different Alert Janeite named Jen wrote to let us know that extras in the film (Jen appeared in the scenes at the Meryton assembly and some scenes in the village) have received invitations to a screening of P&P3 on July 30 in Peterborough, near where the Meryton filming took place. Admission is by invitation only.
In other P&P3 news, Wendy Mitchell of indiewire.com saw a screening and liked it in spite of herself.
July 24th, 2005 at 6:40 am
The music was composed by Dario Marianelli who is also making the music to Terry Gilliam’s “The Brothers Grimm” and the Wachowski Brothers’ “V for Vendetta”.
It is performed by French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and here are the track titles:
1. Dawn
2. Stars And Butterflies
3. The Living Sculptures Of Pemberly
4. Meryton Townhall
5. The Militia Marches In
6. Georgiana
7. Arrival To Netherfield
8. A Postcard To Henry Purcell
9. Liz On Top Of The World
10. Leaving Netherfield
11. Another Dance
12. The Secret Life Of Daydreams
13. Darcy’s Letter
14. Can’t Slow Down
15. Your Hands Are Cold
16. Mrs. Darcy
17. Credits
The cd will be released September 19th.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000AD1NXK/
July 24th, 2005 at 6:44 am
Oh dear, it turns out I entered a message title in the “Website” field on the reply form.
It was supposed to read: The soundtrack listing has been revealed.
Well, no more messages before “morning coffee.”
July 24th, 2005 at 7:04 am
What could that “Henry Purcell” reference be about?
Also, it seems that the order of the tracks on the cd won’t be exactly as in the movie. Is that often the case with soundtracks?
July 24th, 2005 at 7:14 am
Mock Tudor, yes, in fact often times the soundtrack puts together the music from the film in a way that the disc flows the best. Because a film does not have a continuous orchestra sound technicians and editors are able to mix the score in any way they please according to how the music was created for each scene. But sometimes that just will not work on a CD or Soundtrack. For example the beautiful music from Sense and Sensibility is not in the order of the film, but if you sit down and listen to the entire album the music flows beautifully. ~R
July 24th, 2005 at 8:46 am
Mags/ Do sit down, drink a cup of fragrant Camomile tea and please calm down, Mags. What does a man know about dresses anyway?
*a very meaningful sniff*
Reading this, I thought they badly wanted to go many extra miles to differ from the “looming” previous version. Let’s see how this anxiety of influence will turn out.
July 24th, 2005 at 1:12 pm
I’m sure Mags could give you a name: Da Man!!! He is a man who knows about dresses
July 24th, 2005 at 1:31 pm
I completely agree with Pemberley being like Chatsworth as completely unrealistic. Darcy has no title and is only the grandson/nephew of an Earl. Lyme Park as Pemberley was much more believable.
July 24th, 2005 at 4:12 pm
Having now read all of the production notes I must say that I think they contain some things more interesting than a remark about the director’s taste in period dresses.
Take the following quote from the the scriptwriter, for example:
How is what she describes here “unlike in the novel”? I don’t see what more she could keep secret than she does in the book.
There’s some encouraging talk about the dialogue:
All very well. Provided her favourite lines are the same as mine, that is.
Their explanation for Mr. Bennet’s high age sort of makes sense: that he couldn’t marry until his father had died. But I don’t think there’s anything in the text to support this, so I do wonder if this is something they came up with before or after they decided to go for Donald Sutherland.
And then there are the full credits at the end. With a “Special Thanks to Emma Thompson”, but no sign of Lee Hall at all. Intriguing.
They do confirm the precense of Sir William, Mr. and Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Reynolds, though. And Betsy.
July 24th, 2005 at 6:54 pm
Regarding Chatsworth, I had heard that some people theorize that Austen had Chatsworth in mind when she described Pemberley. I don’t think this has been ‘proven’, but is mentioned on the Chatsworth webpage (www.chatsworth-house.co.uk).
Also, Chatsworth would not have been as large in J.A.’s time, and it’s possible the film only portrays sections of the house that date from the correct time period, giving an impression of the estate as it had been in the Georgian era. All conjecture, of course…
July 24th, 2005 at 6:56 pm
Mock Tudor says: All very well. Provided her favourite lines are the same as mine, that is.
My sentiments, exactly.
As for the postcard to Henry Purcell…well, I came across this little snippet and wondered where on earth it could fit in, but maybe Darcy is writing a postcard to a friend named Henry Purcell? Anyway, it’s time somebody come to help and check my imagination running wild! Or…please come already…whatever month P&P opens here.
Homage to Firth
The forthcoming Hollywood version of Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen, pays homage to Colin Firth’s iconic emergence from a pool in a wet shirt in the BBC’s 1995 adaptation of the Jane Austen novel.
Deborah Moggach, the affable novelist who has written the screenplay for the film, which is due to be released in September, tells Mandrake: “There’s a lot of rain in our version and, in a nod to Colin’s big scene, our Darcy - who is played by Matthew - writes a letter describing how he tore all his clothes off to go swimming, before the arrival of the game keeper ‘put a stop to such foolishness’
(?&^%$%$#@?? Wha? Well, though I’m in a fairly silly fangirly mood, still I’m quite bothered by this. Firth plunged in ‘fully clothed’ and that’s the beauty of it!)
Mags and Julie Bertrand/ And the interior of Pemberley is Wilton House! Ha!
July 24th, 2005 at 7:07 pm
Henry Purcell was an English composer. I’m not aware of anything connecting him with Austen, though. But perhaps it’s just that Dario Marianelli has been inspired by him or something in that vein.
July 24th, 2005 at 10:20 pm
It’s all good. I hate the costumes in P&P0 and like that movie anyway, so there you go.
July 24th, 2005 at 11:36 pm
Take Lizzie, for example. She has . . . unrequited love for someone [Wickham]who turns out to be a complete cad . . .
Unrequited love? Are you kidding me? I can’t find the exact place in the text, but I could have sworn Lizzie distinctly told her Aunt Gardiner that she was in no danger of falling in love with Wickham.
July 26th, 2005 at 5:04 am
Mock Tudor/ Thank you for enlightening me! I also did my homework and found out that he was a v. renowned British composer from the Restoration period and a film was made about his life…and Michael Ball, one of my favorite musical singers, was starred in it as Henry Purcell himself.
July 30th, 2005 at 7:35 pm
In terms of someone on Mr Darcy’s £10,000 per year being able to afford something like Chatsworth, you need to allow for inflation since the late 18th century! £10,000 per annum then is equivalent to several hundred thousand a year now, if not close to a million. Not such a problem after all, although it wouldn’t be cheap to put a new roof on Chatsworth!
July 30th, 2005 at 8:27 pm
Some more information on this £10,000 thing can be found in some of the FAQs and threads over at Pemberley.com:
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pre-faq.txt
http://www.pemberley.com/bin/archives/regarc1.pl?read=2027
http://www.pemberley.com/bin/archives/regarc1.pl?read=4017
I remain, Yours etc.
July 30th, 2005 at 8:41 pm
Or there’s this:
http://www.pemberley.com/bin/archives/regarc1.pl?read=4015
July 31st, 2005 at 1:14 am
Andrew, I understand that but £10,000 per year would not have sufficed to run Chatsworth in Darcy’s time. That was my point. The Duke of Devonshire was way, way, way richer than Darcy.
September 26th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
came across this site whilst browsing. Just to inform you that the music that elizabeth and Mr Darcy dance to at the ball is a piece by Henry Purcell and Dario Marianelli also composed a variation of this which you hear in the background in the subsequent scene.