P&P3 News Roundup: Reloaded
There really is no spoon, you know.
The Guardian has an article about the continuing attraction of Jane Austen–why we continue to read her books, and why filmmakers keep adapting them.
For some critics, that narrow focus convicts her of impossible limitations. However, Austen’s sophisticated command of language and her inimitable style (usually the one thing missing from the screen) are anything but provincial. It is for her style that her readers revere her. Again, her steely mind is made dangerous, at times lethal, by splinters of broken glass.
Keira Knightley and Joe Wright discussed the new adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE during a press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Rising star Keira Knightly admits playing Jane Austen’s beloved heroine Lizzie was a tad daunting.
After all, Lizzie’s romance with Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice is perhaps one of the most referenced love stories of our time - and the subject of numerous film versions.
“It was absolutely terrifying . . . to the point where I nearly didn’t want to go up for it because I was so afraid of it,” she told reporters at a Toronto International Film Festival news conference Sunday, hours before the film’s world premiere.
“In my opinion, Elizabeth Bennett is one of the most beautiful characters in English literature. As an actress, if you get a chance to play a character like that, you can’t turn it down.”
[. . .]Guiding the U.K. production, set in 1797, was first-time film director Joe Wright, who admitted Sunday he’d never read the popular novel prior to be handed the screenplay.
“I was coming to it fairly fresh,” said Wright, whose previous work included TV series such as Charles II.
“I took the screenplay to the pub with me one Sunday afternoon and started reading it. By about page 60 I was weeping into my pint of lager. I was very moved by it and laughing out loud as well.”
He’s since read the famed classic, often found on English class reading lists.
The Sunday Mirror has a review of the film:
Keira Knightley is extremely impressive as the stubborn Elizabeth in perhaps her best performance to date.
She and Macfadyen make an attractive bickering couple and it’s great to sit back and let the film’s stylish and witty atmosphere wash over you.
Director Joe Wright makes a fine debut, sensibly giving Knightley centre-stage and letting the terrific support deliver the acting goodies when she’s off screen.
…as does Empire Online:
It’s Knightley, though, who really stands out. She’s delightful as Austen’s best-loved character — the slender, clever figure who loves a laugh, such as when she sets eyes on Darcy’s palatial pile and can’t control her goggle-eyed mirth, realising it could have been hers. The emphasis is not on heaving cleavage but on wit and unstudied charm, and Elizabeth Bennet has more of those than any other heroine in the English language.
September 12th, 2005 at 5:10 am
May I be churlish beast and go “Booooo!” to the Empire review’s first line “On behalf of the girlie contingent, we’d just like to say, “Yay!”?
It still doesn’t beat the breathless commentator on ITV 1 in a programme trying to flog P&P3 last night in which the line “Will Elizabeth’s pride and Darcy’s prejudice prevent their love?” was emitted. Snort!
Kathleen, retinas still seared from seeing P&P3 on Saturday.
September 12th, 2005 at 8:15 am
The emphasis is not on heaving cleavage
Well, with KK, it wouldn’t be, would it?
Keira Knightley… in perhaps her best performance to date.
Now, that’s a relief…
After all, Lizzie’s romance with Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice is perhaps one of the most referenced love stories of our time - and the subject of numerous film versions.
Seriously though, I often wonder if these critics who claim there are so many film versions realise that this is in fact the second cinema version in the course of a century of cinema, and there have been several television versions - of which only the two most recent are available on video. I think quite a few classics have been filmed more often than P&P..
September 12th, 2005 at 3:58 pm
Robin you are right about many classics having been filmed more than P&P. Prime example: Jane Eyre. I can’t even count how many adaptation there are of JE. And the critics count movies like Bridget Jones Diary as one of the “adaptations.” Ok so don’t get me wrong, I liked BJD but I don’t see it as an adaptation of P&P. But critics will be critics. We can all judge for ourselves.
September 13th, 2005 at 9:18 pm
All right, is there anyone else who is bothered by their insistence upon Lizzie instead of Lizzy? Maybe it’s just me, but it’s been driving me crazy! I’ve expected to enjoy the movie, mainly because I’m going in with low expectations, but maybe I won’t like it if they are so careless with details that they can’t even spell the heroine’s name correctly!
Sorry for the rant; I just couldn’t hold it in any longer.
September 14th, 2005 at 12:55 am
@ Amy P, with my deepest regrets.
Seems that I owe you an apology. So, if you’d be so good as to forgive me this once, I promise most faithfully not to offend again (must have seen that d***d “ie” a bit too much those last days!).
Pia, devasted
September 17th, 2005 at 12:09 am
Good heavens, Pia! My criticism was not directed at you or anyone else on this blog! It really doesn’t bother me when people post on Austen sites and call Lizzy Lizzie or Bennet Bennett or similar things (although I am forced to admit that Austin instead of Austen bothers me–have to work on that ;)); people makes mistakes and as you said, we are surrounded by “ie”. What bothers me, and what I was venting about, was the choice by the film company to call her Lizzie. Even the screenwriter, who presumably used the book to write her screenplay, insists on spelling her name with the “ie”. I don’t get it. Is Lizzy with a “y” deemed too old-fashioned? Is Lizzie somehow imbued with more “gritty realism”? (Or should that be “grittie realism”?)
Pia, I am so sorry that I haven’t been on here in a couple of days (wretched Ophelia!) and so didn’t know about your comment until now. I hope you didn’t think that I was ignoring you.