The P&P3 News Roundup: The Gay Blade
(The inspiration for today’s title will soon become clear. Bear with us.)
Alert Janeite AmandaJ wrote to tell us about a review of P&P3 from the Australian ABC network; the film opens there next week.
DAVID STRATTON: I think it’s a fine adaptation. Brenda Blethyn is not my favorite actress, but she’s really good in this. I think on just about every level it succeeds really well. I’m giving it four and a half.
MARGARET POMERANZ: Oh, I feel a bit mean only giving it four.
AmandaJ tells us, “These two are very respected reviewers here - and can be hard markers. So this is a fine score!” She had a chance to see the film at a preview and enjoyed it very much.
The Christian Science Monitor chooses the film as one of its “Picks” - five things they think “you’ll really like,” though we think it the sort of compliment that must disarm reproof:
Prejudiced (and proud of it)
Seinfeld may disdain puffy shirts, but even he would have to concede that they look rather fetching on Colin Firth in his career-defining role as Darcy in the 1995 BBC/A&E adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. Word is that next month’s film version, ghost-written in part by Emma Thompson and starring Keira Knightley, is very good, but we doubt it will improve upon the mini-series, now available on DVD.
Gee, don’t get carried away with your enthusiasm there.
And it appears that Keira Knightley’s portrayal of Domino Harvey has become a gay icon. While we found this news as amusing as Miss Knightley herself seemed to, our No Six Degrees of Separation Rule normally would preclude reporting it on the weblog, except for this tidbit:
Knightley herself says she would duck the historians who’d come in to give lectures and etiquette lessons on the Austen set to perfect Harvey’s kickboxing routine with a trainer.
No. Comment. Not sayin’ nothing. Nope, nuh-uh. Mouth resolutely shut, keyboard under control.
October 16th, 2005 at 12:50 pm
P&P is not a household name in my culture. P&P2 achieved a kind of cult status through a few broadcasts on minor cable networks but still most of the moviegoing public are not familiar with it. I’m really curious to see what kind of reviews and audience reactions this film is going to get in my country.
October 16th, 2005 at 10:25 pm
I remember that puffy shirt episode on Seinfeld! It rules.
October 16th, 2005 at 11:52 pm
Jen / Same here. I think P+P2 is mostly known in unis here (to be used as discussion materials etc). One TV station once broadcast P+P2 years ago but it was shown on weekdays, during the rush hour and with virtually no promo. Can you imagine that ?
Guess how they promoted S+S2 here ? As Ang Lee’s movie - that’s the disributor’s trump card as they might have realised that using JA / Emma Thompson / Kate Winslet wouldn’t work.
October 17th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
Liz/ Can I ask you where you live?
Since here it was marketed as Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, too.
October 17th, 2005 at 9:24 pm
Malaysia. Oh, the TV station was closed down not long after that .. it was on the tip of my tongue to huff out “Serves you right” .. but of course I was too nice to do that
October 18th, 2005 at 12:55 pm
hey, P& P was not that great. Though some parts were better than the bbc version, I prefer Colin Firth as my Mr Darcy. He is the only one you could ever capture that difficult character. And although Kira Knightley really annoys me, she was allright in this. But the originals in BBC were better than any new version of the great novel by Jane Austen.