Grrrrr. Publicity begins for summer films in the U.S. You know what that means: Becoming Jane rises from its uneasy grave in the Chasm of the Cluebatted and comes back to fly around our face like a gnat that we cannot swat. It’s not so much the film itself but the misguided and mangled ideas about Jane that those involved will, in the name of publicizing the film, insist upon spreading in the media, where said misguided ideas will take hold with the tenacity and annoyance factor of poison ivy.
“There is a real hunger for films that are a bit more grown-up and stretch you and look at things different ways,” says Julian Jarrold, whose movie about Jane Austen, “Becoming Jane,” opens Aug. 3 against “The Bourne Ultimatum,” the third installment of the hit Matt Damon spy franchise.
[. . .]
Jarrold’s “Becoming Jane” stars Anne Hathaway as the young Jane Austen, who falls in love with an Irish rogue, played by James McAvoy, and finds in him the inspiration for the male characters in “Pride and Prejudice.”
*swats*
*swats again*
dagnabit!
“One of the most interesting things about the film,” Jarrold says, “is that I think, sometimes, Jane Austen and period dramas can be seen as a little bit stuffy and the characters a little bit dry. They are terribly witty but not full of life. So, especially in casting Annie, we wanted to give her a strong independent and feisty exuberance, absolutely bubbling full of life. We are looking at her when she’s 21 rather then when she’s 40 and has had all of her hopes dashed.”
Oh, yes, dear, having four novels published with good reviews and decent sales at the age of 40 DOES tend to dash one’s hopes and make one depressed and beaten down. Mr. Jarrold, have we shown you our Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness? No? Step over here, then, please…
