Saving Janeites two hours of their lives
In a real public service, Abridged Classics brings you…Becoming Jane.
Thanks to Alert Janeite Lorien for the link and a big laugh!
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September 13th, 2007 at 3:18 am
Bwaaaaaaa! I loved it! Especially
WAISTWATCH. Jane: 1803. Everyone else: 1790 and all the variations. And I completely agree with the tag below Mr Wisley: ‘Deserves better than Jane’.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Oh my God this is HILARIOUS!!! Honestly, I think I liked this better than that whole movie altogether. At least this clip was witty, and added some humour. Whoever made it, well done!
September 13th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Oh my! That was fantastic!
September 13th, 2007 at 7:59 am
Utterly hilarious! Bravo to the wise person who put it together!
Clever observations on the foilbles of humananity and society, now who does that remind me of, I wonder?
September 13th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Very funny. Love the waist watch, and the cutting wit. Jane, usually above such behavior, might actually snort with laughter.
September 13th, 2007 at 8:44 am
I am so glad that they saved me 2 hours. I really liked the “Everyone else: Farscape” waistwatch. This was wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:41 am
hehe that was hilarious…love it. Full of snark…
September 13th, 2007 at 11:42 am
Very Excellent
Ta for that.
September 13th, 2007 at 11:55 am
HA! Absolute genius, haven’t watched the film yet but from what I’ve seen and read (this video and the amazing review by B.Eliiott) it looks pretty rough. But hey ho without it I’d never have seen this cracking video
September 13th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Bravo! I liked the jibe about ASL. It was too obvious—the accents were just not right. They should have used this guy for editing and post-production; the film would have definitely turned out better.
September 13th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
That was hilarious. I loved the waist watch and witty commentary. Well done!
September 13th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
This version should receive a nomination of some sort. Waist watch was excessively diverting. Waste watch: Becoming Jane.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Marvelous! I will say that when I saw the film, I came away with two good things: a copy of the Tomalin biography (prize for attending) and not having had to see Rescue Dawn with my husband.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Mags, this has so many lumps of snark that I’m totaly high on it! Love the Waist Watch and everything. Are you sure this wasn’t a product of your genius?
I knew they were going to take liberties with Jane’s life but I didn’t know it went this far. This is awful and I’m not sure I want to waste time watching it now. Yet another movie where they could have done well to change the names to protect the innocent, that is change the names of the movie characters to protect us the innocent Janeites who will otherwise spend almost two hours watching our lovely Jane be torn to shreds! Becoming Un-Jane more like.
September 13th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Well, thank you for answering whether I should waste 2 hours, $20 (ticket, popcorn and pop) So sad, that popcorn would have ended up on people 3 rows in from of me as I lost control and started throwing things. I have a friend who has been begging me to go and I almost gave in, so glad I didn’t. ::::shudders::::
September 13th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Well, thank you for answering whether I should waste 2 hours and $20 (ticket, popcorn and pop) So sad, that popcorn would have ended up on people 3 rows in from of me as I lost control and started throwing things. I have a friend who has been begging me to go and I almost gave in, so glad I didn’t. ::::shudders::::
September 13th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
I just don’t understand why eveyone on this blog is so down on this film. Frankly, I like the movie and I didn’t feel at all “waste 2 hours of my life”. As for the person who made this video clip, you are way too witty for your own good.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
So glad I didn’t see the film. This video is the best version of it.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
People really shouldn’t bash a movie they didn’t bother to see.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
WAISTWATCH
Abridged Becoming Jane: Hilarious
Becoming Jane: God Awful.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
*shudder*
- as is the rest.
Thank you for saving my 2 hours.
Waistline watch - hilarious
Sean’s comment;
…you are way too witty for your own good.
It did *me* a load of good. Can’t stop grinning
September 13th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Frankly I was mystified by the carnival sequence. I half expected to see the furmity hag from “The Mayor of Casterbridge.” And I kept expecting the fight scenes to lead to some sort of insight, but they never did. All heat, no light.
All in all, it wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined. As my local film critic wrote, “OK Austen is just a lot less tiresome than bad Moliere*.”
*Moliere (Moliere ou Le comedien malgre lui) opened the same day in SF Full text of the review, if one is interested: http://snipurl.com/1qoow
September 13th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Oooooh! Therapeutic.
And I myself… did bother to see the film. Bothered, in fact, is exactly the word for it.
“Later, when Jane’s makeup is full of eyeliner wrinkles…” LOL!
September 13th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Am I back in high school again? Did I wrongly step into the “Jane Austen snob book club” by mistake?
September 13th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Too funny!
September 13th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Oh, I’m sorry, was I referring to you?
September 13th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
HA, Somebody is objecting my comments. Well sorry to interrupt the Becoming Jane’s bashing orgy. Clearly you people doesn’t tolerate dissenting opinion. Go cry to the moderator then.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Sean: It’s not about the videographer’s wit. Jane was/is too witty for that horrid cinematic rendition of her own life.
I love the waist watch! I really think that was one of the best YouTube videos that I’ve seen for a long time.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
I am excessively diverted by that wonderful, witty piece of cinematic genius.
Highlights for me: the comment about helium, waistwatch, ASL and “they had so much to say to each other.”
And we’re not snobs when we ask for a true story about Jane - if you’re going to use a real person’s name and background, you should go accept everything they were and did rather than picking favourite bits and/or making up stories.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Sean, you weren’t “censored,” you were caught in the spam filter, which happens when you post a lot at one time. Calm down. No one is picking on you. It’s called “disagreeing,” and grownups do it sometimes. You are welcome to share your opinion of the film as long as you don’t go all Internet troll on us, okay?
Am I back in high school again?
Judging by your behavior here, I’d be astonished to learn that you are OUT of high school.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Fabulous. Best critique of this movie yet. The Jane waistline mention is hysterical. I ROFLD.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Love it! Thanks because that really did save me two hours of my life! I’m not a fan of Anne Hathaway, but who knows? I could have been dumb enough to actually watch Becoming Jane. - Even though I knew that [in the usual fashion of Hollywood movies] its seriously not historically correct!
September 14th, 2007 at 9:49 am
To me, the real waste was all the time and money this movie company laid out on this project. Think of the minutes spent running down a hill and slowing walking back up just to see a couple of men jump into a river, or the minutes spent watching fights or going to fairs. They wasted their time and money and ended up with so little of Jane’s actual life to show for it. You know what I would like to see in a movie of her life? Have it start with her writing and happy at Steventon, then all the moves, and have it end with her returning to her writing at Chawton. That would be a great movie. If you need some boy-meets-girl, stick in Harris Bigg-Wither’s proposal, Edward’s brother-in-law in Kent, or the mystery man at Lyme (in a reasonable way).
September 14th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Tina: Hear, hear! When I read the “Tom Lefroy Letters” there’s lots about various balls Jane went to and she says she danced with this gentleman and that gentleman, and so-and-so was there and Miss This and Miss That. Wouldn’t it have been lovely to see her young and going to balls and having fun? And then writing and making her family laugh? Instead of slopping the pigs, which it is highly doubtful she ever did? Jane was, after all, a gentleman’s daughter.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
I was entirely amused by this. I think it made my day. Thank you!
September 14th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I loved the waist watch (Everyone else: Farscape), otherwise no big innovative jokes there, I’m afraid.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Ha! Thanks for the post!
I did see Becoming Jane and ugh. I tried to watch it objectively as if I was just watching some nice period film where the lead character happens to be named Jane Austen but I failed miserably and sat in the theater with my stomach in knots and my hands in fists.
Kudos to those who could get past it all and truly enjoy the movie!
If we are going to talk about our dream film about Jane, I’d like to see a sister story focused on her relationship with Cassandra. But that’s just me.
September 14th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
The vid was great!! So funny, so right. But…I’m gonna watch BJ anyway, just for the James McAvoy, and the period drama-ness of it. It’s wrong Jane-ly and historically, but I going to try to ignore it. And I have to watch it to be able to dis/snark from personal experience, not second-hand knowledge.
September 15th, 2007 at 1:48 am
That was hilarious! At so many points it looked very 05P&P-esque..ugh. *cringes* I loved the waist watch thing as well. I have yet to see Becoming Jane, and what I’ve seen/heard so far of it makes me want to wait til it comes out on dvd. ek.
September 15th, 2007 at 4:43 am
Oh my that made my night!
“Also maybe his ability to smolder and walk in a circle at the same time” Hehehehehe ^_^
September 15th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Okay, I saw the movie and LOVED it. And I saw this video and love it as well - especially the comments about helium and ASL! Hilarious! It’s a great movie and love story if you can get past the exaggerations and inaccurcies. James McAvoy alone is a reason enough to see it.
September 16th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Brilliant! I really had not noticed her voice was so high until that helium comment. Waist watch was great. I just can’t understand movies getting some parts of costumes right and some so wrong. Jane was not a Regency girl- she barely lived through 7 years of it. I would have added a comment at the last scene about how nice it was that Jane lived until the mid Victorian era, according to this movie.
Much of the movie was written badly but I didn’t hate it and found myself lost in the moment. Afterward I was again upset by the idea of all the young teenagers thinking that is what really happened. Loved the way the clip pointed out the stupidity of how they made Jane so oddly prissy at parts and so wanting a man to tell her what she was thinking!
September 19th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
About the waistlines: I got the impression that Eliza de Feuillide in this film was the ever so slightly decadent character - wouldn’t *she* be the one to wear the latest fashions? I have never cared much for Lucy Cohu, but in this film she was a little gem; shame she was so frumpy.
September 21st, 2007 at 6:19 pm
I’m sooo glad I watched this (ok, I watched it three times). Not only was it funny, but it convinced me not to even waste money on a DVD rental.
I was really only interested in seeing it because I thought McAvoy was amazing in The Last King of Scotland, but after watching him simper at Anne Hathaway trying to look arch, I realize that if I WERE to watch this movie, he may become Dead To Me.
And that would be a pity as I think most of the time, he’s a good up-and-coming Scottish Actor (my favorite kind).
This was good value. Thanks a lot for sharing it here at Austenblog!
The Other Karen L.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I loved the movie- it inspired me to read more of Jane Austen’s novels, and this video was hilarious!
I’m rather glad I wasn’t as big of a Jane Austen fan if it would have inhibited me liking this film.