Jane Austen Book Club is out on Region 1 DVD (and Region 2 release date)
The Jane Austen Book Club DVD came out Tuesday on DVD. For those new to the blog, here’s our review from when we saw it in the theater. Now all of you who complained about the movie never reaching your town, or being open for five minutes there, have a chance to see it. Let’s support this, fellow Janeites; let’s give this one a long tail and show Hollywood that Jane Austen fans will support quality Jane Austen Brand™ products. Even renting it will help; and if you like it, why not buy it? It’s also available in Blu-Ray!
Cinematical has a nice writeup:
Like any dramatic comedy that focuses on romance — especially one that does so under the mighty pen of Jane Austen — this film is sentimental and romantic, but it’s also got a heck of a cast giving great performances and characters that aren’t the normal flighty heroines.
Yay for real Jane Austen heroines! And there’s even some info about the extras:
As far as the disc goes, there’s a decent number of featurettes, and not all of them are your typical fare. You get: deleted scenes, commentary with cast and crew, a peek behind the scenes, “The Life of Jane Austen,” “The Book Club: Deconstructed,” and for you red carpet fans out there — the Los Angeles premiere.
Speaking of extras, JASNA has an exclusive clip, with Joan Ray, Claire Bellanti, and director Robin Swicord talking about Harris Bigg-Wither, which we believe is from the DVD extras.
Oh, and for those who have said that the not-so-good new films have at least interested viewers in reading Jane Austen, here’s an argument that well-made and funny films will do the same.
Speaking as a Jane Austen virgin, an expression borrowed from “The Jane Austen Book Club,” I am more intrigued by the author after having seen the film — but not enough to read one of her 18th-century sagas, despite urgings from female friends to do so to better understand their affinity for the novels.
Well, almost. 
The Philadelphia Daily News (represent!) chats with Kathy Baker about Jane Austen and other things.
As for Austen, I’m assuming you read some of her work before shooting the film?
“I have read some Austen,” Baker said. “I’d always liked ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ but I think I like ‘Sense and Sensibility’ better. But there’s only six, you know, and I don’t know the others. I’m not like my sister, who reads every one of them over every year.
“There are people out there who are just so enamored of her they read her books over and over again. I am not like that. I was playing a character who did that. I was, however, the only cast member who was actually in a book club.”
Was there any type of informal book club on the set of the “Book Club” movie?
“Absolutely,” Baker said. “In fact, we all gave each other books for cast gifts. And we all read the Austen books we needed to read for our characters. And our youngest cast member, Maggie Grace, is one of those Austen-ites.”
Speaking of Kathy Baker, here’s a report of the DVD signing from the other night. Kathy and Maggie both look fabulous!
And good news for our European readers–the movie will be out on Region 2 DVD on March 17 (St. Patrick’s Day!), so drag yourself away from the pub and get a copy! Looks like you’re getting the full complement of extras:
- English, English HOH, Dutch and Hindi subtitles
- Cast and Crew Commentary
- “Making of” The Jane Austen Book Club
- “The Life of Jane Austen” Featurette
- “Character Deconstruction” Featurette
- Deleted Scenes
- Los Angeles Premiere
The film has just opened Down Under, and the Brisbane Times has a review.
This is just a partial list of the dramatis personae and their preoccupations but you can already see that the screenplay - based on the novel by Karen Joy Fowler - is doing its best to duplicate the basic recipe laid down by Austen herself. Take one village, sift through its social circles until you’ve found the characters most likely to provide incident and diversion then spice up their dramatic and romantic prospects with the addition of a few provocative newcomers - which is where Prudie (Emily Blunt wearing a Louise Brooks bob) comes in.
Sadly, we forgot to include Emily Blunt’s wonderful performance in our own review, so we will point to the others that did. (Guess we were too busy fangirling Hugh Dancy.) But both the film and the book come with the highest AustenBlog recommendation possible, for whatever that is worth.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I spent almost the entire night reading all your archived posts and learned a very great deal (and thoroughly enjoyed the process). I do, however, have a question about film formats in terms of regions. The concept of movie regions is new to me (I must be oh-so-behind current techical events). Is there a link or explanation as to what Region 1, etc. means? I’m guessing Region 1 is the U.S. and Region 2 is Europe.
Thank you for your insightful and often humorous posts. Your site is wonderful.
February 7th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Thank you for the kind words, June! I’m glad you are enjoying the blog.
Here is a previous comment with information and links about regions. In general, yes, Region 1 is the U.S. and Canada and Region 2 is Europe.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Thanks for the heads up. I went right out to the video store to check it out. I liked the book and I’ve been curious to see the movie.
February 8th, 2008 at 4:09 am
I already ordered a JABC DVD! I haven’t even seen it, but as AustenBlog recommends it, it can never be a bad movie, of course!
February 8th, 2008 at 7:40 am
I love this movie, whose female characters echo our Jane Austen book club to a tee. (OK, well, not in the love affair department, though I’ll take a tumble with Hugh d’Ancy any day.) In fact, we have invited our first male member to sit in on our discussion of Pride and Prejudice.
I am so glad to see you are recommending the movie strongly as well.
February 8th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Great movie. Hugh Dancy was adorable. I liked the Jane Austen husbands; I have a Jane Austen husband myself who read the books because I loved them and he loved me. Great scene where Prudie falls asleep and her husband keeps reading.
February 9th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I’m lovin it. I live in China and I can see JABC on the internet.Emily Blunt’s performance is great. I even got the DVD from the piratic-dvd market. but it is illegal.
February 9th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I saw this in the cinema a few days ago (it’s in its second week of release here in Australia), and really enjoyed it. I must say that this was very pleasant surprise, because I didn’t like the novel much at all. In contrast, I found this to be a satisfying film. As an added bonus, it was lovely seeing it with an audience who was chuckling away at the JA references (like the debate over Fanny); although I suspect that you’d enjoy it a great deal anyway even if you weren’t a JA devotee. I’ll definitely be buyin the DVD when it’s released.
February 9th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
I got my DVD copy and watched the movie for the first time this morning. I loved it! If there are any hollywood people lurking around the blog please do take note. We WILL support intelligent films based in Austen. How about giving us more films like this and less films like Becoming Jane??? (I’ll get off my soapbox now.)
February 10th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I delighted in the novel, which I’ve now read twice. The film definitely adapts the Karen Joy Fowler material, simplifying it in many ways, though I respect the scriptwriting. The cast gives strong, nuanced performances.
The first time I saw the film, I was one of less than a dozen patrons and the only man. The second time I took it in, the audience was 100% male–unfortunately, that meant I was alone in the auditorium. I regret that the film-going crowd did not turn out for this heartwarming, funny movie as it has for “No Country For Old Men”.
February 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I just got it from Netflix and watched last night — what a delightful film! I was even more surprised because I really didn’t like the book (not even sure that I finished reading it). I realize now that my problem with the book was that there are so many people and I was constantly trying to figure out which JA character they were supposed to be — and as mentioned in another thread above, they keep changing. Very confusing! Anyway, watching the film last night I could at last keep Prudie, Jocelyn, Dean, Daniel, etc. identified and just enjoyed their stories as they worked thru the book club discussions. One of my favorite visuals: the intermittant clips of all of them intently reading the books in preparation for the club meetings! Oh yeah, and Hugh Dancy — doing anything!
February 18th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Will I be kicked off of the blog if I express how much I hated the film even though I enjoy Austen’s works?
As a man, I found the relationship stories in the movie to be utterly offensive to men. In Austen’s works the key men might at first appear to be jerks, or aloof or prideful, and Austen normally has the women learn the whys and hows of their personalities, coming to understand them much better and using love to break down the walls between them. The men rarely transform personalities. It would be more accurate to say that they instead find some common ground with the women, appreciate them, fall in love with them and see some wisdom in opening up or coming around.
The movie is subtly but significantly different in that it goes into little or no detail about why the men are the way they are, choosing instead to focus on how they instead become exactly how their women want them to be.
In relationships men deal constantly with women who want to change them. I’ve never felt that Austen’s books or the films based upon the books promoted that behavior. With this Jane Austen Book Club film I felt just the opposite. If only husbands and boyfriends would read Jane Austen with their wives, we would all come to our senses and be just what they want us to be. It was quite superficial. In the film’s defense, it’s difficult to include all of the subtle details found in a book, yet the previous Jane Austen films were somehow able to accomplish that feat.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Chris — Yep, you might as well pack your bags for a long hike out of Austenblog. JUST KIDDING!!! The Lady of this House of Austen is very easy to get along with (just might have to duck her Cluebat once in a while).
I like your thoughts about “In Austen’s works the key men might at first appear to be jerks, or aloof or prideful, and Austen normally has the women learn the whys and hows of their personalities, coming to understand them much better and using love to break down the walls between them. The men rarely transform personalities. It would be more accurate to say that they instead find some common ground with the women, appreciate them, fall in love with them and see some wisdom in opening up or coming around.”
And I agree that it was weird in TJABC to see Dean, especially, lying in bed reading Persuasion aloud. Did he really “develop” like that in the book? Maybe I didn’t read that far before quitting. As for the other men in the movie, only Grigg had actually read the books, right? And that was because he joined the club to get closer to Jocelyn. At the end of the movie we saw Daniel waving a book around and asking if he could join, but I didn’t think he had actually read it.
Oh, and the other thing that bothered me was the comment at the very end directed at Bernadette’s 7th husband: “Mr. Darcy”. Say whut? I don’t think so! Takes more than a tux and a lot of $$$ to make a Darcy.
February 19th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I haven’t seen the movie because when I got to the pornography (c. p. 41) in the book I put it down and won’t look back. The author sure had a profitable idea about how to smuggle pornography to young girls: put Jane Austen’s name on it.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Chris, I only “kick off” trolls and sock puppets.
But did you think Grigg “changed himself?” He read Jane Austen’s books because the woman he liked asked him to–and ended up enjoying them. It was voluntary. I don’t think he changed much at all! Really Jocelyn changed to accept him.
(And in the book, yes, Daniel read Persuasion, or part of it, at the hospital, just like in the movie.)
Deb, I think they called Señor Obanda “Mr. Darcy” because Bernadette liked P&P so much–they were really teasing her. I wish they had left in the tidbit from Sanditon that was in the book! (He owned a farm in Costa Rica, the best birdwatching farm on the tour, and was eager to promote it to other tourists. Yeah, he’s not Mr. Darcy, he’s Mr. Parker!)
Bill, you need to look up the definition of “pornography.” And that’s why your comment got trapped in the spam filter, by the bye, because you used that term. You should get an eyeful of what else shows up there. You’d stop complaining about very mild sexual content in literary novels intended for an adult audience (by which I mean “not young girls”). I understand it’s not to your taste, but you’re not playing fair.