And so it begins
Sorry for bringing in a metaphor from another fandom, but we feel a bit like King Theoden before the Battle of Helms Deep right now: knowing that we are hopelessly outnumbered by the evil army of Uruk-hai attempting to destroy civilization as we know it. Yet we battle on, in the face of hopeless odds, and we fear we have no Aragorn (or even a Henry Tilney) to fight at our side. Le sigh.
Baz Bamigboye fires off the first round in the publicity war for BECOMING JANE with a fluff piece about Anne Hathaway’s cricket skills in the Daily Mail.
Not only that, she plays a mean game of cricket, too, hitting a six with ease in a scene in the film which also stars James McAvoy, who’s very good as a young lawyer who initially gets Ms Austen’s goat by being pompous and ill-mannered.
*clutches head in hands, wills it to not explode*
Anne went directly from filming the hit The Devil Wears Prada into preparations to portray the novelist who gave us Pride And Prejudice and five other classic novels, all of which are cleverly alluded to in director Julian Jarrold’s beautiful movie, written by Kevin Hood and Sarah Williams.
Yes, because a silly girl like Jane Austen couldn’t have made up six whole books out of her purty little head! Oh no! She was influenced by her own life only! She never left her little village, what did she know of the big wide world? What could she have to say to us 200 years later?
The Times is not to be left out of the torturing-the-Editrix fun and games, with a blurb in their roundup of upcoming films of 2007; further indication of how the studio will be rolling with their publicity.
Another Brit project with its eye on the prizes is Becoming Jane (March 9), the story, purportedly based on fact, of how Jane Austen’s romance with a young Irish lawyer shaped her sensibility and fuelled her fiction. The American actress Anne Hathaway makes a compelling author; and as her suitor, Laurence Fox, son of James, proves that dynasty still has impressive legs. Be warned: the ending is a three-hankie blub-fest.
Just kill us now.
Thanks to several Alert Janeites who sent us these links - Amo, Jessica Irene, and Franka.
January 13th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Cricket???? Pompous and ill-mannered?? He gets Ms Austen’s GOAT? Arrrrgghhh cannot even get words out past howl of despair. Is there to be rampant barnyard life in this movie too? They have now gotten my goat too.
January 13th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
the story, purportedly based on fact–Is this an admission that they have no idea what the facts are?? Can’t they have any compassion on my poor nerves??
January 14th, 2007 at 3:38 am
Ms Austen’s GOAT?
Maybe, as English is not my first language, sure I am not understanding the article….! >:|
So the marketing career has started…wow! let’s come and see…..
January 14th, 2007 at 4:03 am
Honestly, if they’d just made the movie without using Jane Austen’s name, it would probably be decent and nobody would know the difference. ::sigh:: Poor Jane. :’(
January 14th, 2007 at 11:09 am
The term “purportedly based on fact” gives me some hope that not every media person with access to a keyboard is easily led by studio marketing.
Also liked the mention of the Fox dynasty still having impressive legs. LOL
I think the warning at the end is also a sign of hope: “the ending is a three-hankie blub-fest.” Those who are intimately familiar with Jane’s character know that she most likely would have been laughing on her deathbed, or at least making others laugh. Even in the utmost pain she would have refused to act like Mrs. Bennet, Lady Bertram, or even Marianne Dashwood-Brandon (although I believe Marianne outgrew her penchant for melodrama).
January 14th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
For Carmen: to “get someone’s goat” means to annoy them. or you could say “[poverty] really gets my goat”
January 14th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
I am begging people to STOP CALLING HER MS. AUSTEN. In her time, the word “Miss” was very relevant. Some who live in the 21st century might not like what it stands for, but they need to learn that they cannot change the past.
January 14th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
“the story, purportedly based on fact”
Ummm… didn’t newspapers once upon a time used to give — what were they called? Oh yes! I remember now — SOURCES for purported claims?
January 15th, 2007 at 2:03 am
Thank you Amo!
Now I understood it. Oh! there is something similar in my own language: estar hasta la coronilla -> be till the crown of the head (be fed up).
Ah! Also thanks Julie P., she was a Miss…let’s not forget it.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Yes, Julie P, of course these media nimwits should stop using that term, one we are quoting only in protest. The use of “Ms” bothers me more than the picture of a man being able to get Jane’s goat (as if!). The feeling behind it seems to me to be this whole idea that if she was not married, but was smart and had her own occupation, then we don’t know what category to place her in, so why not the wasteland of Ms where we put women who do not fall into our ideas of “pretty young thing” or “matron”.
January 15th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
(Mags) “Just kill us now.”
LOL!!! I feel your pain.
However, the “three-hankie blub-fest” comment gave me pause to wonder what scenes in JA’s books or any of the film versions make me reach for the tissues. Top one has to be in P&P, Darcy’s visit to Elizabeth at Lambton Inn, just as she received news of Lydia’s elopement — such sadness and despair! Read it and weep: http://www.mollands.net/etexts/prideandprejudice/pnp46.html
January 15th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Deb–looks like it’s a deathbed scene.
Fortunately for theatre owners, the Editrix no longer buys Extra Large Diet Cokes at the movies since they started charging $5. For some weird reason I didn’t mind paying $4.50 or even $4.75 but when they hit $5, that was my cutoff point and I physically could not bring myself to do it. I sneak in 20 oz. bottles in my handbag now.
January 15th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Anne said she found cricket surprisingly easy to pick up. “I played sports for years as a kid, like softball, which is different but similar, so I at least knew how to hit a ball with a bat,” she declared.
Can we hope to see a few balls hit with cluebats?
January 15th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
If Anne was so good at softball then why didn’t they have her playing baseball like Catherine Morland?
I’ll be watching to see if they use two stumps or three and whether
the bails are correct. If they don’t get their cricket historically accurate, then a whole host of middle-aged men will be coming to the
support of Miss Austen.
As for the story being purportedly based on fact, I’ll look for Jane following Tom Lefroy to London, as per Jon Spence’s biography.
January 16th, 2007 at 5:39 am
Mags, there’s no deathbed scene in Becoming Jane. I didn’t weep but I was the only person in the cinema full of hardened sales people who didn’t!
January 16th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Well, that’s a relief. I wonder why the reference to a cancer scene in the article, then? Can you shed some light on that, Edmund?
January 16th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Well that’s a relief. Technically the title should prohibit it anyway. She wasn’t “becoming” herself anymore after she died.
January 16th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
No idea, Mags. Maybe it was cut. No mention of illness in the movie.
February 2nd, 2007 at 9:56 pm
[...] We’ve read that before. The rating was PG “contains mild sex references and scenes of boxing” - so perhaps the lake scene has been cut? [...]