-
Immersed in Movies: Craft-Talking David Fincher's ... -
Cannes Review and Roundup: James Gray's 'The ... -
'All is Lost': Chandor Talks Directing Silent ... -
'Before Midnight' Interview with Ethan Hawke, ... -
The Coens, Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan ...
-
Interview: Brit Marling Writes and Toplines ... -
Cannes Film Festival Diary: Le Dernier J ... -
Cannes Review Roundup: Alexander Payne's ... -
Cannes: James Toback Talks 'Seduced and Abandoned,' ... -
Critics’ Choice Television Award Nominations ...
'Only God Forgives': Gosling No-Show at Cannes, ...
Cannes Review Roundup: Robert Redford Keeps ...
Now and Then: Obituary for 'The Big C,' Starring ...
Boston's Best Dennis Lehane Adapts Beach-Bum ...
Review: Rama Burshtein's Luminous 'Fill the ...
Cannes Review: Douglas and Damon Shine in ...
Three Weddings Before a Bunch of Funerals: ...
Talking 'Star Trek Into Darkness' VFX
Bradley Cooper Is New Model Smart Star
Q & A: How Willimon Runs Fincher's 'House ...'Pride and Prejudice' 200th Anniversary Movie Roundup: Setting the Austen Standard
Entertainment Weekly has compiled a list of the many ways in which "Pride and Prejudice" has influenced pop culture over the years. While the classic has launched or cemented the careers of a number of A-list stars (hello, Colin Firth!), its effects also run deeper. EW posits that the now tried-and-true TV convention of romantic couples who love/hate each other comes straight from "P&P," and the novel has ultimately even renewed passionate U.S. interest in British culture (hello, "Downton Abbey"!).
Meanwhile, Sundance 2013 saw the premiere of "Austenland," Jerusha Hess' biting comedy about a thirtysomething who takes a vacation to the eponymous theme park, and finds Austen-style romance along the way.
1. "Pride and Prejudice" (1995, TV Miniseries) The BBC found the perfect Elizabeth Bennet-Mr. Darcy casting in Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. The series, expanded over six 50-minute episodes, manages to be faithful to Jane Austen's mischeivous sense of humor and swoon-worthy sense of romance without the trappings of a stuffy adaptation. A positively glowing Ehle is at once observant and sharp, stubborn yet insecure about her true feelings for the men around her. Firth is the definition of "dashing," and communicates smoldering yearning with his eyes while maintaining the stiff-upper-lip countenance that has become a signature for the actor as a romantic hero. (Since then, Firth has revisited a more contemporary Darcy opposite Renee Zellweger in the Richard Curtis adaptations of the "Bridget Jones's Diary" series.)
2. "Pride and Prejudice" (1940) For decades, Robert Z. Leonard's gorgeous black-and-white Greer Garson/Laurence Olivier romance was the Austen standard. Until Firth came along, Olivier defined the arrogant yet elegantly sensitive Darcy, who loves Elizabeth despite himself. Aldous Huxley was one of the screenwriters, and in also adapting Helen Jerome's popular 1936 stage play, many changes were made from the novel, most especially in a more sympathetic Lady Catherine de Bourgh. The movie was beloved by critics and won the Oscar for art direction; it holds an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating.
3. "Pride & Prejudice" (2005) Joe Wright's wind-tossed version of the Austen classic is the director's best work to date, and the film on which he first collaborated with muse Keira Knightley. The actress gives her own spin to Bennet, making the character's stubbornness a tad spikey. It isn't exactly plausible that statuesque Knightley's Elizabeth would be the second-most attractive sister, but then gorgeous Elizabeth Bennets are the norm for the book's screen versions -- see Ehle and Garson. Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn are magnificent as the night-and-day Bennet parents; Sutherland's performance is reserved and loving, Blethyn's performance is tittering and vapid. The one weaker point is Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy. He by no means turns in a poor performance, but he's in the unlucky position of having unbeatable acts to follow.
4. Seth Grahame-Smith's "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" is floundering in development limbo, presumably dead in the water because of the poor reception of the film version of the author's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer." For this we can be truly thankful.
7 Comments
anonymous | February 10, 2013 2:09 PM
I disagree about Matthew Macfadyen. He was great.
rgm | January 30, 2013 12:03 AM
The 1980 BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice scripted by Faye Weldon (with a slightly more feminist slant) belongs among the best of the long versions. A personal favorite -- and definitely worth checking.
RealDogBoy | January 29, 2013 5:55 PM
I'd put Wright's movie at #1 but I haven't seen the BBC mini-series.
It's funny but all screen adaptations change one crucial thing about the story: that Elizabeth is (in the book) a physically unattractive young woman who has to compensate for that shortcoming by being very clever. The character is invariably played by a beautiful actress... contradicting a central point of the novel.
Bridget | January 29, 2013 3:28 PM
'Lost in Austen' should have made the list. It's a really good series released a few years ago about a woman who finds herself stuck in the plot of Pride & Prejudice (while Elizabeth Bennett transfers to her modern world). Her presence sets the P&P plot on its head and the more she tries to get things back on track, the worse the tangle becomes. Fantastic series!
Julia B. | January 29, 2013 2:53 PM
thanks for editing that massive mistake.