So I started this ‘countdown week’, yesterday, with a list of the (very game!) participants in the #blog5daysAustenese challenge, and my take on Jane Austen’s writing, finishing with my thoughts on Sense and Sensibility – the novel, as it related to the latest film version starring Emma Thompson. Hugh Grant, Kate Winslett etc etc. So day two in the countdown means a move to the second book (from front to back in my Penguin tome, I mean, not actually second in chronological order of her writing!) – Pride and Prejudice.
I love this book. And I really don’t care much for recent TV / mini-series adaptations. Reason being – they’re created SO well, that it only takes one little scene to completely ruin the entirety. In the 1996 (yes, it really was THAT long ago!) BBC production with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth (seriously – has he aged at ALL since then?!) the offending scene was the one depicting Lizzy’s deepest mortification. Being discovered by Mr Darcy whilst touring Pemberley. In my humble opinion, the novel portrays her as being thoroughly humiliated by this discovery. But the BBC’s decision to have Colin Firth take a dip in the lake on the way to his house completely destroyed this, by placing him in almost as embarrassing a position as her. In my mind, this decision utterly ruined the series for me, and it was only recently that I could watch this scene without cringing at the thought of what they had done.
Equally cringe-worthy was Darcy’s speech at the conclusion of Universal Picture’s 2006 version, starring Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen, Donald Sutherland, Judi Dench, etc etc. I mean – seriously??!!! I canNOT for the life of me imagine such a character, as upright and correct as he, to say, “If, however, your feelings have changed, I will have to tell you – you have bewitched me, body and soul. I love, I love, love you, and never wish to be parted from you, from this day on.” HUH??!!!!! You have absolutely GOT to be kidding!!!! MAJOR cringe!!!
Other than that scene, the Universal Picture’s scriptwriter had written a very clever script, with excellent segues and clever choice of absent characters. But it is also this point – the cringeworthy script choices – that we’ll be attempting to *better* next week, when we, also, write in super-long sentences.
Join us… if you dare!?? LOL