<snip>
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie ( so did my husband! ) and thought
that altogether it was worth seeing, but I do think that as far as being
true to the book, the 1995 BBC series was much better.
My bit more than 2 cents worth.
Joannah.
I agree with the other comments that it had a bit of a Romantic/Gothic feel
(IIRC it only rains once in the 1995 version it's constantly raining in this
one) and the lack of propriety, in terms of costuming I noticed a lot of
wandering around without hats (Mr Darcy and Lizzy were the main culprits)
perhaps it's a reflection of their mental state like those 15th century
pictures of Mary Magdalene in just her kirtle at the foot of the cross ;).
and the bit where Lizzy is wandering about the Collins' house in her
nightgown (a lot of people hesitate to do that in somebody else's house
today, let alone in the 19th century). There were also a couple of points
where it completely missed the point of the book, the most glaring error is
dropping the Gardiners' children Mrs Bennet claims that her brother is rich
with no children of his own, in the book much is made of the facts that 1.
Mrs Bennet's family aren't too rich and are 'in trade' (and therefore are
not really of the same social standing as Mr Bennet as a member of the
landed gentry) and 2. after their Father's death the girls will have only
£50 a year to live on and none of their relatives can afford to support
them. If their uncle is married with no children after several years of
marriage it's a safe bet that he's not going to have children of his own and
he can pass his fortune onto his neices when he dies. The Bennets were
depicted as not very well off (the house is falling to bits and they can
apparently only afford Potatoes for dinner!) in the book they are no where
near that poor, but they will be when Mr Bennet dies. The other major
problem I saw was the timing of Lady Catherine's visit to tell Lizzy that
she disapproves of the match. She turns up at the Bennets only a few hours
after Bingley proposed to Jane having heard rumours that Darcy will propose
to Lizzy, I don't understand where she would have heard such a rumour. In
the book the neighbors begin speculating about Lizzy and Darcy after Jane
and Bingley's engagement and so Charlotte Lucas hears the rumour from her
family and Mr Collins passes the message onto Lady Catherine. I don't
understand how a rumour about Lizzy and Darcy would get to Lady Catherine so
quickly and the movie never explains it either.
Overall the costuming was pretty good and with a couple of exceptions they
got it right (better than Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow for example), I liked
the way that the older women were wearing older fashions, though I think
Keira Knightley could have worn something more flattering than that
ubiquitous ugly green dress, she's not stupid she can see what flatters her
and what doesn't, I could excuse the ugly fabric if it's supposed to be a
home dress but I don't see why she would choose such an un-flattering cut.
The other problem I saw was Caroline Bingley wearing a sleeveless gown at
the Netherfield ball, I could kind of understand it if it was in imitation
of classical draperies but it was a structured cut that just skipped the
sleeves (to me it looked like they had made a petticoat out of satin).
Apart from those few errors (and the lack of hats mentioned above) the
costuming was done pretty well. It's an entertaining movie fairly loosely
based on Jane Austen's novel, but don't expect the sort of faithful
adaptation the BBC did.
Elizabeth
--------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Walpole | Elizabeth Beaumont
Canberra, Australia | Politarchopolis, Lochac
ewalpole[at]tpg.com.au
http://au.geocities.com/e_walpole/
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