The 2009 BBC production of Emma
I am, at the moment, listening to the soundtrack, which I just purchased this morning from iTunes. It is a thing of beauty, even if I was confused for about half an hour that so much of the music sounded like the same exact theme - turns out I'd inadvertently turned looping on and was listening to the opening theme for over 30 minutes straight (it's only 58 seconds long, and I listened to it 35 times before I figured out my error!) But I digress.
Not only is the music lovely (and really, it is), the movie itself was also a joy to watch, even though I must confess that it had me swearing at it when it first started. For reasons I still don't quite understand, the movie starts out with a voiceover of text that Austen most decidedly did not write, about Emma Woodhouse's birth and childhood, and how Jane Fairfax and Frank (née Weston) Churchill were sent away after their mothers died. Now, I'm all for people having a viewpoint, and a paper on the different treatment of motherless children is the sort of thing I find interesting, but I didn't like seeing it folded into the movie, really. It was, I suppose, a slick way of working in the backstories of Jane and Frank up front, thereby avoiding the usual "You see, Miss Smith, I had a son who was sent away after his mother died to be raised by his aunt and uncle Churchill" device (found in the book, so you can't blame earlier movie makers).
Anyway, between my astonishment at the opening scene, and my dismay over the following ones, in which I believe I was supposed to think Romola Garai was a young teenager to an older teenager until the present time when she is about 21, which featured her being extremely (and inappropriately at times) facially expressive - and which, I might add, failed to convince me of her younger age (yeesh! They'd have done better to hire a younger actress for a bit more of that!) Oh heck. I just lost my train of thought.
Still, I wasn't certain by the end of my first viewing of the first two episodes (shown together on one Sunday evening on PBS) that I was going to like it at all, although I rather liked Dumbledore's Michael Gambon's take on Mr. Woodhouse - he was less actually ill-seeming than some past representations and more paternal somehow. And I also thought I might - just might - like Jonny Lee Miller as Knightley, and I knew I loved Blake Ritson as the awful Mr. Elton. Oh! And Louise Dylan (whom I've never seen before, although she was evidently in Lesbian Vampire Killers - the trailers for that were hilarious, but I never saw the movie) played Harriet Smith just as Austen describes her - as a pretty, somewhat ignorant and inexperienced girl - rather than as a silly or almost-ridiculous character (sorry, Toni Collette, but you played her like she was daft).
When we hit the middle of episode three and the Ball, well - let's just say that I was firmly hooked by the time we reached this dance scene, even though they left out the exchange between Emma and Knightley about their status, in which Emma opines that it's not improper for them to stand up together, as they are not actually brother and sister (their siblings are married to one another, so they are in-laws), and Knightley replies "Brother and sister! no, indeed.":
By the fourth episode, with the awful debacle at Box Hill, I realized what a nuanced performance Romola Garai had actually managed. She had calmed both her body movements and her facial expressions, and the scene with Harriet (in which Harriet communicates that she has formed a tendre for Knightley) is extremely well-managed, including her delivery of the line "I wish to God I'd never met her," which is quite a departure from the way the line was delivered in either of the 1996 versions (the cinematic version with Gwyneth Paltrow and the BBC production with Kate Beckinsale). Her level of despair and introspection prior to Knightley's return from London is far better than the rantings of Paltrow or the fantasies of Beckinsale. And the only thing - well, two things, really - about the proposal scene (below) that bugged me were his immediate launching into consoling Emma without the topic having been established, and by her use of the phrase "he has taken advantage of me" instead of Austen's "he imposed on me". Nevertheless, I quite liked the proposal scene, in part for the wonderful kissing bit at the end, and in part for what came right after it - a scene with the two of them on a bench (as in my shiny new icon) talking about when they'd come to realize they were in love with one another - it is a charming, lovely scene, as is the way they chose to end the movie. Mind you, I like the proposal scene in all three movie versions I've just mentioned, as well as the scene on the staircase in Clueless (an adaptation of Emma) that replaces the proposal, and for the intellectually curious, the one in the 1996 BBC version with Kate Beckinsale and Mark Strong is probably closest to the actual text. But here's how it played in this version - it is its very own updated hybrid:
The entire movie is currently available (for the next two weeks only, or so I'm led to believe by Austen insiders) to be viewed in its entirety online at PBS.com, where it is split into three parts (the first two episodes are combined into one). Here's the link to Episode 1.
Also available there is last night's presentation of the BBC remake of The 39 Steps starring the absolutely smashing Rupert Penry-Jones as Richard Hannay. I caught the last half of it, but missed the start, and you can bet I'll be watching this today.
Not only is the music lovely (and really, it is), the movie itself was also a joy to watch, even though I must confess that it had me swearing at it when it first started. For reasons I still don't quite understand, the movie starts out with a voiceover of text that Austen most decidedly did not write, about Emma Woodhouse's birth and childhood, and how Jane Fairfax and Frank (née Weston) Churchill were sent away after their mothers died. Now, I'm all for people having a viewpoint, and a paper on the different treatment of motherless children is the sort of thing I find interesting, but I didn't like seeing it folded into the movie, really. It was, I suppose, a slick way of working in the backstories of Jane and Frank up front, thereby avoiding the usual "You see, Miss Smith, I had a son who was sent away after his mother died to be raised by his aunt and uncle Churchill" device (found in the book, so you can't blame earlier movie makers).
Anyway, between my astonishment at the opening scene, and my dismay over the following ones, in which I believe I was supposed to think Romola Garai was a young teenager to an older teenager until the present time when she is about 21, which featured her being extremely (and inappropriately at times) facially expressive - and which, I might add, failed to convince me of her younger age (yeesh! They'd have done better to hire a younger actress for a bit more of that!) Oh heck. I just lost my train of thought.
Still, I wasn't certain by the end of my first viewing of the first two episodes (shown together on one Sunday evening on PBS) that I was going to like it at all, although I rather liked Dumbledore's Michael Gambon's take on Mr. Woodhouse - he was less actually ill-seeming than some past representations and more paternal somehow. And I also thought I might - just might - like Jonny Lee Miller as Knightley, and I knew I loved Blake Ritson as the awful Mr. Elton. Oh! And Louise Dylan (whom I've never seen before, although she was evidently in Lesbian Vampire Killers - the trailers for that were hilarious, but I never saw the movie) played Harriet Smith just as Austen describes her - as a pretty, somewhat ignorant and inexperienced girl - rather than as a silly or almost-ridiculous character (sorry, Toni Collette, but you played her like she was daft).
When we hit the middle of episode three and the Ball, well - let's just say that I was firmly hooked by the time we reached this dance scene, even though they left out the exchange between Emma and Knightley about their status, in which Emma opines that it's not improper for them to stand up together, as they are not actually brother and sister (their siblings are married to one another, so they are in-laws), and Knightley replies "Brother and sister! no, indeed.":
Click to viewBy the fourth episode, with the awful debacle at Box Hill, I realized what a nuanced performance Romola Garai had actually managed. She had calmed both her body movements and her facial expressions, and the scene with Harriet (in which Harriet communicates that she has formed a tendre for Knightley) is extremely well-managed, including her delivery of the line "I wish to God I'd never met her," which is quite a departure from the way the line was delivered in either of the 1996 versions (the cinematic version with Gwyneth Paltrow and the BBC production with Kate Beckinsale). Her level of despair and introspection prior to Knightley's return from London is far better than the rantings of Paltrow or the fantasies of Beckinsale. And the only thing - well, two things, really - about the proposal scene (below) that bugged me were his immediate launching into consoling Emma without the topic having been established, and by her use of the phrase "he has taken advantage of me" instead of Austen's "he imposed on me". Nevertheless, I quite liked the proposal scene, in part for the wonderful kissing bit at the end, and in part for what came right after it - a scene with the two of them on a bench (as in my shiny new icon) talking about when they'd come to realize they were in love with one another - it is a charming, lovely scene, as is the way they chose to end the movie. Mind you, I like the proposal scene in all three movie versions I've just mentioned, as well as the scene on the staircase in Clueless (an adaptation of Emma) that replaces the proposal, and for the intellectually curious, the one in the 1996 BBC version with Kate Beckinsale and Mark Strong is probably closest to the actual text. But here's how it played in this version - it is its very own updated hybrid:
The entire movie is currently available (for the next two weeks only, or so I'm led to believe by Austen insiders) to be viewed in its entirety online at PBS.com, where it is split into three parts (the first two episodes are combined into one). Here's the link to Episode 1.
Also available there is last night's presentation of the BBC remake of The 39 Steps starring the absolutely smashing Rupert Penry-Jones as Richard Hannay. I caught the last half of it, but missed the start, and you can bet I'll be watching this today.