Late Night Theorizing
Hoy hoy. I'm going through a fun life change at the moment, hence the disappearingness. Sorry 'bout that.
Anyway, one of my reactions to the recent life changing events has been locking myself in my room and watching every adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that I could get my hands on (1940, 1995, 2003, 2005, and Bridget Jones' Diary. I realize that my failure to find Bride and Prejudice simply highlights my ethnocentrism, but I did manage to find the genuinely bizarre Mormon 2003 version, so I've got that going for me).
And I realized that, despite my previously voiced opinion, that I like 2005 best. Yep. Better than 1995. There are people out there that are going to kill me for this one. Explanation after the cut.
So, yes, 2005 does do some funky things with Mr Darcy (Gauge-his-Mood-by-his-Cravat, the eerie way that he always knows exactly where Lizzie is (the only way that he finds her at the folly for the first proposal or in the fields for the second proposal is if he is actually Stalker!Darcy or if Col. Fitzwilliam is being paid for some extra surveillance work on the side), etc.)
But if there is one thing that bugs me about the book (which I read at least once a year, since I was fifteen), and about the 1995 version (which I've seen a mind-boggling eight times. That's a work week.) it's that Elizabeth doesn't fall in love with Darcy. She falls in love with the Master of Pemberley. Now, she jokes about it, but it's really kind of true. After she reads the letter, Lizzie starts to not hate him. But it's only after she sees Pemberley and hears about the Master from the housekeeper that she decides she loves him. When he shows up a few scenes later she realizes that, wait, that's Darcy she's thinking about, so she must be in love with him. But in general, Pemberley is the very first indication that Elizabeth likes Darcy at all.
Not in 2005. The Folly Proposal fixes it all (boy I hope they meant that to be the bad pun that it is). Bless Joe Wright, he decided to make the Robert Altman version of Austen, and he does it beautifully here. You have to give credit to the actors, even Macfadyen, because they have to make it work. Now, the usual criticism of Macfadyen is that his Darcy looks like he wants to tear Elizabeth's clothes off from the start of the assembly ball (not that I really criticize that, but it does deflate Darcy's emotional arc a bit). When Lizzie gets around to calling him out for his lousy excuse of a proposal, they're screaming at each other like those neighbors you keep having to call the cops on, stepping a few steps closer every few lines so they can dig the knife in just that little bit deeper. By the time she's announcing that he's the last man in the world she'd want to marry, they're less than half a foot apart.
Lizzie's just finished the line. Darcy looks down, opens his lips for some impossible reply. He hesitates, his lip still dropped. The camera switches back to Lizzie and she ever so slightly leans in, anticipating. She's just listed every reason why she hates this man and at that moment in time what she really, really wants is for him to kiss her, because despite his many and various faults, he's good looking, bright, and she enjoys her conversations with him, even if only because she gets to taunt him, and if he dips his head down two more inches they're both going to find out how un-gentle they both are, even if they both recover themselves after two seconds.
In that moment, Lizzie wants Darcy. Bad. She wants his arrogance. She wants his lack of tact. She wants to be able to say the things he's just said about her mother. She wants all the condescension that £10,000 a year can buy. But mostly, she wants him. Fitzwilliam Darcy. And he's an asshole. But that's how it works sometimes.
Seriously. Poor kids are stuck in the Regency and Darcy's got to apologize for the story to move along, but for just one second, Lizzie wants nothing more in the world other than to jump Darcy's bones. She even stumbles back when he leaves. She goes back to hating him until she figures out that she was hating him for all the wrong reasons, and then she finds out he wasn't quite the asshole she always thought he was. But before then, before she falls for the Master of Pemberley, Lizzy falls in love with Darcy for the space of a heartbeat.
Check the film. It's there. And it makes everything that much better.
Anyway, one of my reactions to the recent life changing events has been locking myself in my room and watching every adaptation of Pride and Prejudice that I could get my hands on (1940, 1995, 2003, 2005, and Bridget Jones' Diary. I realize that my failure to find Bride and Prejudice simply highlights my ethnocentrism, but I did manage to find the genuinely bizarre Mormon 2003 version, so I've got that going for me).
And I realized that, despite my previously voiced opinion, that I like 2005 best. Yep. Better than 1995. There are people out there that are going to kill me for this one. Explanation after the cut.
So, yes, 2005 does do some funky things with Mr Darcy (Gauge-his-Mood-by-his-Cravat, the eerie way that he always knows exactly where Lizzie is (the only way that he finds her at the folly for the first proposal or in the fields for the second proposal is if he is actually Stalker!Darcy or if Col. Fitzwilliam is being paid for some extra surveillance work on the side), etc.)
But if there is one thing that bugs me about the book (which I read at least once a year, since I was fifteen), and about the 1995 version (which I've seen a mind-boggling eight times. That's a work week.) it's that Elizabeth doesn't fall in love with Darcy. She falls in love with the Master of Pemberley. Now, she jokes about it, but it's really kind of true. After she reads the letter, Lizzie starts to not hate him. But it's only after she sees Pemberley and hears about the Master from the housekeeper that she decides she loves him. When he shows up a few scenes later she realizes that, wait, that's Darcy she's thinking about, so she must be in love with him. But in general, Pemberley is the very first indication that Elizabeth likes Darcy at all.
Not in 2005. The Folly Proposal fixes it all (boy I hope they meant that to be the bad pun that it is). Bless Joe Wright, he decided to make the Robert Altman version of Austen, and he does it beautifully here. You have to give credit to the actors, even Macfadyen, because they have to make it work. Now, the usual criticism of Macfadyen is that his Darcy looks like he wants to tear Elizabeth's clothes off from the start of the assembly ball (not that I really criticize that, but it does deflate Darcy's emotional arc a bit). When Lizzie gets around to calling him out for his lousy excuse of a proposal, they're screaming at each other like those neighbors you keep having to call the cops on, stepping a few steps closer every few lines so they can dig the knife in just that little bit deeper. By the time she's announcing that he's the last man in the world she'd want to marry, they're less than half a foot apart.
Lizzie's just finished the line. Darcy looks down, opens his lips for some impossible reply. He hesitates, his lip still dropped. The camera switches back to Lizzie and she ever so slightly leans in, anticipating. She's just listed every reason why she hates this man and at that moment in time what she really, really wants is for him to kiss her, because despite his many and various faults, he's good looking, bright, and she enjoys her conversations with him, even if only because she gets to taunt him, and if he dips his head down two more inches they're both going to find out how un-gentle they both are, even if they both recover themselves after two seconds.
In that moment, Lizzie wants Darcy. Bad. She wants his arrogance. She wants his lack of tact. She wants to be able to say the things he's just said about her mother. She wants all the condescension that £10,000 a year can buy. But mostly, she wants him. Fitzwilliam Darcy. And he's an asshole. But that's how it works sometimes.
Seriously. Poor kids are stuck in the Regency and Darcy's got to apologize for the story to move along, but for just one second, Lizzie wants nothing more in the world other than to jump Darcy's bones. She even stumbles back when he leaves. She goes back to hating him until she figures out that she was hating him for all the wrong reasons, and then she finds out he wasn't quite the asshole she always thought he was. But before then, before she falls for the Master of Pemberley, Lizzy falls in love with Darcy for the space of a heartbeat.
Check the film. It's there. And it makes everything that much better.