It is a Truth Universally Acknowledged...
Firstly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY celes_grant!
I'm terrible at keeping track of birthdays, but if you have a drabble request, send it my way. :) But enjoy your day you lovely, lovely person you. <3
And I have been indulging in Austen again. In more than one peculiar way...(Shhhh Mils.) My friend gave me a copy of Lost in Austen, which is essentially a choose your own adventure where you are Elizabeth Bennet and you displace the other Austen heroines in their respective adventures (although, curiously, Emma Woodhouse remains in a much more um...bitchy form.) Also, any Austen hero who is not Darcy gets sorely discounted. Poor Mr. Knightley and especially Mr. Tilney...also, when you delve into Northanger Abbey you lose some serious intelligence stats. :0 Oh, Catherine Morland!
AND Emma 2009. Which I bought. I am happy I did.
I love Emma. It is my favorite Austen and so I am very wary of adaptations. This one, in my opinion, did more justice to the characters that I have seen in any of the others. The problem with shorter adaptations of this is that the characters tend to get whittled down to essential attributes and don't show any sort of the multi-faceted nature that they have in the novel. In a short space Emma and Mr. Knightley get developed (and sometimes not even Mr. Knightley), and that's about it.
This one starts off with an interesting framing device that brings out the theme of the ills and fortunes parents bring to their children rather than settling for the more obvious theme of the difficulty in gaining self knowledge. The opening begins with Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill being sent off, and Emma being left behind with a father who is terrified of the world outside of Highbury. This allows the focus to diffuse to secondary characters in addition to Emma herself, quite nicely.
The version also takes the comic veneer off of some of the characters. Mrs. Elton is still foppish and far too nosy for her own good, but the abject cruelty that accompanies her actions and words is far more evident. We get a glimpse in the beginning of Miss Bates before she fell into poverty and this adds force to Mr. Knightley's censure of Emma on Box Hill. Mr. Woodhouse also emerges to some extent from his constant remonstrations upon the thinness of gruel and is accorded with motivation that is hinted at in the novel and allows him to emerge as more than a caricature. Also, where Harriet Smith is usually played as a comedic figure who is obviously an ill-match for Emma, here you are sensible of the damage that is being done to her. Her wardrobe even subtly changes throughout to match Emma's.
I think, however, the main achievement in this adaptation is the Emma in it is the closest I have ever seen to the one Austen gives us in the novel. She has wit, and charm...but this and social status are the be all, end all of her characterization. Finally, you see the absolute naivete and innocence that is the hallmark of the neglect of most of her parental figures. And, unexpectedly, you also see glimpses of the intense loneliness that results in her intense homosociality. She realizes that she has never been anywhere and, even after accepting Mr. Knightley's proposal, the heartbreak she feels at having to reject it because of caring for her father and remaining in that small world is evident.
The inclusion of the book with Box Hill in it from Domwell Library, although a departure from the novel, really helps the romantic rather than the parental aspect of the relationship between Emma and Knightley develop. He's not actively shaping her character, he's giving her license to go out of the confines of her world within the means that are granted to her. This adaptation makes you sensible of the absolute restrictiveness of Emma's overall world.
That said, although I am a fan of this characterization, the one weakness I found with in the acting for Mr. Knightley's character. It's not major, but he needs to modulate his tones a little more other than just by increasing his volume. But he does get the prickliness of Knightley's character, even if he is a few years too young to match the novel entirely.
That said, I think the addition of the end scene is all around brilliant. Emma, at long last, gets to see the seaside. It's poignant and shows what can be afforded to someone that, unlike every other Austen heroine, in economical terms has everything she needs.
In conclusion, an excellent adaptation all around. I needs some more watching and analysis, I think, though. Good thing, too, that it is definitely worth multiple viewings to tease out more subtle aspects of it!
:D
Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. <3 <3 <3
I'm terrible at keeping track of birthdays, but if you have a drabble request, send it my way. :) But enjoy your day you lovely, lovely person you. <3
And I have been indulging in Austen again. In more than one peculiar way...(Shhhh Mils.) My friend gave me a copy of Lost in Austen, which is essentially a choose your own adventure where you are Elizabeth Bennet and you displace the other Austen heroines in their respective adventures (although, curiously, Emma Woodhouse remains in a much more um...bitchy form.) Also, any Austen hero who is not Darcy gets sorely discounted. Poor Mr. Knightley and especially Mr. Tilney...also, when you delve into Northanger Abbey you lose some serious intelligence stats. :0 Oh, Catherine Morland!
AND Emma 2009. Which I bought. I am happy I did.
I love Emma. It is my favorite Austen and so I am very wary of adaptations. This one, in my opinion, did more justice to the characters that I have seen in any of the others. The problem with shorter adaptations of this is that the characters tend to get whittled down to essential attributes and don't show any sort of the multi-faceted nature that they have in the novel. In a short space Emma and Mr. Knightley get developed (and sometimes not even Mr. Knightley), and that's about it.
This one starts off with an interesting framing device that brings out the theme of the ills and fortunes parents bring to their children rather than settling for the more obvious theme of the difficulty in gaining self knowledge. The opening begins with Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill being sent off, and Emma being left behind with a father who is terrified of the world outside of Highbury. This allows the focus to diffuse to secondary characters in addition to Emma herself, quite nicely.
The version also takes the comic veneer off of some of the characters. Mrs. Elton is still foppish and far too nosy for her own good, but the abject cruelty that accompanies her actions and words is far more evident. We get a glimpse in the beginning of Miss Bates before she fell into poverty and this adds force to Mr. Knightley's censure of Emma on Box Hill. Mr. Woodhouse also emerges to some extent from his constant remonstrations upon the thinness of gruel and is accorded with motivation that is hinted at in the novel and allows him to emerge as more than a caricature. Also, where Harriet Smith is usually played as a comedic figure who is obviously an ill-match for Emma, here you are sensible of the damage that is being done to her. Her wardrobe even subtly changes throughout to match Emma's.
I think, however, the main achievement in this adaptation is the Emma in it is the closest I have ever seen to the one Austen gives us in the novel. She has wit, and charm...but this and social status are the be all, end all of her characterization. Finally, you see the absolute naivete and innocence that is the hallmark of the neglect of most of her parental figures. And, unexpectedly, you also see glimpses of the intense loneliness that results in her intense homosociality. She realizes that she has never been anywhere and, even after accepting Mr. Knightley's proposal, the heartbreak she feels at having to reject it because of caring for her father and remaining in that small world is evident.
The inclusion of the book with Box Hill in it from Domwell Library, although a departure from the novel, really helps the romantic rather than the parental aspect of the relationship between Emma and Knightley develop. He's not actively shaping her character, he's giving her license to go out of the confines of her world within the means that are granted to her. This adaptation makes you sensible of the absolute restrictiveness of Emma's overall world.
That said, although I am a fan of this characterization, the one weakness I found with in the acting for Mr. Knightley's character. It's not major, but he needs to modulate his tones a little more other than just by increasing his volume. But he does get the prickliness of Knightley's character, even if he is a few years too young to match the novel entirely.
That said, I think the addition of the end scene is all around brilliant. Emma, at long last, gets to see the seaside. It's poignant and shows what can be afforded to someone that, unlike every other Austen heroine, in economical terms has everything she needs.
In conclusion, an excellent adaptation all around. I needs some more watching and analysis, I think, though. Good thing, too, that it is definitely worth multiple viewings to tease out more subtle aspects of it!
:D
Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. <3 <3 <3