obligatory Austen complaint post

[tempestsarekind]

I've had several conversations with people over the last few days where the person goes, "Hey, have you heard of this movie about Jane Austen...?" And then I usually laugh in a slightly hysterical fashion for a few seconds until I go, "Oh, wait, you're *serious*!" I have had so many conversations with so many people about the Bad Idea that is

Comments

[saestina]

I don't know a lot about Austen, but I totally get why you'd be annoyed with the notion that she had to have the events in her novels actually HAPPEN to her to have been able to write those books.

I do, however, join you in feeling a little shudder go through me anytime this movie comes up in conversation, because I cannot STAND Anne Hathaway. And it's really bothers me that she's, like, the golden good girl of Hollywood right now, because she's a total pill. She and I were at college together for a year or so, and every interaction I had with her (which, granted, wasn't that many) was bad. So, yeah, I'm sick of people rhapsodizing about her.

[tempestsarekind]

Heh. That makes me glad I didn't go to school with any famous people! This casting drives me crazy, though--the producers came right out and admitted that they basically cast her because she had a large fanbase of teen girls from the Princess Diaries movies. Gah.

And everyone knows that writers don't actually have imaginations! They can only take dictation directly from their own lives!

[katesutton]

Oh, man. Mansfield Park actually didn't bother me all that much(maybe because I'm meh on the book and also, I thought that Fanny was still quiet and reserved. She was just active, not frail), but Northanger Abbey? I could not believe how much they sexualized Catherine's imaginations. It was awful.

[tempestsarekind]

Hmm. Maybe MP will be better than I thought; I read an article about the adaptation, and the producers were rather vocal about how they had to change Fanny because modern viewers couldn't relate to her, so I was working off of that, combined with a scene of frolicking.

But that's really distressing about Northanger! I was hoping it just looked worse in the previews. Alas...

[lareinenoire]

I actually enjoyed Northanger quite a bit although I felt the little Gothic fantasy sequences were more sexualised than they needed to be. But that's Andrew Davies for you. Other than that, I actually found them very entertaining and a decent way to bring in people that weren't previously familiar with the novel. Plus, I just generally liked the actress playing Catherine.

I've also been dying for an adaptation of Northanger ever since I first read it, so I was just happy it existed.

[tempestsarekind]

But that's Andrew Davies for you.

Indeed. :) That's really the one thing I'm worried about, since I don't really have anything against fantasy sequences in general. And I, too, really wanted there to be a decent NA adaptation (in a class on Austen and film, our professor didn't even have us watch the only existing adaptation, just clips in class!), so I guess I'll just have to keep an open mind. Hard as that is to do...

[lareinenoire]

Well then, for what it's worth, although there are fantasy sequences and they are occasionally sexual in nature, it's mostly the very silly overblown Fabio-style that made me giggle a lot. And they do fade out (for obvious reasons) as the story progresses.

Other than that, like I said, I really enjoyed the adaptation as a whole. I haven't had the chance to see MP or Persuasion yet (although I have both on my computer), but I hear Persuasion at least is very good.

[tempestsarekind]

Ah. Thanks! I'll hope for the best--and as I said, I'm looking forward to JJ Feild, as I've liked him in the other things I've seen him in. Henry Tilney is one of my favorite things about the novel, so I was glad to hear they'd cast an actor I liked.

I've heard good things about Persuasion as well, so I'm excited about that one.