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I finally got around to seeing the most recent BBC production of Sense and Sensibility (the three part 2008 version). Also contained in the DVD case, to my surprise (this bit was not emphasized on the cover) was Miss Austen Regrets, which was like, yay, bonus movie!
I'm always surprised to find just how much I enjoy filmed versions of Sense and Sensibility, given that this is frequently my least favorite of Austen's books, depending on how recently I've reread Mansfield Park and wanted to toss Fanny Price right off its roof again (sorry, Fanny Price admirers but the girl gets on my nerves and I can't stand a book where the single most annoying character gets the happiest of endings although I continue to hope that very early in his marriage Edmund started to handle matters by fantasizing in bed about Mary Crawford and moaned this out loud over and over and over again and even added little porn pictures of her to their shared bedroom. A completely wrong image for Austen, I know, but I can't help it. Fanny Price smush. Where was I? Right, Sense and Sensibility). I think part of the issue is that I find that two parts of the book's ending usually work far better for me on screen than they do in the book – that sexy Lucy Steele snatching up Robert Ferrars and Marianne marrying Colonel Brandon, who always seems a lot sexier on screen than in the book. But that could be just me.
Anyway, this version, which has a considerably more, dare I say the word in connection with Austen in a non-Northanger Abbey context, Gothic feel, what with opening with a sex scene (! in Austen? Yes, yes, people in Austen books have sex and plenty of unauthorized sex at that [which was something else I hated in Mansfield Park, come to think of it] but offscreen, Austen adaptations! Offscreen!) and a duel and a hawk (beautiful hawk) and lovely gloomy pictures of a churning sea and an Edward Ferrars who seems to have decided to be a character from another book, possibly Northanger Abbey instead, which, ok, all intense and glowing and joking and cutting up logs in a sexy manner to prevent him from launching himself at Elinor right there in the wet wet grass and considerably more kissing and physical contact than I recall from Sense and Sensibility where my last reading left me convinced that pretty much everybody but Lucy Steele was going to have a very dull time of it in bed. (Go Lucy!) For those about to complain that I am spending far, far, far too much time considering the sex lives of people in Austen books, of all things, you unquestionably have a point but this is the sort of film adaptation that Makes You Think About It Because These Characters Certainly Are.
This particular adaptation brings back some of the book's more irritating characters, including Miss Anne Steele (played very well here by Daisy Haggard who keeps the character right on the edge of grating and funny) and the colorless Lady Middleton, has a Colonel Brandon who if not quite as hot and romantic as the 1995 Alan Rickman portrayal, actually seems closer to the book. (Plus! Duel! Swords! Duel!). The acting is uniformly excellent, and if I continually found myself comparing this film to the earlier 1995 film, it wasn't always to this film's disadvantage. (Also, hawk!)
The one thing that does not work too well in this version is, once again, Lucy Steele snatching up Robert Ferrars, mostly because in this version, Lucy seems to have more genuine feelings for Edward – and true jealousy of Elinor – and because this version fails to allow the camera to show Lucy and Robert talking, so the whole Lucy and Robert marriage comes as even more of an inexplicable and suspiciously convenient surprise. I never really felt this made sense in the book, either – at best, it's far, far too convenient, and at worse, I never could see Robert Steele not holding out for a heiress – so I can't precisely complain that this makes little sense in the movie. The other, minor problem was with the casting of Willoughby – the guy is a decent actor, but my impression from the book is that he needs to be really, but really, good-looking, and this guy, not so much. But that is a quibble. Overall it was fun and mostly close to the book (except for the sex, the kissing, the hawk and the duel, but, clearly BBC felt this version had to be distinguished from the 1995 version in some way other than different actors, so, duel!)
I also enjoyed Miss Austen Regrets, a biopic about Jane Austen in later life. I can quibble a lot with the film's accuracy, which included bits like Jane Austen going to meet the Prince Regent's librarian (they corresponded, but did not meet) and more romantic interests than I recall from Austen's letters and an infatuation with a London doctor and love triangle with her niece that I don't recall at all from Austen's letters (Austenites, feel free to correct me here) and a scene that did happen in real life that STILL MAKES ME MAD, Cassandra burning Jane Austen's letters, which, BAD CASSANDRA, and I am only sorry that the various sea monsters and zombies and mummies currently running through Jane Austen's books can't come over and dig up your grave and stomp on you (too much info?). The scene in the film is quite well done but it just made me mad at Cassandra ALL OVER AGAIN, even though I think I was meant to be feeling sympathy. That was not the chief feeling the scene actually invoked, but I suspect that I was reading something in it that the screenwriters didn't intend.
However, to get off the subject of Cassandra Austen's perfidy for a moment, the film also offers Olivia Williams, previously known to me as the bridesmaid that slept with Joey on Friends and one of the few consistently watchable actors on Dollhouse, as Jane Austen, focusing on the competing demands made on Austen as writer, a writer infuriated at her economic and social restrictions, her dependence upon financially problematic family members, and her anger at approaching illness and death. The details may not be accurate – well, ok, aren't accurate – but the portrayal feels real, and I imagine most writers will be empathizing.
I'm always surprised to find just how much I enjoy filmed versions of Sense and Sensibility, given that this is frequently my least favorite of Austen's books, depending on how recently I've reread Mansfield Park and wanted to toss Fanny Price right off its roof again (sorry, Fanny Price admirers but the girl gets on my nerves and I can't stand a book where the single most annoying character gets the happiest of endings although I continue to hope that very early in his marriage Edmund started to handle matters by fantasizing in bed about Mary Crawford and moaned this out loud over and over and over again and even added little porn pictures of her to their shared bedroom. A completely wrong image for Austen, I know, but I can't help it. Fanny Price smush. Where was I? Right, Sense and Sensibility). I think part of the issue is that I find that two parts of the book's ending usually work far better for me on screen than they do in the book – that sexy Lucy Steele snatching up Robert Ferrars and Marianne marrying Colonel Brandon, who always seems a lot sexier on screen than in the book. But that could be just me.
Anyway, this version, which has a considerably more, dare I say the word in connection with Austen in a non-Northanger Abbey context, Gothic feel, what with opening with a sex scene (! in Austen? Yes, yes, people in Austen books have sex and plenty of unauthorized sex at that [which was something else I hated in Mansfield Park, come to think of it] but offscreen, Austen adaptations! Offscreen!) and a duel and a hawk (beautiful hawk) and lovely gloomy pictures of a churning sea and an Edward Ferrars who seems to have decided to be a character from another book, possibly Northanger Abbey instead, which, ok, all intense and glowing and joking and cutting up logs in a sexy manner to prevent him from launching himself at Elinor right there in the wet wet grass and considerably more kissing and physical contact than I recall from Sense and Sensibility where my last reading left me convinced that pretty much everybody but Lucy Steele was going to have a very dull time of it in bed. (Go Lucy!) For those about to complain that I am spending far, far, far too much time considering the sex lives of people in Austen books, of all things, you unquestionably have a point but this is the sort of film adaptation that Makes You Think About It Because These Characters Certainly Are.
This particular adaptation brings back some of the book's more irritating characters, including Miss Anne Steele (played very well here by Daisy Haggard who keeps the character right on the edge of grating and funny) and the colorless Lady Middleton, has a Colonel Brandon who if not quite as hot and romantic as the 1995 Alan Rickman portrayal, actually seems closer to the book. (Plus! Duel! Swords! Duel!). The acting is uniformly excellent, and if I continually found myself comparing this film to the earlier 1995 film, it wasn't always to this film's disadvantage. (Also, hawk!)
The one thing that does not work too well in this version is, once again, Lucy Steele snatching up Robert Ferrars, mostly because in this version, Lucy seems to have more genuine feelings for Edward – and true jealousy of Elinor – and because this version fails to allow the camera to show Lucy and Robert talking, so the whole Lucy and Robert marriage comes as even more of an inexplicable and suspiciously convenient surprise. I never really felt this made sense in the book, either – at best, it's far, far too convenient, and at worse, I never could see Robert Steele not holding out for a heiress – so I can't precisely complain that this makes little sense in the movie. The other, minor problem was with the casting of Willoughby – the guy is a decent actor, but my impression from the book is that he needs to be really, but really, good-looking, and this guy, not so much. But that is a quibble. Overall it was fun and mostly close to the book (except for the sex, the kissing, the hawk and the duel, but, clearly BBC felt this version had to be distinguished from the 1995 version in some way other than different actors, so, duel!)
I also enjoyed Miss Austen Regrets, a biopic about Jane Austen in later life. I can quibble a lot with the film's accuracy, which included bits like Jane Austen going to meet the Prince Regent's librarian (they corresponded, but did not meet) and more romantic interests than I recall from Austen's letters and an infatuation with a London doctor and love triangle with her niece that I don't recall at all from Austen's letters (Austenites, feel free to correct me here) and a scene that did happen in real life that STILL MAKES ME MAD, Cassandra burning Jane Austen's letters, which, BAD CASSANDRA, and I am only sorry that the various sea monsters and zombies and mummies currently running through Jane Austen's books can't come over and dig up your grave and stomp on you (too much info?). The scene in the film is quite well done but it just made me mad at Cassandra ALL OVER AGAIN, even though I think I was meant to be feeling sympathy. That was not the chief feeling the scene actually invoked, but I suspect that I was reading something in it that the screenwriters didn't intend.
However, to get off the subject of Cassandra Austen's perfidy for a moment, the film also offers Olivia Williams, previously known to me as the bridesmaid that slept with Joey on Friends and one of the few consistently watchable actors on Dollhouse, as Jane Austen, focusing on the competing demands made on Austen as writer, a writer infuriated at her economic and social restrictions, her dependence upon financially problematic family members, and her anger at approaching illness and death. The details may not be accurate – well, ok, aren't accurate – but the portrayal feels real, and I imagine most writers will be empathizing.