I know it's been 20 years, and I love the book, but it feels a bit soon for another film of "Emma"

[nineveh_uk]

Though that sentiment is probably in large part because having seen the trailer, I am deeply unconvinced.

"EMMA Trailer (2020)" (Watch on YouTube)

Comments

[castiron]

I'm still waiting for a new Mansfield Park that's reasonably true to the original; the 1983 one is the only decent version I've seen.

[nineveh_uk]

Me too! Both the film and the recent TV version have been absolutely dire (a pity, because the Northanger Abbey in the same set was excellent).

[lilliburlero]

God, that looks gruesome. There's that new David Copperfield adaptation too, that looks to be along similarly farcical lines, but Dickens at least gives more of an imprimatur for actual grotesques.

[nineveh_uk]

I've not seen the David Copperfield trailer, but at least Dickens is starting from a different point than Austen! Emma Wodehouse is not a Mean Girl (as the makers of Clueless knew well).

[clanwilliam]

Copperfield has the advantage of Armando Iannucci doing it, which definitely makes it appeal to me.

[ironed_orchid]

Meh.

[nineveh_uk]

Cher has a word for everything.

[grondfic]

Actually I'll watch anything that has Johnny Flynn AND Bill Nighy in it.

*Is shallow. Runs and hides*

On Edit

Oh Wow! Rupert Graves AS WELL! I'm in!

[nineveh_uk]

The internet tells me that Rubert Graves is playing Mr Weston, which I actually really like, because hot Frank Churchill should have a hot father, and since we know he married young I like the thought of Miss Taylor's one shot at marriage being with a man who isn't only fundamentally nice, but is good looking, too. But I might just have to watch his clips on YouTube.

[(Anonymous)]

And there has to have been a reason why the first Mrs Weston married him against the express wishes of her family. General niceness doesn't usually inspire that sort of rebellion.

[azdak]

Who on earth is Billy Nighy playing? He's too old for Mr Knightley and much too vigorous for Mr Woodhouse, and yet there he is, being wonderful, in a film that manifestly has no business casting him in the first place. And why is Emma played by someone who is deliberately trying to pout vacantly? It's a travesty, that's what it is. It is the Boris Johnson of Austen adaptations.

[azdak]

My God, he IS playing Mr Woodhouse. That means there must have been even more rewriting of Austen than the trailer suggests.

[nineveh_uk]

The mind really boggles, doesn't it? Jumping down the stairs in a sprightly manner - this is not the Mr Wodehouse we know!. Emma looks absolutely dreadful, and the whole thing as if it's shot through a pastel filter. After the excellent film that was made of Lady Susan, it's disappointing to see a creative team that seem so fundamentally not to get it.

Of course, I could be wrong, but...

[(Anonymous)]

Jumping down the stairs in a sprightly manner and being humorously sarcastic about Mr Elton - it changes Emma's circumstances radically to give her a father who is a friend rather than a burden. Although this Emma doesn't really seem the type to appreciate snark. Whatever one may think of Gwyneth Paltrow, it was evident from the very first shot of her Emma that this was someone highly intelligent who got a kick out of manipulating people (unlike, say, Romola Garai, who was merely a nice girl with a thing about weddings). This Emma looks like she should be playing Lucy Steele.

[azdak]

Sorry, the anons are me

[nineveh_uk]

Precisely. Mr Wodehouse is not a cheerful cove who Emma can exchange sarcastic remarks with. AS soon as they are a double-act, things are completely different.

This Emma looks like she should be playing Lucy Steele.
And a not particularly intelligent Lucy Steele at that. Emma would never do that finger-prod at the window that she does to Miss Bates - if she's routinely rude it completely defangs the Box Hill scene (and there wouldn't be a Box Hill scene, which comes surely not just in the moment but out of a build-up of Emma being driven out of her mind being polite to boring people over a long period of time).

I think I might rewatch the Paltrow version, which I've got on video. Although quite light, it does get that Emma is clever.

[azdak]

I have to admit that I don't love Emma, precisely because the stultifying boredom of Highbury comes close to driving me out of my mind. I'm in awe of Austen's ability to make that world come so vividly to life but Miss Bates makes me want to scream - even though I recognise that Mr Knightley is quite correct about why she nonetheless deserves politeness and kindness.

[nineveh_uk]

In real life I think that Miss Bates would have me running through the hills, and I have huge sympathy for Emma not having snapped up to this point (also for the fact that she and Jane Fairfax are obviously never going to be friends for understandable reasons on each side). But I like her very much as a character in Highbury, perhaps partly - as with much of Emma - because she was fun when I was doing it for A-level, but also in later reads.