(no subject)

[nineveh_uk]

Watching Emma, I wonder if perhaps it isn't a good thing that the Wimsey books have not been televised for twenty years. It might be possible for less of Austen's dialogue to have been included, but it would have been hard work.

And why is no-one wearing a cap or hat?

Oh! Finally Mrs Weston has stopped being wet and has put on a cap.

Oh God! Jonny Lee Miller appears to be acting entirely by waving his forefingers.

And Robert Martin isn't supposed to be a clodhopper - Emma merely convinces herself that she is.

Urgh. And all the waving. Emma might be enthusiastic and eager for exciting, but she is supposed to have a good deal of dignity.

Aargh! And it could be a good cast, of only the script weren't so bloody awful.

The men are waving, too. Stop it! Stop it!

In short, Lost in Austen, which I was re-watching on DVD the other night, has ten times more subtlety, appreciation of period, and better dialogue than this supposedly "straight" adaptation.

I feel a letter to the BBC coming on.

Comments

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking exactly the same thing about the waving!

I'm afraid that the moment Miss Taylor was introduced by her first name (which I am not persuaded appears anywhere in the book, though I would have to read it again to check), was the moment that they lost me.

Tamsin Greig is a very good Miss Bates, I think, though I did love Sophie Thompson in the role. I have yet to be persuaded by anyone else. Michael Gambon looks to be sleeping his way through the whole thing.

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Oh, and to be fair, Miss Bates has been steadfastly wearing her cap.

Is Andrew Davies responsible for the terrible script? He really should have his hands cut off, or something.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I am fairly sure that Miss Taylor is called Anne at some point in the book, but certainly not like that.

I think a lot of the cast could be decent at least, but *screams*

The script is the work of Sandy Welch. Andrew Davies is presently at work on "South Riding", which according to the RT is by Arnold Bennett...

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I am enjoying it marginally more with Emma and Knightley fighting. I think they do manage to convey both genuine frustration and disappointment with also an underlying attraction.

But I just don't get why it's so hard for adapters to realise that the reason people love these stories is, among other things, the subtlety of the language. Ugh.

[tudorpot.livejournal.com]

nods, that's what turned me off the horrid Kiara Knightly P and P - why not use Austen's brilliant dialogue? now I don't have to worry about finding someone to download this for me. Thanks for the PSA.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I found the P&P film reasonably entertaining (though the pressure was off because there already _is_ a brilliant P&P version), but then it is a well-made film. I just want to shout "stop bouncing" at this!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

But I just don't get why it's so hard for adapters to realise that the reason people love these stories is, among other things, the subtlety of the language

Bingo. When I want to watch "Fever Pitch" I'll watch, and enjoy, "Fever Pitch". But when I want to watch an Austen adaptation I want to watch something that calls to me the blasted book.

[grondfic.livejournal.com]

which according to the RT is by Arnold Bennett...

Phew! Thought I was misremembering stuff in extreme old age. Surely; thought I; the Radio Times cannot be in error!

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Not that there aren't works by Bennett that would probably adapt well: but that's not one of them...

[berkeleyfarm.livejournal.com]

Yes, she is called Anne ... but not until much later in the book. I'm thinking around the time the baby makes an appearance.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Andrew Davies is presently at work on "South Riding"

Nooooo!! I can't imagine what he is going to do to it. Well I can but I would rather not.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Some of the things that Davies has done, I think he has done very well. Others less so. I almost feel that there is a bit of a pattern - the first thing of a type that he does is really good, and they go downhill thereafter. If SR is the first of its type that he's done (at least for a while) it stands a chance of being OK. Maybe.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I love A Very Peculiar Practice and liked his P&P and at some point must get hold of the rest of Bleak House, but I wouldn't want to let him loose with Sarah Burton and Robert Carne in a hotel bedroom (or anywhere).

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I have the worst possible feelings about what will happen with South Riding, and cling passionately to my DVDs of the 1970s version* (which probably moves far too slowly by modern standards, but is beautifully expansive and includes all the various plots).

*However, having once read a plot summary of the 1930s movie, I back away hissing and making cross signs with my fingers from any engagement with it.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's a plot by the 1970s team to increase royalties from the DVDs.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I think Davies will be *very* disappointed when he discovers South Riding is a place and not an activity...but I believe that the fact that they keep hiring him makes it unlikely that the BBC is amenable to letters from viewers, or indeed to reason at all.

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I blame Colin Firth.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I think Davies has done some excellent things, but that once he has done a "type" of project once, he does the same with all similar, and also that he is over-exposed.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

In short, Lost in Austen, which I was re-watching on DVD the other night, has ten times more subtlety, appreciation of period, and better dialogue

Oh Lord. And I thought Lost in Austen was so not all those things that I couldn't get past the third ep for sheer lack of interest. Oh well, that's one more set of DVDs I needn't get.

PS Calling Miss Taylor "Anne" seems particularly egregious, given that this is the book where Frank Churchill gets huffy with Mrs Elton for calling Miss Fairfax "Jane". Names are important.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I think Lost in Austen sets out basically to be good entertainment, and that - if one enjoys what it is trying to do - achieves it. What I hate is something that bills itself as a straight adaptation that is simply doing bonnets-by-numbers with no genuine interest in the original other than as a name to put on the screen to grab the punters.

Names are important.
But it makes them all seem so stuffy and old fashioned!

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I think Lost in Austen sets out basically to be good entertainment, and that - if one enjoys what it is trying to do - achieves it

I am willing to agree to disagree, but I'm not willing to agree to anything else! I thought it sucked rocks.

What I hate is something that bills itself as a straight adaptation that is simply doing bonnets-by-numbers

I hate that, too. They ought to be a law that people are no allowed to adapt Jane Austen unless they're Emma Thompson, and even then everything better than S&S is Hands Off.

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

Have you read PD James' 'A Private Patient'? It reminded me a little of Wimsey in places, and she doesn't usually do that. Recommended.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I've never actually read any PD James, though I have several waiting for me. Reminding of Wimsey is definitely a spur to get round to it.