Finally, Pride and Prejudice on the big screen! My all time favorite Jane Austen novel. No doubt that there would have been older remakes, both movies and dramas but a newer version is always welcomed.
They have been other Austen movies on the big screen as well, namely, Emma, Sense & Sensibility and Mansfield Park. Personally, Emma was adapted well into a screenplay but Sense & Sensibility was a flop. The book itself, to begin with, lacked some personality and that impeccable Austen humour evident in her other books.
Pride and Prejudice has a set of well developed characters especially the two main characters Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
There was a mini series in 1995 if I am not mistaken, with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. He played the role superbly well, potraying Mr Darcy as a cold, insensitive and arrogant man. He is actually a pretty nice guy but only around his family and close friends. An encounter with Miss Bennet however, opened his eyes to the flaws of his character. He then sincerely wills himself to change in order to gain the affections of Miss Bennet, whose reprove have apparently transformed him to a better man. A guy willing to admit his faults and change all for the sake of a woman?! An undiscovered species really. I wonder if Austen herself ever met such a fellow. A hundred bucks says he was a figment of her imagination, for it would be too good to be true,if such a guy ever did exist.
Matthew Macfadyen played a pretty good Mr Darcy as well in the 2005 movie. Though I personally preffered the Colin Firth version. There is just something about the character of this Darcy fellow that has made him ever so popular among ladies. He even made it to BBC! Go ahead and check it out yourself - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2955396.stm
Anyway, I think the book is always the best version; unabridged. I probably read it 5 times already. My favourite part is when Mr Darcy expresses his feelings to Elizabeth somewhere towards the end of the novel.
"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased."
Wonderfully expressed and beautifully written!
They have been other Austen movies on the big screen as well, namely, Emma, Sense & Sensibility and Mansfield Park. Personally, Emma was adapted well into a screenplay but Sense & Sensibility was a flop. The book itself, to begin with, lacked some personality and that impeccable Austen humour evident in her other books.
Pride and Prejudice has a set of well developed characters especially the two main characters Miss Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.
There was a mini series in 1995 if I am not mistaken, with Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. He played the role superbly well, potraying Mr Darcy as a cold, insensitive and arrogant man. He is actually a pretty nice guy but only around his family and close friends. An encounter with Miss Bennet however, opened his eyes to the flaws of his character. He then sincerely wills himself to change in order to gain the affections of Miss Bennet, whose reprove have apparently transformed him to a better man. A guy willing to admit his faults and change all for the sake of a woman?! An undiscovered species really. I wonder if Austen herself ever met such a fellow. A hundred bucks says he was a figment of her imagination, for it would be too good to be true,if such a guy ever did exist.
Matthew Macfadyen played a pretty good Mr Darcy as well in the 2005 movie. Though I personally preffered the Colin Firth version. There is just something about the character of this Darcy fellow that has made him ever so popular among ladies. He even made it to BBC! Go ahead and check it out yourself - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2955396.stmAnyway, I think the book is always the best version; unabridged. I probably read it 5 times already. My favourite part is when Mr Darcy expresses his feelings to Elizabeth somewhere towards the end of the novel.
"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased."
Wonderfully expressed and beautifully written!
Comments
welcome to blogland btw :)
*swooooooooon*
Aww cathy... no one else can measure up colin firth as mr. darcy for certain!
but anyway.. haev you seen "Amelie"??
oye,... tell me!...