Emma (1996 with Kate Beckinsale)

Megan and her sister joined me for another great movie night at GFM. We made our choice from the variety of movies I brought with me from my Chick Flick DVD collection (just in case it is only the two of us again!!) I made my new favorite comfort food - a squash casserole made with cream of mushroom soup and cheddar cheese. Yum-o, as Rachel Ray would say. Thank goodness that I had some help eating up the Summer Squash that was overrunning my kitchen!

As for the movie, the girls chose to watch Emma with Kate Beckinsale (as opposed to the Gwyneth Paltrow version from the same year). It was quite fun since none of us had seen it before. We all agreed that Kate did a great job in the role and the other actors were well suited to the parts. I thought that Samantha Morton's odd beauty was a good fit as Harriot Smith and that the actor who played Jane (Olivia Williams) did a great job of putting together the complex level of emotions that role requires. She was also the right sort of quite beauty for that part. (I was trying to figure out where I'd seen her before - she is the love interest in Wes Anderson's movie Rushmore.) The character of Mrs. Elton was perfectly annoying and you wanted to smack her every time you saw her - the sign of a great acting job by Lucy Robinson!

(spoiler alert) The one thing about the story of Emma that is frustrating to me is the attraction to Mr. Knightly. He is a great man, but he keeps making very un-sexy references to having held Emma as a baby and talking about how they are not so much brother and sister. Eewww. Yuck. Stop talking about it or I can't handle the idea of you two together. He is also mean to her. Thank goodness she has a teachable heart and is willing to learn from his criticism of her. I'd probably tell him to go to Hell and wouldn't talk to him for months, but she just pouts a little and apologizes to whomever she has offended in the hopes that he'll like her again. Not my favorite of Ms. Austen's heroines.

One last note about this version, is it's accuracy. It has been a few years since I've read Emma, but this one is quite accurate to the story from what I can recall. It is always nice to see the effort put into making a film as accurate as possible in period dress, scenery and setting, as well as in the customs and dances of the time. This one was certainly up to the expected quality seen on BBC shows.

Pride & Prejudice 2005

Last time Megan and I watched the Pride & Prejudice that was made in 2005. We'd both seen it before but still love to watch it again and again.

Second Friday Movie Night!

We are actually going to get together on the second Friday this month! The general consensus is that we should watch the relatively new film, The Jane Austen Book Club, but I'll bring some back-up Jane Austen related movies just in case H. has to bring the kids with her. No clue what I'm making for the potluck portion of the night, but I'm sure it will be something grand! (hmm... less than 48 hours away... perhaps I should give it some thought!) I'm quite looking forward to a fun night of Jane-time!

The First Movie Night

Hey Guys & Gals. We were supposed to be getting together this Friday but since one of our four founding members is not able to make it, we are moving the first meeting to the 28th of March. I think the consensus has been reached in what movie to watch first: Becoming Jane. So we start our adventures into the mind of Jane Austen by first viewing her life as told from her letters and journals (and interpreted by Hollywood). Can't wait!

The List

This is a list of films created from the classical stories by Jane Austen, inspired by her work, or about her and/or her body of work.

In Alphabetical Order (for the anal retentive)...

Becoming Jane (2007, 2 hrs., Anne Hathaway & an amazing ensemble cast)
Bride & Prejudice (2004, Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews [from "Lost"] & Alexis Bledel)
Bridget Jones's Diary (2001, Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth & Hugh Grant)
Clueless (1995, based on Emma, Alicia Silverstone)
Cold Comfort Farm (1990?, Kate Beckinsale, ? & ?)
Emma (1996, 2 hours, Gwyneth Paltrow & Jeremy Northam)
Emma (1996, 1 hr & 40 min., Kate Beckinsale & Samantha Morton)
Famous Authors: Jane Austen (1996, 30 min. documentary)
Great Women Writers: Jane Austen (2000, 45 min. documentary)
Jane Austen Handheld (2008 - pre-production, Pride & Prejudice told as if through a documentary about a filming of the story. Confused? me, too...)
The Jane Austen Book Club (2007, ensemble cast in present-day California)
Kandukondain, Kandukondain (I Have Found It) (2000, 2 hours, Indian version of Sense & Sensibility staring Aishwarya Rai)
Lost in Austen (2008, Jemima Rooper, present day London character sees similarities to Pride & Prejudice in her life.)
Mansfield Park (1999, 2 hours, Frances O'Connor, Embeth Davidtz & Jonny Lee Miller)
Mansfield Park (2007, Billie Piper from Doctor Who, not like the book)
Metropolitan (1990, loosely based on Mansfield Park but in present day Manhattan, Edward Clements & Caroline Farina)
Miss Austen Regrets (2008, an adaptation from her letters about Jane Austen's later life)
Northanger Abbey (1986, heard it isn't a good adaptation)
Northanger Abbey (2007, 2 hrs?, Felicity Jones & J.J. Field, how's the adaptation?)
Persuasion (1995, Amanda Root & Ciaran Hinds)
Persuasion (2007, 2.5 hrs., Sally Hawkins & Rupert Penry-Jones, not as good as 1995)
Pride & Prejudice (1995, 5 hours, Colin Firth & Jennifer Ehle)
Pride & Prejudice (2005, Keira Knightly & Matthew Macfadyen)
Pride & Prejudice (1980, 4.5 hours, Elizabeth Garvie & David Rintoul)
The Real Jane Austen (2002, 60 min. dramatized documentary based on her letters)
Sense & Sensibility (1995, 2 hrs. Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman)
Sense & Sensibility (1981, 3 hour miniseries)
Sense & Sensibility (2008, 3 hours, Caroline Hayes & Hattie Morahan)

Other Suggested None-Jane Works:
Amelie
An Ideal Husband
Cemetery Man
Firelight
The Importance of Being Earnest
Jane Eyre
Lady Jane
North and South
The Return of the Native
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Wuthering Heights (old one with Larry O'livier)
Wuthering Heights (1992?, Ralph Finnes & Juliette Binoche)

The Start of Society

I'm quite sure that Jane Austen herself would have quite a lot to say about starting up a gathering in her honor, but I'll just give you the info on our group for now. We are not "official" in the eyes of most Janeites since we are not yet members of The Jane Austen Society of North America, but initially we thought we'd just try getting together once or twice a month to watch a movie and talk about film and books, mostly those having to do with Austen's body of work. We are starting out with a long list of movies that we want to watch over the course of the next year or two. Let me know if there are more that need to be added! If you can't wait for our gatherings, be sure to catch "The Complete Jane Austen" which is airing on Masterpiece Theatre on PBS throughout the year (2008) and is showing on Sunday evenings at 8 P.M. in our area. Look for a list of movies in the next blog. Thanks!