Monday, February 4, 2008

Jane Austin Updates

I am a week behind on these reviews, but we have been watching faithfully. Last night we saw Miss Austin Regrets. I admit to not knowing a lot about Jane's life. I have read some biographical material on her, but I would like to read more. I loved/hated the film. I loved that Jane was portrayed as very spirited and strong and witty. The dialog was very well written and I love the actress who portrayed Jane. But, the whole movie felt so glum and the people in her life seemed to say such horrid things to her and I could never really decide if she regretted her choices as portrayed in this film. If you have a day to spare and love Jane Austin, check out this website!

Last week was Mansfield Park. Both Bryan and I are still reading the book but we enjoyed the adaptation. It was short and left out a lot and missed a major theme in the novel (Fanny overcoming and remaining true to her values despite the cruel words, pressure and upbringing of her aunt), but it was fun to watch. I was slightly bothered by the actress who played Fannie. She looked too modern and her obviously bleached hair and black eyebrows were distracting. Come to find out, she is an English pop-star turned actress. Look over on this website for more info. Though only Northanger Abby has really impressed me so far, we still love watching these adaptations!

5 comments:

  1. That girl with the bleached blonde hair is on some English tv show called Dr Who I think, Isaac recognized her from that. I have to say the only one I watched so far was Northanger Abbey which we loved. We haven't had time to watch the rest & I accidentally stopped the recording last night.

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  2. i thought we had already moved on to pride and prejudice (which i own) and so i didn't watch sunday. i'll have to have my sister make me a DVD of it. i've enjoyed watching them all, even though i haven't loved them all either. i agree with the hairstyle and bleach blonde hair as distracting. i did read persuasion this past week and loved it!!

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  3. I have been watching these too....and agree with you on your critiques. PBS is great Sunday nights, except my husband wanted to watch "Wild" and they had Barry Manilow and fund-raising. I want to know more about Austen now, but overall, I think they are both of these were a little too modernized.

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  4. Loved your critiques of the PBS movies, which I thought were spot on. And thank you for linking to my blog! I am honored to have it sit on your site.

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  5. I just saw the movie The Jane Austen Book Club-loved it. It is amazing how many people love Jane Austen. Cool!

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