very untoward
i have been on another jane austen binge the last few weeks. i can't hardly help myself. it is a sickness. my friend beth is my enabler. she supplies me with my fixes. i read for the first time northanger abbey and the watsons, both of which i liked, but they are low on my austen scale. the bbc just released to dvd the new versions they did for tv, and again thanks to beth, in the last two months i have borrowed and watched more than once:
persuasion (loved loved loved this bbc version. captain wentworth. so hot.)
northanger abbey (was so so, i hadn't read the book yet and didn't think it was possible for ms. austen to be so salacious. of course she wasn't)
mansfield park (the bbc one was kind of crap. i didn't care for fanny, but i still watched, and would watch it again i am sure)
mansfield park (uh hello. johnny lee miller and frances o'cconor? yes please. i had to make up for watching the bbc version by watching this one immediately after.)
sense and sensibility (so good, i have wanted to own this for a long time, and then i saw it at target for $4.75! i practically ran to the check out isle. emma thompson is a genius.)
emma (ok, i have to admit the first time i watched this, i didn't like it. but i thought in my binge, i should give it another go, and it won me over last weekend. so many great actors in this, and i really to love toni collette. and if we are being honest, i love clueless too.)
pride and prejudice (ok ok, i know there was all this uproar when this came out. but i am very pragmatic when it comes to jane austen stuff. i mean pretty much i am going to love it, unless it is totally awful. and i can honestly say that i love the new version just as much as i love the old bbc version. for entirely different reasons. kind of how you love your children. you just do. i have been crushing on matthew macfadyen ever since and right afterwards borrowed from, you guessed it, beth, MI-5 and watched the first two seasons immediately. i need to finish the rest soon. oh and i think i laughed more than humanly possible through death at a funeral. good lord. so funny.)
so yeah, i can obsess a bit, and i have a total UK bias. if it has brits in period costumes, i am game. or heck, even just brits. count me in. thinking about giving mansfield park and emma another read. why not, it's spread a blanket in the grass weather. which is perfect for books and water with lemon slices and little plates with snacks on them. you know it is.
*thanks sandy for the quiz link!*
posted by hannah at 5/15/2008 08:15:00 PM
18 comments
18 Comments:
I usually wait until Stefan is on business travel and then I gorge myself on BBC miniseries. I'm with you on the Brits, the accent and the wardrobes... oh my.
But wait! There's more.
I loved this (even more than the Ang Lee/Emma Thompson version).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847150/
I thought this version of Emma kicked the Gweneth Paltrow version's ass.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118308/
I thought this adaptation of Persuasion was lovely.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844330/
And even though I agree that the most recent BBC production of Mansfield Park wasn't all that, I thought the guy who played Edmund in it was exceptionally easy on the eyes.
I can be a little obsessive too.
I've been on a Jane kick, too. I recorded the recent Jane marathon on Masterpiece Theater and have slowly been working my way through them. I just finished the last one I had ("Sense and Sensibility" but not the Emma T version) and now I am sad. I haven't read all of them yet though, so at least I have that.
i could watch the old version of p&p everyday and never tire of it.
have you read any elizabeth taylor? not the movie star but the british author? i think you'd like her.
xoxo
well, bbc can their stuff. (not to forget they speak british, something i can listen to for hours just for the sound of it).
p&p is deeply loved (i prefer the bbc version, i miss so many details in the film version.)
i also really like mansfield park, and i think johnny lee miller and his bangs is a great reason for that..
darling, i hear you. have you been watching cranford on PBS? not an Austen, but period drama. I've been loving it.
Oh my god..but of COURSE! Mathew MacFadyen is amaaaaazing....he made a better Mr. Darcy in my eyes ;)
That programme is called Spooks in the UK, rather than MI-5...but it is just the best. I love it....just wait till you get further into the series. Rupert Penry Jones who comes in later ain't half bad either.
There you go, another Brit for you to swoon over ;) Don't say i'm not good to you.
Happy w/end Hannah!
I just finnished Emma for the first time last month, and really liked it, and started Sense and Sensability last earlier this week.
With both of these i have thought for the first couple of chapters, "this is just like pride an prejudice, I should just read that again" but then I get to chapter 3 or 4 and am sucked in, and reading longer than I should at night.
I might have to run to target and pick up the movie for when I get done with the book.
I'm in the middle of sense & sensibility right now... so far I like it less than both Persuasion and p & p. Persuasion, obviously. I need to see that one...
and I agree with you completely about the new p&p. I love it just as much--matthew mcfayden? YES!
you have to check out 'becoming jane', its beautiful to watch {just watched it the other day...have a bunch of the jane movies in my queue right now} & it seems like it is right up your alley.
xo
if i'm going to help a habit, it might as well be a janeausten one. :) and i must give you props for getting me to believe that the new pride&prejudice could be SO good. once you got me to the theatre i was SOLD. :)
pride&prejudice is certainly my favourite. then it's a toss up between sense&sensiblity and persuasion. woah - some of the lines in persuasion are to die for:
"All the privilege I claim for my own sex (it is not a very enviable one; you need not covet it), is that of loving longest, when existence or when hope is gone."
and matthew, rupert, johnny definitely make stellar austen-heroes.
i have such a soft spot for miss austin.... i wrote a paper on her so long ago and how she paved the way for feminism.... :)
I'm a big Austen fan...currently working through Sense and Sensibility and can't put it down. Also, try and watch ITV's version of Emma with Kate Beckinsale. It came out in the late nineties and is kinda fun to watch. It's not awful by any standards! And Mark Strong as My Knightley just gets me every time.
the recent austen miniseries were actually made by itv, not bbc :)
the bbc have made a new version of sense and sensibility, i haven't seen it yet, but it sounds really exciting!
itv is also making a mini called 'lost in austen' where a modern girl accidently switches places with elizabeth bennet. i wish!!!
i just bought 'sense and sensibility' at target, too!
i'm definitely on an austen kick. after a crappy day of work, only matthew macfadyen will do! (just ask my bemused husband...)
is it sad that i immediately recognized 'very untoward' as being from p&p? it's b/c i love new bingley (as my friends and i refer to bingley in the new p&p). i think he's adorable. i watched spooks regularly before the new p&p came out but i wasn't really into matthew macfadyen then. i LOVED him as darcy, though. rupert penry-jones/captain wentworth, on the other hand, i totally had a thing for immediately once he joined spooks. i know exactly what you mean about simultaneously loving the bbc and new versions. ps- hello. i just found your blog via the new wiksten photos and i felt compelled to ramble on about austen.
love the binge report! Have you seen this quiz? I am fascinated by it and ask everyone I know to take it.
http://www.strangegirl.com/emma/quiz.php
hey! have you seen this??
http://www.squeetus.com/stage/books_austen.html
i'm finishing up her book "the goose girl"...it's gorgeous.
Post a Comment
<< Home