If you follow my Twitter updates (or checked on the sidebar over there earlier), you may already know that I watched two film renditions of my favorite book today to ring in the new year. The old "Pride & Prejudice" from 1940, with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson, I'd seen before and enjoyed quite a lot.
The new one was interesting, mostly because it was set in our modern day in Utah (of all places!). Now, having almost memorized the book, I am able to quickly compare movie quotes as well as adaptations of scenes. So, I'm peculiarly well-suited to watching these things and enjoying them. That said, this one in Utah was probably a made-for-TV movie (since none of the actors were big shots in the least) and felt like it. Also felt like a teeny-bopper movie in some respects--the colors, the costuming, and the fact that the gals sort of talked like Valley Girls. However, much of the wit was kept intact (though not all, unfortunately), and the movie did an admirable job of transporting certain almost-untranslatable scenes from 1800 to 2000. (For one thing, all the sisters are made into roommates, and instead of having Darcy ask her to marry him that first time and suffering the refusal, that was relegated into an asking-out instead. And so on.) I enjoyed it quite a lot, but I probably won't bother watching it again.
It was fun to identify the source of every single pull-out quote that appeared on the screen, for my dad's benefit. Especially when they were rather obscure quotes, such as "a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then."
Yep, Dad watched both movies with me. He's actually seen all the Pride & Prejudice movies I've seen, including that infamous 5-hour version. (Of course, I am willing to let him sleep through whatever he wishes. :D )
So yeah. I have now seen these versions:
--1940, with Greer Garson (twice)
--1995, with Colin Firth (the five-hour version)
--2003, with nobody famous (this modern-day version)
--2005, with Kiera Knightley (also multiple times, though I prefer the 1940 version)
I have yet to see Bride & Prejudice (the Bollywood rendition). And, somewhere I heard that Bridget Jones' Diary was supposed to be a modern take too. I dunno about that... all I know is that Colin Firth is in it too and somewhere I thought I heard that they named him Will Darcy too. Hmm. I dunno if I'll bother with that one.
The new one was interesting, mostly because it was set in our modern day in Utah (of all places!). Now, having almost memorized the book, I am able to quickly compare movie quotes as well as adaptations of scenes. So, I'm peculiarly well-suited to watching these things and enjoying them. That said, this one in Utah was probably a made-for-TV movie (since none of the actors were big shots in the least) and felt like it. Also felt like a teeny-bopper movie in some respects--the colors, the costuming, and the fact that the gals sort of talked like Valley Girls. However, much of the wit was kept intact (though not all, unfortunately), and the movie did an admirable job of transporting certain almost-untranslatable scenes from 1800 to 2000. (For one thing, all the sisters are made into roommates, and instead of having Darcy ask her to marry him that first time and suffering the refusal, that was relegated into an asking-out instead. And so on.) I enjoyed it quite a lot, but I probably won't bother watching it again.
It was fun to identify the source of every single pull-out quote that appeared on the screen, for my dad's benefit. Especially when they were rather obscure quotes, such as "a girl likes to be crossed in love a little now and then."
Yep, Dad watched both movies with me. He's actually seen all the Pride & Prejudice movies I've seen, including that infamous 5-hour version. (Of course, I am willing to let him sleep through whatever he wishes. :D )
So yeah. I have now seen these versions:
--1940, with Greer Garson (twice)
--1995, with Colin Firth (the five-hour version)
--2003, with nobody famous (this modern-day version)
--2005, with Kiera Knightley (also multiple times, though I prefer the 1940 version)
I have yet to see Bride & Prejudice (the Bollywood rendition). And, somewhere I heard that Bridget Jones' Diary was supposed to be a modern take too. I dunno about that... all I know is that Colin Firth is in it too and somewhere I thought I heard that they named him Will Darcy too. Hmm. I dunno if I'll bother with that one.
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