Comments on: JAAIS

By: dave heasman

dave heasman — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:51:31 +0000

“a 30s P&P had Lady Catherine encouraging E & D to marry.”

That’ll be the 30s P & P with the only credible Darcy ever – Laurence Olivier.
Scripted by Aldous Huxley. And I can’t remember who plays Collins, but he’s a treat too.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:31:15 +0000

Science tells us, even though Jane doesn’t, that below their demure surface of the Austen heroines raged the fires of boundless desire. Since people will complain anyway regardless, as we see here, we might as well have Blake Edwards do a lush, full-frontal version of one of the books.

Or maybe that should saved for the Arendt—Heidegger love story.

By: Tracy W

Tracy W — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 10:48:51 +0000

To be pedantic, the syrupy ending was apparently part of the original movie design, and was cut from most non-American releases after British audiences were apparently turned off by it.

Leaving a movie which was badly lacking in structure, giving me the distinct impression that the director thought the major point of the movie was the relationship between Elizabeth and Mr Bennet, and the whole Darcy thing was just a subplot.

The script sucked too.

By: Russell Arben Fox

Russell Arben Fox — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 23:41:18 +0000

"There is a cure. It is called Colin Firth." My wife agrees with Laura.

By: Jonquil

Jonquil — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 23:31:43 +0000

I take it you were sitting behind me when I watched the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma? Profuse apologies.

(hisses “He would NEVER have touched her shoulder with a naked hand!” and slinks off)

By: lalala

lalala — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 19:56:17 +0000

And yet apparently some British audiences, upon hearing of the existence of the American ending, demanded to get to see it for themselves.

By: JHM

JHM — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 18:07:36 +0000

I don’t know enough to be offended by the wrong clothes in Jane Austen adaptations, but the deodorant commercial ending in the American Pride and Prejudice was one too many even for me.

By: Dargie

Dargie — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 17:45:44 +0000

There’s a similar problem which afflicts Tolkien fans. And Harry Potter readers. And, um… almost every author who has a fan base. No known cure.

By: Bill Humphries

Bill Humphries — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 17:21:43 +0000

A friend described the major problem with many P&P adaptations is that Elizabeth warms to Mr. Darcy after she sees the size of his house.

By: Guy

Guy — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 15:53:33 +0000

Recent adaptation lapses have been minor compared to early Hollywood treatments: a 30s P&P had Lady Catherine encouraging E & D to marry.

By: harry b

harry b — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 13:40:28 +0000

Am I the only person who thinks john emerson has a blockbuster in his head? If I were you I’d get CB to delete this comment, and write up the scenario, john.

By: John Emerson

John Emerson — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 12:14:04 +0000

I’ve proposed an alternative-history version in which Jane Austen (as Elizabeth Bennett) marries Friedrich Nitzsche (as Mr. Darcy). Nietzsche was the Darcy type and, his early misadventures with Lou and Cosima aside, often made quite a good impression on women. (Source: Gilman, “Conversations with Nietzsche”).

I doubt that this would have been good for Jane’s novelistic production, but the philosophy produced by a less tightly-wound Nietzsche might not have required the reader to pretend that about a third of it wasn’t even there. (I admired “Ecce Homo” when I was on drugs and smashing the state, and perhaps someone is declaring it to be his most important book even as we speak, but in the last analysis I think that we should conclude that he was nuts when he wrote it).

(It’s my understanding that the syphilis theory of Nietzsche has been replace by the self-medication theory—Nietzsche was an early advocate of the mind-brain identity, and dealt with his insomnia with godawful potions like chloral hydrate).

Yeah, I know that they lived in different centuries. Alternative, get it?

By: George Junior

George Junior — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 09:45:37 +0000

“test audiences in Desmoines”

Shouldn’t that be Des Moines?

[it is now. CB]

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 09:43:52 +0000

…emerges from the lake, clad in white samite, clutching aloft a sword…

No.

By: Jimmy Doyle

Jimmy Doyle — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 09:32:09 +0000

There’s also a bizarre ‘inauthentic’ strain of JAAIS, manifested by bitter complaints in the Sun that the recent Knightley/McFaddyen version of Pride and Prejudice had inexplicably omitted the famous scene in which D’Arcy emerges from the lake.