I sit here in the thunder, the green on the grey

[sovay]

Me: I should rewatch Sense and Sensibility (1995). It might pair illuminatingly with Persuasion (1995); I haven't seen it in nine years and I've never written about it; I saw it for the first time in 1996 with someone who didn't like it. That was a point in my life when I saw very few movies and did not think critically about them if I did. Those can be interesting to revisit.

*half an hour of movie later*

My critical faculties: FUCK, Alan Rickman is BEAUTIFUL.

Ladies and gentlepeople, that may be the review.

Comments

[sovay]

Ohhh that entire film is an aesthetic for me. Like the our-age version of a pinterest board.

I do not think I loved it as much as Persuasion, but it is beautiful. Even the parts that are not Alan Rickman.

[selkie]

Mm, proportionately more ladies though. I think. I haven't seen it in forever. I should rectify that.

[sovay]

Mm, proportionately more ladies though. I think. I haven't seen it in forever. I should rectify that.

I can attest to its rewatchability.

Lots of ladies. Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Gemma Jones, Emilie François, Harriet Walter, Imelda Staunton, Elizabeth Spriggs, Imogen Stubbs, plus some extraneous ladies I didn't recognize but who are probably also jewels of British acting. (Amanda Root was involved in the brainstorming phase, but had already committed to Persuasion and couldn't do two productions at once. This gives me the impression of a whole bunch of Austen fans just taking over the cinema in the mid-'90's and I'm delighted.) One of the things I want to talk about if I can reconstitute my brain is the way the men are the pivots of the story—they're the ones with the institutional power, also, not to be indelicate, the blunt—but in terms of screentime they are less co-leads than supporting players, passing in and out of the women's stories, most important in their effect on the women's stability and happiness or otherwise. It's not quite a reversal of the way that women as romantic interests are conventionally treated, but it was notable to me that we got no cutaways whatsoever to tell us what Edward or Brandon or Willoughby might be doing when they're not with the Dashwoods. The story sticks firmly with the ladies. Their lives are the ones that we see in detail.

[selkie]

Did I miss your watching the Ehle/Firth Pride and Prejudice ? It could be a Thematically Appropriate Triptych.

I am vaguely aware it has been done since. WHATEVS.

[sovay]

Did I miss your watching the Ehle/Firth Pride and Prejudice? It could be a Thematically Appropriate Triptych.

I've never seen it, although thisbluespirit made a strong case for it on sheer grounds of Mr. Bennet. I knew a lot of people in high school who were obsessed with Colin Firth and his wet Regency T-shirt contest. (Is this why you're pushing Sherbourne into a brook?)

I almost certainly saw Firth first in Shakespeare in Love (1998) but didn't pay much attention to him, saw him in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) but didn't pay much attention to him, saw him in A Single Man (2009) and have been paying attention to him ever since. Look, you could see me getting better at thinking about movies.

[selkie]

Nah, Sherbourne gets pushed into a brook by the valet he sacked because one shouldn’t dally with one’s employees. He meant to explain it better. He really fails. He gets wet.

[sovay]

Nah, Sherbourne gets pushed into a brook by the valet he sacked because one shouldn’t dally with one’s employees. He meant to explain it better. He really fails. He gets wet.

. . . That sounds like Sherbourne.

Congratulations on writing a novel with multiple instances of Disaster Bi.

[selkie]

I mean, y'all were due.
Does Rose count as a disaster though really?

[kore]

Oh, that's a must-see, altho for me not so much for Firth -- altho he's great -- but Jennifer Ehle is just about my perfect Elizabeth, and Crispin Bonham-Carter and Susannah Harker are the perfect Bingley and Jane. I've heard criticism it was a little too modernized, but people say that about the S&S movie too -- and I don't think of it so much as modernization, but maybe the kind of restoration of old paintings where you strip off all the dust and candle smoke and varnish and cleaning agents that were meant to "preserve" them.

[rmc28]

Ehle/Firth P&P is how I discovered Austen, having managed to dodge being forced to read her at school. There was a lot of fuss about Colin Firth in a wet shirt, but what actually drew me in was the dance at the Netherfield ball, which I literally found by accident while channel-hopping one evening. I was so drawn in by that scene that I watched the rest of the episode, caught up on the previous episode thanks to a helpful repeat on the BBC and watched+recorded the rest of the series.

I didn't get to see the first episode until my parents bought me the videos (actual VHS!) that Christmas, but in the meantime I'd read the book and started on the rest.

[sovay]

the dance at the Netherfield ball, which I literally found by accident while channel-hopping one evening. I was so drawn in by that scene that I watched the rest of the episode, caught up on the previous episode thanks to a helpful repeat on the BBC and watched+recorded the rest of the series.

That is a wonderful recommendation.