Jane Austen Festival on PBS

A dream come true! Five new Jane Austen movies (seven total) shown Sunday nights in quick succession on PBS!

This past Sunday, PBS played their new version of Persuasion. On Jan. 20th it's a new Northanger Abbey, with the screenplay written by Andrew Davies who did the brilliant A&E Pride & Prejudice. On Jan. 27 they will show a new Mansfield Park, then a movie about Austen's life called Miss Austen Regrets on Feb. 3. Then, for three Sundays in February PBS will play the A&E Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth (scheduled to coincide with Valentine's Day, I guess). The Kate Beckinsale Emma will play on Mar. 23 and a new Sense & Sensibility on Mar. 30 and April 6. Emma and Sense & Sensibility are also adapted by Andrew Davies. Wow!

The first film, Persuasion, was interesting, with emphasis being placed on the main character Anne Elliot's need to be more decisive, i.e. less easily persuaded. However, in the book she is presented as a character with great integrity, but who is caught in a conflict between the demands of family loyalty and the demands of her heart. The new film shows her taking control of her life and deciding to follow her heart, although the book makes clear she can only do this because the demands of her family have been met. She is never resentful towards her very flawed family, and her selflessness wins her the respect of the dashing Captain Wentworth.

My only complaints about this film were its length (too short), its seriousness (at the expense of comedy), the homeliness of the lead actress (makes the romance less believable), and its rewriting of Austen's brilliant ending. Rather than both characters admitting their parts in their earlier broken engagement, the blame lies squarely on Anne, a character who Austen said was nearly perfect. Because the film was so short, it feels like Austen's subtlety has been sacrificed in a rush to just "tell the story." Also, I wonder why they feel the need for shaky cameras.

The next film, Northanger Abbey, should be much more humorous, and it will be nice to see how Andrew Davies has adapted it. He is the man responsible for adding the Darcy scenes to Pride & Prejudice (Darcy swimming, fencing, brooding, hunting, riding).

The PBS website is very informative and features a great interview with Davies:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/austen/