Austen-intense weekend

I can't believe it, but I've spent more than 7 hours today immersed in the world of Jane Austen.

This afternoon I spent 5+ hours watching CC's Pride and Prejudice DVDs that she so graciously lent to me. I just finished reading the book last week, and I also watched the Keira Knightly version Friday night. There's simply no contest - the 1995 version of P&P is far, far superior in cast, story development, characters, etc. I loved watching this even more after having read the book. I enjoyed recognizing Mr Darcy's complete 180 with respect to his behavior after Lizzy turns down his first proposal - it's just wonderful. The KK version is dreadful; KK is a bad Lizzy Bennet (she's just not right), Mr Darcy is okay, but he's no Colin Firth, Mr. Bingley is acceptable, as is Caroline, but really, the story was overly modernized and changed some pivotal scenes (why were Lizzy and Mr Darcy out in the rain when he proposed the first time? Ridiculous).

Tonight I watched the conclusion of the Masterpiece Theater version of Sense and Sensibility. This time I've seen Hollywood's take on the story first (with my absolute favorite - Emma Thompson - as Elinor) and I love, love, love that movie.

I knew that my opinion of this MT version (also written by Andrew Davies, who did my favored P&P) would hinge on one scene - when Edward reveals that Robert married Lucy. When I watch the ET version, her breaking into tears triggers a full-on sobfest for me. Unfortunately, the MT version just didn't live up to it. Although I was more sad for Marianne when Willoughby's deception is revealed (and he confronts Elinor? I'll have to read the book to see if that happens in the original text - and the duel with Brandon too!) I was cold to Edward's confession to Elinor. Their relationship just didn't seem solidly established to me.

Maybe I'm overly influenced by the first version I'm exposed to - in which case my opinions probably hold no water. I've watched both versions of Emma (Hollywood's with Gwyneth Paltrow and MT's with Kate Beckinsale) and I'm fairly neutral on them. I don't really like the underlying story as much, I think. I've got that book too, though so we'll see what I think after reading that.

Gotta get through Sense & Sensibility first, though.