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Northanger Abbey
Jul. 4th, 2007 09:39 pm Not the book, which I quite like, but the bad 1986 BBC adaptation of it.
We have the BBC Austen box set - the Pride and Prejudice is pretty good, although I still prefer the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version better. The speeches are more dramatic, and I think some of the minor characters are better served.
Anyway, back to Northanger Abbey. The book itself is pretty good, and I think a movie adpatation of it would do better to focus on the interpersonal aspect than the "parody of horrid novel" aspect. The whole point of the book is Catherine becoming more sensible and rational.
The TV adaptation however, besides only being ninety minutes long, went waaay over into bad - bad electronic music, bad costumes, bad cast. The dream sequences are annoying, and the fellow who plays John Thorpe would make me cross to the other side of the street in broad daylight. He's creepy, and I don't think he's supposed to be creepy - smooth, and a little oily, yes.
The girl who plays Catherine is also a bit annoying, although I like the Tilney siblings.
We're continuing the Austen theme by watching the 1995 movie of Sense and Sensibility (Alan Rickman, yum!), for a nice quiet evening. It also has a young and mostly sardonic Hugh Laurie.
DV
We have the BBC Austen box set - the Pride and Prejudice is pretty good, although I still prefer the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version better. The speeches are more dramatic, and I think some of the minor characters are better served.
Anyway, back to Northanger Abbey. The book itself is pretty good, and I think a movie adpatation of it would do better to focus on the interpersonal aspect than the "parody of horrid novel" aspect. The whole point of the book is Catherine becoming more sensible and rational.
The TV adaptation however, besides only being ninety minutes long, went waaay over into bad - bad electronic music, bad costumes, bad cast. The dream sequences are annoying, and the fellow who plays John Thorpe would make me cross to the other side of the street in broad daylight. He's creepy, and I don't think he's supposed to be creepy - smooth, and a little oily, yes.
The girl who plays Catherine is also a bit annoying, although I like the Tilney siblings.
We're continuing the Austen theme by watching the 1995 movie of Sense and Sensibility (Alan Rickman, yum!), for a nice quiet evening. It also has a young and mostly sardonic Hugh Laurie.
DV
