This was one of three Jane Austen adaptations produced by the British television station ITV in 2007, the others being "Mansfield Park" and "Persuasion". Together with Joe Wright's "Pride and Prejudice" from 2005, the Bollywood adaptation "Bride and Prejudice" and the biopic "Becoming Jane", these can be regarded as part of a second cycle of Austen films, the first having taken place in the middle and late nineties. I think the reason why ITV chose these three novels is that, cinematically speaking, they are less familiar than Austen's other works. I am not aware of any previous film of "Northanger Abbey" and, although versions of "Persuasion" and "Mansfield Park" were made during the first great Austen cycle, neither aroused as much interest as, say, the Emma Thompson/Kate Winslet "Sense and Sensibility" or the Gwyneth Paltrow "Emma".
Austen's heroines can be divided into two categories. On the one hand there are lively, high-spirited ones like Elizabeth Bennett, Emma Woodhouse or Marianne Dashwood; on the other there are quieter, more demure ones like Fanny Price, Anne Elliot or Marianne's sister Elinor. The makers of "Northanger Abbey" were fortunate in that the novel's heroine, Catherine Morland, falls firmly into the first category, as Austen's quieter heroines can be difficult to bring to life on the screen. Only Emma Thompson has really succeeded in this, largely by making Elinor considerably older than she is in the novel. The two versions of "Mansfield Park" both try transfer Fanny into the outgoing, extrovert category, but both versions were heavily criticised by purist Janeites.
One of Austen's aims in writing the novel was to satirise the Romantic movement in literature, particularly the vogue for "Gothic" novels by the likes of Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis. (This vogue had gripped England in the 1790s, when Austen's novel was originally written, and persisted into the 1810s, when it was finally published). Unlike most of the other stately homes which feature in Austen's works, Northanger Abbey, the house which gives its name to the book, is not a Classical mansion but a rambling Gothic castle. When the naïve teenage heroine Catherine is invited to stay at the Abbey, the home of her friends the Tilney family, her over-fertile imagination leads her to believe that she is living in a Gothic romance and that her stern, forbidding host, General Tilney, is guilty of the murder of his wife, who died suddenly several years earlier.
This satire on the Gothic was only part of Austen's wider theme, the difference between reality and illusion. The novel tells the story of Catherine's coming-of-age, of how she learns not only the difference between fiction and real life but also the difference between what people seem and what they really are. Several people whom Catherine believes she can trust turn out to be thoroughly untrustworthy. Her close friend Isabella, who shares and encourages her taste for Gothic fiction, turns out to be shallow and fickle. Isabella's brother John is an unreliable braggart and gossip. Captain Frederick Tilney, the General's elder son, appears to be a gallant army officer, but turns out to be a heartless seducer. Even the General himself, although he may not be a murderer, turns out to be arrogant, snobbish and thoroughly unpleasant. On the other hand, some of Catherine's friends prove their true worth, such as the General's daughter Eleanor and his younger clergyman son Henry, who eventually wins Catherine's heart.
In my view, "Northanger Abbey" is the strongest of the three ITV Austen adaptations. "Persuasion" was just dull, and its heroine Sally Hawkins duller still. As for "Mansfield Park", I personally (unlike many) liked Billie Piper's interpretation of the role of Fanny, but I felt that she received little support from the other cast members, apart from Hayley Attwell's Mary Crawford. In "Northanger Abbey", however, although there are no well-known names among the cast, the acting is all of a high standard. Felicity Jones made a fresh and delightful heroine and she received good support from, among others, J J Feild as Henry, Carey Mulligan as Isabella and Liam Cunningham as the autocratic General.
I have in the past been critical of some of Andrew Davies' adaptations of literary works for the screen, such as the recent "Brideshead Revisited", but in this case he did a good job, producing an intelligent screenplay with a fine understanding of Austen's novel. The one thing I did not like was the "bathtub" scene, but then Davies likes to get a bit of sex into all his adaptations. 7/10
Austen's heroines can be divided into two categories. On the one hand there are lively, high-spirited ones like Elizabeth Bennett, Emma Woodhouse or Marianne Dashwood; on the other there are quieter, more demure ones like Fanny Price, Anne Elliot or Marianne's sister Elinor. The makers of "Northanger Abbey" were fortunate in that the novel's heroine, Catherine Morland, falls firmly into the first category, as Austen's quieter heroines can be difficult to bring to life on the screen. Only Emma Thompson has really succeeded in this, largely by making Elinor considerably older than she is in the novel. The two versions of "Mansfield Park" both try transfer Fanny into the outgoing, extrovert category, but both versions were heavily criticised by purist Janeites.
One of Austen's aims in writing the novel was to satirise the Romantic movement in literature, particularly the vogue for "Gothic" novels by the likes of Ann Radcliffe and Matthew Lewis. (This vogue had gripped England in the 1790s, when Austen's novel was originally written, and persisted into the 1810s, when it was finally published). Unlike most of the other stately homes which feature in Austen's works, Northanger Abbey, the house which gives its name to the book, is not a Classical mansion but a rambling Gothic castle. When the naïve teenage heroine Catherine is invited to stay at the Abbey, the home of her friends the Tilney family, her over-fertile imagination leads her to believe that she is living in a Gothic romance and that her stern, forbidding host, General Tilney, is guilty of the murder of his wife, who died suddenly several years earlier.
This satire on the Gothic was only part of Austen's wider theme, the difference between reality and illusion. The novel tells the story of Catherine's coming-of-age, of how she learns not only the difference between fiction and real life but also the difference between what people seem and what they really are. Several people whom Catherine believes she can trust turn out to be thoroughly untrustworthy. Her close friend Isabella, who shares and encourages her taste for Gothic fiction, turns out to be shallow and fickle. Isabella's brother John is an unreliable braggart and gossip. Captain Frederick Tilney, the General's elder son, appears to be a gallant army officer, but turns out to be a heartless seducer. Even the General himself, although he may not be a murderer, turns out to be arrogant, snobbish and thoroughly unpleasant. On the other hand, some of Catherine's friends prove their true worth, such as the General's daughter Eleanor and his younger clergyman son Henry, who eventually wins Catherine's heart.
In my view, "Northanger Abbey" is the strongest of the three ITV Austen adaptations. "Persuasion" was just dull, and its heroine Sally Hawkins duller still. As for "Mansfield Park", I personally (unlike many) liked Billie Piper's interpretation of the role of Fanny, but I felt that she received little support from the other cast members, apart from Hayley Attwell's Mary Crawford. In "Northanger Abbey", however, although there are no well-known names among the cast, the acting is all of a high standard. Felicity Jones made a fresh and delightful heroine and she received good support from, among others, J J Feild as Henry, Carey Mulligan as Isabella and Liam Cunningham as the autocratic General.
I have in the past been critical of some of Andrew Davies' adaptations of literary works for the screen, such as the recent "Brideshead Revisited", but in this case he did a good job, producing an intelligent screenplay with a fine understanding of Austen's novel. The one thing I did not like was the "bathtub" scene, but then Davies likes to get a bit of sex into all his adaptations. 7/10