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Reviews
Screen Two: Persuasion (1995)
Fabulous Wonderful The very best Austen adaptation ever !!
I actually loved this even more than the book ,which has always been a favourite with me.
It is almost flawless-the casting is perfect,most of the acting superb (Amanda Root as Anne,Ciaran Hinds as Capt Wentworth,Sophie Thompson as Mary,Corin Redgrave as Sir Walter,the Musgrove sisters,Samuel West as the oily but charming Mr Eliot and, most of all,Simon Russell Beale as Charles Musgrove.
The staging and camera-work is wonderful too-the sense of place and the fact that you often see an interior,such as the kitchen and parlour of Mary's house,filmed at different times from several different places,making it feel very real.
The costuming is fabulous -from the tousled muddy-hemmed day-dresses of the Musgrove girls to Lady Russell's mature and icy fashion-plate perfection and the beautiful tailored details of Anne's cuff or a glimpse of a buttoned canvas ankle boot on a step.
And it is the first Austen adaptation I've ever seen where a character goes to the toilet(bathroom)!!!! (check out Capt Wentworth at the dinner party)
I could go on and on. Every time you see this film there are new details and subtleties to notice.
And Amanda Root makes it. I think her performance can never be bettered.
The only flaw is a silly kiss scene at the end,but even that was delicately done.
If you like atmosphere and detail-if you want to feel you could almost walk through the screen and into the Regency era (the real Regency era,not the bonnets and frocks one) you will adore this film too.
I cannot recommend it too highly. It is the benchmark of Austen adaptations
Mansfield Park (2007)
Awful. Appalling.
I'm no Jane Austen purist but why make a film like this if you have nothing to say.
Billie Piper was so wrong for the part it is difficult to know where to begin-wrong personality,modern make-up,completely wrong hair (there is no way a young lady of her age would have romped around in public with her hair loose and unbrushed like that),she didn't seem particularly meek nor put-upon by the family and I didn't understand why everyone seemed to think of her as particularly saintly or kind.
The picnic(substituted for the ball) was so low-budget it was embarrassing to watch and missing out the Portsmouth section completely destroyed the point of the piece (as well as losing scenes which could have added a gritty counterpoint to that oh-so-claustrophobic pink sitting room.)
To those responsible:-If you haven't the imagination (even the budget doesn't matter so much as the imagination) to do something meaningful with an adaptation please don't pretend to be producing Jane Austen.
It was about 10% Mansfield Park and 90% nothing much at all
PS Edmund was very good