Archive for the 'TV and Movies' Category

Pride and Prejudice Trivia

February 18th, 2011

Someone in my JASNA group recommended The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, by David M. Shapard, a few years ago. I promptly ordered it, but apart from using it to check a fact every so often,  it’s languished on a bookcase ever since. I decided to read it during my stay in Florida.
So, for my fellow Janeites, here are some P&P tidbits, trivia, and fascinating facts I’ve come across while reading this detailed analysis of my all-time favorite book. My apologies to David M. Shapard if I misinterpreted anything.

Longbourn is, in fact, the name of the village in which the Bennets live, not the name of their house. Although, it seems that often they are speaking of their home when they use the term.
The true extent of Mr. Bennet’s irresponsible, and sometimes even cruel nature, became apparent to me as never before. We know he calls his daughters “silly,” publicly denounces Mary for her piano playing at the Netherfield Ball, and cavalierly tells Elizabeth that all girls like to be “crossed in love a little now and then.” But Elizabeth is the only daughter equipped to handle the sarcasm. When Mr. B. is off trying to find Lydia and Wickham, he can scarcely be bothered to pen a few lines to the family, and only responds to Mr. Gardiner’s important missive at Elizabeth and Jane’s urging.

The revered 1995 version of P&P, as well as the 2005 movie, portray Mr. Bennet as a lovable curmudgeon. I think my view of him had been skewed by watching these so many times!
Mary, of all the sisters, is on scene or even mentioned, very little. There’s an interesting discussion about this online during a Q&A session with the annotator/editor, David Shapard.

I was much more aware of Wickham’s indiscretions when he first meets Elizabeth, and of her eager willingness to believe all he says because of her attraction to him and her dislike of Mr. Darcy.

Elizabeth’s lowest point in the novel: when, all within a brief span, Charlotte accepts Mr. Collins, Mr. Bingley deserts Netherfield and Jane, and Wickham turns his attentions to Miss King and her newly inherited fortune.
Mr. Darcy’s distracted manner, right after Elizabeth tells hm about Lydia and Wickham, was due to the fact that he was already planning what his role might be in recovering her.
Mr. Darcy, did, in fact, wish for a marriage between Mr. Bingley and his sister Georgiana.

I learned the official meaning of  livings, tithes and preferments; what is meant by “picturesque;” all about fenders and fire screens, lodges, paddocks, landscaping, and so much more. Of course, many of these are things I’d drawn conclusions about long ago, but it was good to have a more detailed, historically accurate explanation.

What have you learned on a close reading of Pride and Prejudice? Share your knowledge, please!

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Science Looks at the Teen Brain

November 29th, 2010

We all have our little rituals. This is one of mine.

On Sunday morning, I always read the Sunday supplements while I’m eating breakfast. Because most of the contents of USA WEEKEND and PARADE relate to faux famous people, many of whom I’ve never heard of, it’s been rather pointless the last few years.

Yesterday, though, PARADE had an interesting article called “Inside the Teenage Brain.” If you write for young adults, enjoy reading YA novels, or have a teenager of your very own, the article may be of interest to you. It focuses on recent scientific research proving that the teenage brain is still growing and changing, and simply doesn’t work the same way as an adult’s brain.

Apparently the prefrontal cortex is one of the last parts of the brain to develop, not maturing until the late 20′s. And scientists now believe that this area of the brain is responsible for such skills as organizing, strategizing, and controlling impulses. Not that these tasks are impossible for teens, but they may be more difficult than we previously realized. Check out the article if you’d like to learn more about this research.

This little tidbit was in USA WEEKEND. In the “Who’s News” section I learned that Sean Astin, one of the stars of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is making a movie of Number the Stars, Lois Lowry’s 1990 Newbery winner about the Nazi occupation of Denmark during WWII, and the rescue of Jewish Danes. It’s about time someone made a film version of this beautiful story. I hope it will be true to the book, which would be impossible to improve upon.

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Still in Love with Shakespeare!

October 31st, 2010

Do you remember the movie Shakespeare in Love? Won five Academy Awards? I happened to catch it on Encore recently. Having been so immersed in Shakespeare’s world the past few years as I worked on Kissing Shakespeare, I watched it with a new appreciation. I’d already seen it, of course, but this time, it meant so much more than when I first saw it in the theaters. Like many of the Bard’s comedies, it has a bittersweet ending. The only fault I found with it was Gwyneth Paltrow’s false moustache and goatee. She doesn’t look the least bit like a man; she just looks, well, silly.

But otherwise, I loved the romance, the humor, and all the funny bits about how Shakespeare got ideas and inspiration, especially as he works on the current production of Romeo and Juliet (working title, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter), with Viola (Paltrow) as his muse. When Viola sails off to Virginia with Lord Wessex (Colin Firth), her new husband, the clever foreshadowing of the plot of Twelfth Night helps us to get over the separation of the two lovers. Gwyneth Paltrow deserved the Oscar for her role. She’s luminous. Her face is a palette of emotions, and she positively glows in Will Shakespeare’s presence.

Interestingly, Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway is only mentioned in passing. The audience very much wants to believe that if not for the pesky Lord Wessex, Viola and Will could live happily ever after. Too much emphasis on the fact that Shakespeare was in fact already married would certainly have gotten in the way of that!

This is one of my favorite Shakespeare-themed movies. Do you have a favorite?

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Wolf Hall

February 7th, 2010

I savored Wolf Hall. I made it last as long as possible. Like nibbling on a brownie, or spooning tiny bites of ice cream. My strategy worked, too. I got it for Christmas, and here it is, Feb 6, and I just finished it.

It’s the kind of book that allows you to savor it, because it’s not plot driven. I read it in the mornings, for 30 or 40 minutes at a time, and not every day. The driving force of the novel is Thomas Cromwell, who I knew mainly from C. J. Sansom’s historical mysteries; The Tudors;  and various, scattered pieces I’d read about the Dissolution. Most often, he’s portrayed as a villain. Brilliant, sly, but a villain nonetheless.

Nothing is what one expects in Wolf Hall. It’s all complexities and contradictions. Cardinal Wolsey is a giant of a man; Sir Thomas More, a brilliant hypocrite. Henry VIII, selfish, obsessed with his former queen, Katherine, and the fact that people still love her. And Cromwell himself, a driven workaholic genius, but closer to hearth and home than we’d ever imagine. A loving husband and father, and a person who takes in orphans, children of friends, women in trouble, and earns the love, respect, and devotion of them all.

The book opens with a stunning scene depicting the brutality of Thomas Cromwell’s father kicking him down the street, nearly killing him. The years that came after, before his return to England and a place with Cardinal Wolsey, we learn about in bits and pieces throughout the book. Mantel shows us his fierce loyalty to Wolsey, and his gradual, deliberate transformation into King Henry’s chief adviser.

There are gorgeous descriptive passages, funny asides, moments of emotional clarity, and countless times we see the man behind the persona. The man who, though he hides it well, has never quite gotten over being thought of as a murderer, the son of a smithy, a mercenary, a person of low birth. He is, in fact, all of the above.

The juxtaposition of Cromwell with More was a stroke of genius. A dinner with the More family, Sir Thomas presiding, is revealing. More is exposed as cruel to his wife, pitiless to his daughter-in-law, and horribly condescending to everyone else. It’s a painful scene for the reader to witness. In the end, we can’t shed a tear for More’s demise. But Cromwell, despite his lifelong animosity for the man, still feels sorrow for him. “He can hardly bear it, to think of More sitting in the dark.”

I’ll close with a particularly beautiful passage, near the end of the book: “Clouds drift and mass in towers and battlements, blowing in from Essex, stacking up over the city, driven by the wind across the broad soaked fields, across the sodden pastureland and swollen rivers, across the dripping forests of the west and out over the sea to Ireland.”

I admit, the title Wolf Hall has me stumped. It’s the country seat of the Seymours. Cromwell has a special friendship with Jane Seymour–not a romance–before she’s caught Henry’s eye. At the end of the book, Cromwell is planning Henry’s Progress for the year, and says they’ll end at Wolf Hall. The last line of the book: “Early September. Five days. Wolf Hall.”

What do you think? Why is the book called Wolf Hall?

A book to read again. And again.

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Lost in Austen

May 21st, 2009

Have you seen Lost in Austen, the ITV satire of Pride and Prejudice? When shown on TV, I believe it was in episodes, but the DVD runs continuously as though it were a movie. After watching about 45 minutes of it, I was convinced I wouldn’t like it.

The crux of the story is that Amanda (the main character) and  Elizabeth Bennet basically change places. Amanda falls into the world of P&P. Not just into the world, but into the story itself. The whole thing begins when Elizabeth magically appears in Amanda’s twenty-first century bathroom.

The idea of Lizzy showing up in Amanda’s bathroom seemed ridiculous, and Amanda’s explanation of her presence among the Bennets, dressed in contemporary clothes, strained. And then there was that awful scene when Amanda reveals something of herself to Lydia that is, well, TMI. And there’s really never a believable explanation of the whereabouts of Elizabeth. Continue Reading »

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