anghraine | looool

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I just posted about it on Tumblr, but I'm still sort of '??????'

Somebody actually started a venting thread about me on ffa! And I figured it'd be Tolkien or SW, where I am (if I'm honest with myself :P) a justifiably wanky target, but no! It's someone who really likes my Austen posts on Tumblr but is annoyed at my P&P 1995 hateboner and that I spend more time thanking people for nice tags (not their words :P) than writing.

It's amazing. I'm slightly put out, but mostly flattered.

Current Location: Portland, OR
Current Music: Old Time Rock and Roll (Bob Seger)

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Posted by

lizbee

Is that the 1980(ish?) adaptation? I haven't seen that, but I've had the '80s Sense & Sensibility in my collection ever since I hit on the idea of an Australian YA retelling. I keep hearing the '80s miniseries had good scripts and lousy production values, which sounds about right for that era.

Posted by

anghraine

It is the 1980 P&P! And that's a pretty good summary—there are some things in the writing that I'm :| about (it's got a sort of ludicrously harsh Mr Bennet and very jarring spots of melodrama in an otherwise very staid, low-budget approach), but by and large I think it's both the most accurate and most interesting in terms of character.

With Darcy and Georgiana, say, we really feel their intense awkwardness more than we do any other characteristics, even those characteristics are there—it's just where the emphasis goes. Elizabeth Garvie's Elizabeth is at once spirited and thoughtful and in love with herself: definitely my fave. Mrs Bennet falls about halfway between the 1995 and 2005 extremes of sympathy, Lady Catherine is silly but stylish with a real presence, etc. It can be hit and miss, but much more hit than miss for me.

(I would say that cinematically, it's ... not good, even allowing for the budget. I almost always watch scenes here or there rather than the mini-series as a whole. But it's much like the other ones that way. You either roll with it or it's a dealbreaker, I think. I occasionally get recced as "she writes good fic and meta, but for SOME UNFATHOMABLE REASON likes the 1980 P&P," lol.)

Posted by

rj_anderson

The 1980 P&P was my first exposure to anything Austen, and I was ten years old and it was airing for the first time on MASTERPIECE THEATRE and I utterly loved it. I was so captivated that I nearly died of despair when I realized we were going to be away at camp for the last week and I'd never get to see the conclusion. :(

About twelve years later, overcome by nostalgia, I rented P&P and sat down with several of my friends to watch it as a marathon. I was dismayed by the production values ("shot on 80's videotape" is never a good thing to have to say about any drama, let alone period drama), and it seemed to drag a lot more than I remembered from watching it as a kid. But I still regard it fondly, and am glad to have encountered it when I did.