Tumblr crosspost (10 June 2019)
Jul. 17th, 2019 09:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anghraineAnother anon asked (almost immediately afterwards):
(Different anon here) but what are your thoughts on the 1940 P&P? (I def remember your hatred for the 1995 and might or might not have sourced you on that when people hate on the 2005)
(Different anon here) but what are your thoughts on the 1940 P&P? (I def remember your hatred for the 1995 and might or might not have sourced you on that when people hate on the 2005)
Haha, thanks. My feelings about the 2005 are complex, but my hatred for the 1995 never flags.
I haven’t seen the 1940 in a long, long time, but as far as my memory goes, it’s … uh, a thing that exists in the world.
I think it’s probably fine as a movie, though IMO there are a lot of baffling character swerves that come from the collision between the film’s story (which is frequently a long way from P&P) and yanking it back onto the Austen rails. But it’s fun and light and entertaining (which P&P should be, and which IMO a lot of people lose sight of).
As an Austen adaptation, I … mostly agree with the usual criticisms. The costumes are wrong, the ages are wrong, the pacing is strange, excising the Pemberley scenes is baffling, and in tone and conventions it’s particularly glued to its time (far beyond the way that everything is—I mean, the 1980, 1995, and 2005 are all dated to an extent, but I don’t think anything like the way the 1940 is). I’m pretty meh on Greer Garson as Elizabeth. Olivier looks good as Darcy and the similarities end there. As a quasi-fan of Lady Catherine, I think their choice with her in particular is outright terrible.
At the same time, it doesn’t have a lot of pretensions to representing Austen, so while I’m “lol no” at a lot, it mostly doesn’t bother me the way that some choices in the other adaptations do. It doesn’t much appeal, though, either—I don’t honestly think it’s a good enough film to carry it off. And there it does contrast with the 1995 and 2005, which are respectively very good television and a very good film, adaptational issues aside. Overall, it’s … okay.
(I stand by my opinion that adaptations are, among other things, fundamentally interpretations, but some are much more interpretative than others, and the 1940 is ... not one of them.)
I haven’t seen the 1940 in a long, long time, but as far as my memory goes, it’s … uh, a thing that exists in the world.
I think it’s probably fine as a movie, though IMO there are a lot of baffling character swerves that come from the collision between the film’s story (which is frequently a long way from P&P) and yanking it back onto the Austen rails. But it’s fun and light and entertaining (which P&P should be, and which IMO a lot of people lose sight of).
As an Austen adaptation, I … mostly agree with the usual criticisms. The costumes are wrong, the ages are wrong, the pacing is strange, excising the Pemberley scenes is baffling, and in tone and conventions it’s particularly glued to its time (far beyond the way that everything is—I mean, the 1980, 1995, and 2005 are all dated to an extent, but I don’t think anything like the way the 1940 is). I’m pretty meh on Greer Garson as Elizabeth. Olivier looks good as Darcy and the similarities end there. As a quasi-fan of Lady Catherine, I think their choice with her in particular is outright terrible.
At the same time, it doesn’t have a lot of pretensions to representing Austen, so while I’m “lol no” at a lot, it mostly doesn’t bother me the way that some choices in the other adaptations do. It doesn’t much appeal, though, either—I don’t honestly think it’s a good enough film to carry it off. And there it does contrast with the 1995 and 2005, which are respectively very good television and a very good film, adaptational issues aside. Overall, it’s … okay.
(I stand by my opinion that adaptations are, among other things, fundamentally interpretations, but some are much more interpretative than others, and the 1940 is ... not one of them.)