02.25.07
No Love for Charlotte Lucas
Mary-Carolyn again, this time with thoughts on the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma and the 2005 Pride and Prejudice.
Emma
One of the things I particularly noticed was this film’s use and placement of fire in many of the scenes. This makes sense from a period standpoint because there wasn’t central heating, but fire is also used as symbolism in film (“they’re on fire for each other). The first time I noticed this was the scene where Emma and Mr. Knightly say they “will be friends and quarrel no more,” where the fire is directly beneath them and they shake hands underneath it. Later, at the Weston’s Emma and Mr. Knightly are again positioned with fire right between them, until Mr. Elton comes and stands between them, blocking the fire, symbolizing the way he will interfere with Emma’s romantic affairs. Later, Emma does the same thing when she blocks the fire at the same moment she tells her of Mr. Elton’s marriage. Framing wise, I noticed Mr. Elton was almost always placed in the middle of the screen, and if he wasn’t, he was quick to move into that position. When Emma visits with Miss. Bates and Jane Fairfax after the Box Hill/Strawberry picking fiasco, the shadows of the window bars create a prison-like pattern over Emma. The article I read on this film criticized its use of the spinning world with images of Hartfield only. Once I managed to figure out what the spinning blue thing really was, I quite liked it. In fact, its one of the few moments where the viewer gets the sense this is a narrow, restricted society. The other happens when Emma, Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightly are talking. Placed behind Mr. Knightly throughout the scene is a fishbowl with three goldfish in it. If that isn’t a cue to the viewer that the society presented is a narrow, restrictive one, I don’t know what is. Of course, this idea is only reinforced visually a few times, which really doesn’t help the viewer to see Emma is truly confined in her present environment.
Pride and Prejudice
First, let me just say I really detest this version. I’ve seen it before and tried to watch it with an open mind, but I just don’t like it. That said, the film does do a few interesting things. We first see Elizabeth walking across a field reading (First Impressions no less!), which implies many things the novel would have said about her: that she is intelligent, she seeks to improve her mind, ect. that would have rather hard to have other characters say about her. Dr. McAllister said this film does a much better job than the 1995 version of showing the family’s poor circumstances giving the girls more of reason to seek rich husbands. This is emphasized particularly in the first dance scene, the chaos of with shoes the country-ness and rusticity of the Merryton families. I also enjoyed the placement of Elizabeth directly opposite her mother and three younger sister on their visit to Netherfield. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley’s placement between them emphasizes the gulf in their relationship, but also in their understanding of what proper behavior is. I also particularly enjoyed Lady Catherine’s night-time visit, which shows her to be even more imposing and self-centered since she would expect the whole household to wake up to receive her. What I didn’t like about this adaptation where those little “eye-catching” moments Lizzie and Darcy have just about every time they see each other from the moment they meet. I’m sorry, I just don’t buy the idea that even when they first see each other they have this amazing, deep connection and that Elizabeth realizes it. For me, that’s part of the charm of the novel, that Elizabeth doesn’t realize she’s falling in love with Darcy until its already happened. This film makes it seem like she knows from the get-go. I watched a bit one of the special features, “Jane Austen: Ahead of her Time,” and had to turn it off when all I heard from the director and actors was what a fabulous author of love stories she is. And how does that make her ahead of her time? Maybe I should have watched the whole thing and would have heard more about love played into Austen’s novels, but certainty what she focused on were characters, secrets, issues of class, as well the place of marriage in society. However, I did REALLY like on thing this film did, giving Charlotte Lucas more of a voice and character. I adored her speech to Lizzie, not only because it made Charlotte more of the important character she is in the novel, but because it gave a clear context of why Lizzie and Jane also needed to marry. I hear Emma Thompson re-wrote this scene, and if so, bravo Emma; I always knew she was a fabulous adaptor. I wanted to find a clip of this scene on Youtube, but alas, there’s no Charlotte love.