Jane Addiction Part 5 - Pride and Prejudice Vol. I

Welcome to my 10 week critique of films based on the works of Jane Austen. I will review each installment of PBS's "Masterpiece: The Complete Jane Austen" and also take a look at other adaptations of the same novel. Enjoy!

Note: "Masterpiece" began it's three week presentation of the 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series this past Sunday. During these three weeks, I will give a synopsis of each installment and also examine three different types of P&P adaptations: the tv mini-series, the Hollywood period piece, and what I like to call far-flung adaptations, but more of that later. This week, I will focus on the mini-series.

Pride and Prejudice
Synopsis: Mrs. Bennet is hell-bent upon marrying her five daughters: gentle, sunny Jane, the eldest; witty Elizabeth, who takes after her father; prudish, pretentious Mary; stompy whiner Kitty; and baby Lydia, an obnoxious flirt who greatly resembles her mother. When wealthy, single Mr. Bingley moves into nearby Netherfield estate, Mrs. Bennet decides that he must become her son-in-law.

The very affable Bingley is instantly struck by Jane and their courtship commences at a village ball. On that occasion, he introduces his sisters and his best friend, Mr. Darcy to his new neighbors, who are thrilled to discover that Darcy is even richer and just as eligible as Bingley. But Darcy's stuffy manner makes a bad impression, especially upon Elizabeth, who happens to overhear him criticizing her appearance. Her contempt for Darcy sealed, she finds much mirth in making fun of him.

As Jane and Bingley's romance blossoms, two new suitors appear on the scene - sniveling Mr. Collins, a cousin of the Bennet girls who stands to inherit their father's estate and Mr. Wickham, a dashing young soldier in the local regimen. Elizabeth and Wickham hit it off immediately and he confides in her that he was once close to Darcy, hinting that he was responsible for ruining his intended career as a minister. The two bond over their shared antipathy for Darcy. Meanwhile, Mr. Collins tells Mrs. Bennet that he intends to marry one of her daughters and that he is leaning toward Jane, but since she expects Bingley to propose to Jane, she pushes him to choose another. He fixes upon Elizabeth, who is mortified when she finds herself receiving Collins's long-winded proposal. At the same time, she has no idea that she has also drawn the attention of Mr. Darcy.

The tv mini-series is undoubtedly the best potential format for a Jane Austen adaptation. It's all about having enough time to get the story right. It takes a good five or six hours to tell a tale that truly resembles the book. However, it takes great direction, screenwriting and acting to tell that story well. Both the 1980 and 1995 mini-series versions of Pride and Prejudice trump almost all other performances of this or any other Austen novel in meeting that criteria.

Simon Langton's 1995 adaptation became the gold standard P&P and remains so, even after the much lauded (and overrated) 2005 Keira Knightley feature film. Again, veteran Austen adaptor Andrew Davies delivers a script carved out of Jane's own prose, adding no more filler than a few gratuitous Darcy bath scenes. And when Colin Firth is playing our unlikely hero, what's so bad about that? Firth (not to be confused with slimy Peter Firth from the 1986 Northanger Abbey), with his proud jaw and stilted speech, is Darcy inside out. His chemistry with Jennifer Ehle's Elizabeth, which must have certainly reflected their real-life on-set romance, builds steam from the moment they meet. Her manner of speaking through half-choked up laughter is the perfect foil to his urbane stoicism - just the way that Lizzy and Darcy ought to be.

Director Langton succeeds exactly where so many others fail in grasping the proper tone. The story is largely funny, especially when we see the acerbic Mr. Bennet (Benjamin Whitrow) needle his nutty wife, played by the expertly shrill Alison Steadman. But it also succeeds in conveying the Bennets' serious dysfunctionality, from Mrs. Bennet's bald-faced manipulation to her husband's careless indifference toward his daughters' future financial stability. But no one is more deliciously fucked up than Julia Sawalha's Lydia. If you are familiar with Sawalha as bookish, conservative Saffron from "Absolutely Fabulous", you will be blown away by her portrayal of this vain and trampy troublemaker.

Overall, this P&P triumphs in thoroughness and detail, vividly capturing every key episode and plot turn. Only in comparison to Cyril Coke's 1980 version of the story do it's shortcomings appear. This earlier P&P has every quality that the latter version boasts - including a stellar adapted screenplay by Fay Weldon and a just-as-sexy Darcy (David Rintoul) - but adds to that a more convincing and likable Elizabeth. Elizabeth Garvie's Lizzy, though not as pretty as Ehle's, is more subtle, more dry. Her ceaseless laugh is less in her voice and more in her eyes. Sabina Franklyn's angelic Jane is appropriately radiant, whereas in the 1995 version, the producers chose horse-faced Susannah Harker to play the eldest Bennet girl. This is the single biggest flaw in the latter version; it is simply unbelievable that she could be the reputed beauty of the neighborhood. The producers fall into the common trap of casting a lead actress who is exponentially prettier than the other women, simply because she is the heroine.

If it can trump the much beloved 1995 version, the 1980 version is surely the best P&P around. Besides being thorough, well acted, and beautifully shot on one of those BBC dollhouse sets that they just don't make anymore, it is exceptionally nuanced. Through some unusually elegant voice-over narration, we get to know Elizabeth's mind and really feel her discomfort in realizing that her crazy family is quickly imploding.