Jane Addiction Part 3 - Mansfield Park

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!

Mansfield Park
Synopsis: 10-year-old Fanny Price, the impoverished daughter of a drunk, disabled sailor and a once wealthy woman, is sent to live with the Bertrams, her wealthy, estranged relations at Mansfield Park. Being timid and awkward, Fanny is initially overwhelmed by those she encounters: her uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, the imposing patriarch; her Aunt Norris, the domineering moocher; her well-bred cousins, Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia; and her aunt, the listless Lady Bertram. Though most everyone is pleasant toward Fanny, only Edmund reaches out to her as a friend. His scholarly interests shape her mind. She learns to find solace in books, being helpful and her secret love of Edmund. Though never treated as the equal of her cousins, Fanny quietly accepts her second class status and is grateful to her relatives for their generosity.

When Fanny is 18 years old, Sir Thomas leaves the family to tend to investments abroad. No longer oppressed by the shadow of his grave presence, the inhabitants of Mansfield Park rejoice in their newfound freedom. Maria Bertram becomes engaged to the very stupid but very rich Mr. Rushworth. Tom continues to indulge in drinking and gambling. And at the same time, brother and sister duo Henry and Mary Crawford descend upon the neighborhood. The Crawfords charm all of the young Bertrams, but Fanny is not impressed. She quickly notices Henry’s inappropriate flirtation with Maria and is further appalled and heartbroken to find Edmund enamored of flippant, money-hungry Mary.

After Sir Thomas returns home and Maria marries Rushworth, Henry is left to find another conquest. He surprises his sister by announcing that he plans to make Fanny Price fall in love with him. Fanny shrugs off all his advances and unwittingly becomes Henry’s obsession. He then determines that she will marry him and everyone but Fanny believes that this is her best and only chance at marital bliss. When she rebuffs his proposal, an infuriated Sir Thomas sends Fanny to her parent’s broken home in Portsmouth to contemplate her situation. Pressed between her wretched past and an uncertain future, Fanny is forced to make an extremely difficult decision.

Mansfield Park may be Austen’s most aggravating story. It is long and dense, full of ignorant, spoiled children, starring a seemingly un-heroic heroine who barely exists until the second act. Sure, there will be a happy ending – there always is – but, ultimately, what can we hope for Fanny? To gain the respect of a rather cold uncle? To comfort her cracked-out auntie? To win her dupe of a cousin’s heart? No woman I know would want any of these outcomes. Sadly, as you get to know the circumstances of Fanny's upbringing, these endings appear happier, indeed.

The problem with Fanny Price as an Austen protagonist is that no reader would want her life, because it’s just too hard. The problem with Iain B. McDonald’s 2007 adaptation of Mansfield Park is that Fanny’s life isn’t hard enough. The right/wrong, good/bad of this universe is rendered too stark. For example, take Billie Piper’s Fanny – she’s entirely too pretty and not particularly shy. Instead of portraying a woman who struggles her entire life to feel comfortable with herself, she plays Cinderella. Contrary to the Mary Crawford we find in the novel, who is so painfully perfect in her wit and charm, Hayley Atwell gives us a Mary no more complex than a bitchy flirt.

But that isn’t her fault. The worst part of this Park is Maggie Wadey’s script. She imported little dialog from the text and replaced it with vapid, plot-moving banter. She reduced every character to a paler, less complicated version of the original, including an Aunt Norris who barely harasses Fanny, and a Lady Bertram who sits up straight instead of lying in a stupor. These particular people just aren’t fucked up enough. And worst of all, we never see Fanny’s return to Portsmouth, because in this version, Sir Thomas isn’t quite so mean that he would send his niece away.

In the end, we have a heroine who doesn’t struggle that hard against circumstances that aren’t too unfair, only to triumph over a couple of really awful villains that you would never imagine liking in the first place. This is a complete waste of time.

Yet, it is no more maddening than Patricia Rozema’s 1999 Mansfield Park, which stars Frances O'Connor as Fanny. This adaptation is quite enjoyable, so long as you've never read the book. Who can resist the rich cinematography, the brilliant acting, the inherent feminist messages – the WHAT? Rozema, who also adapted the screenplay, brazenly recasts Fanny as an outspoken tomboy. Though O'Connor effectively wows the audience with her very modern pluck, she just doesn't have anything to do with Austen's Fanny. Harold Pinter's Sir Thomas winds up a true villain - brutish and cruel - and lest you think that he has any redeeming qualities, he’s revealed as a rapist slave owner in the New World, to boot!

To be fair, it is certainly true that the enterprising Sir Thomases of Austen’s time, the men who colonized the East Indies, were slave owners. But, Ms. Austen did not consider the issue in this or any of her texts. If you want to write a screenplay about an English abolitionist, by all means, do. But why make Fanny Price that person? By espousing modern-day "liberal" values, Rozema certainly makes Mansfield Park more palatable to the art house crowd for which it was intended, but in doing so, she completely overlooks the essence of Fanny’s majesty – her silent, infectious integrity.

David Giles’s 1983 Mansfield Park is truest to the text’s events and themes. With an ample 312 minutes spread over six episodes, Giles takes the time to develop a large ensemble of characters. The results are delightful. Sylvestra Le Touzel’s Fanny is appropriately invisible at first, with her unnervingly ghostly face and manner. She’s a disappointing heroine at the start but becomes more engrossing and sympathetic as we see the events unfold from her point of view. Socially sequestered from her wealthier peers, Fanny is able to see others for who they really are.

Within this crew we find a stoic but kindly Sir Walter, an equally tender and thoroughly doped Lady Bertram (portrayed brilliantly by Angela Pleasence), a pair of truly charming Crawford sibs, and an Aunt Norris that you long to smack from the get-go. The characters actually resemble those that Austen crafted, Fanny’s interactions with them even make sense, and her eventual triumph is all the more thrilling and believable.

Recipe of the Week - Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Bacon

Some days, being a hot, liquid vegetable meal just isn't enough. For me, creamy vegetable soups are a winter staple, even a means of surviving these dark, cold months. But when it's 12 degrees outside, as it is right now, I need some meat and cheese to bulk up that broth. I need fortification!

The great thing about soups is that you can replace almost any ingredient with another that you prefer - garlic for onion, perhaps or even water for broth. Certainly, you can substitute pork bacon for turkey bacon- just don't bother with the oil when you cook it (it has enough fat on it's own). Or do away with the meat altogether and just cook the onion in oil. What is essential to this meal is that it contain broccoli, cheese, flour for thickening, and milk or cream. Subtract any of these and it just won't feel right (sorry, Vegans).

Don't forget that broccoli is still the star of the show. Using frozen broccoli is acceptable, but fresh is always better. Steaming is my preferred cooking method.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Bacon
4 servings

3 – 4 strips turkey bacon, minced
1 tbsp. oil
1 medium onion, chopped
¼ cup flour
1 ½ cup broth
1 ½ cup milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup broccoli, cooked
Handful croutons (optional)

Cook minced bacon and oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon bits and put aside.

Sautee onion in leftover bacon oil until tender, about 10 minutes.

Stir in flour until well blended

Add broth and milk and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about five minutes.

Stir in cheese until melted. Then cook for another minute or two until the soup is thickened to desired consistency. Add cooked broccoli before serving. Garnish with bacon bits and optional croutons.

Recessionary Blessings

I first caught a glimpse of her as I happened to glance away from my book during a lunch break. She was standing between the time clock and the coat rack. Unlike the rest of us, who were gabbing with friends, running out to the loading dock for a smoke or finding a few minutes’ respite in reading, she just stood there with a faraway look in her eyes. The deep red of her hair and her pinpoint 3d freckles clashed against ashen skin and an expression of utter sadness upon her face. I knew that face. It was the look of someone mourning the income they once made.

There were passing moments when I had also glanced across the assembly line and asked myself how I wound up here, but I knew my reasons and I suspect that my life’s trajectory was more intentional than the redheaded lady’s. I had stumbled upon this temporary gig at a mail order facility, packing gift boxes for the holiday rush, just as I was getting ready to leave my miserable job at Club Cracker. I was already making some supplemental income as a copyeditor, so I figured that this pleasantly mindless, albeit low-wage job would be exactly what I needed to comfortably scrape through the holiday season.

It wasn’t easy for me to leave the Club without a solid job in store. I’ve been at odds with the job market for the better part of the last 15 months. In September ’06, I left a good salary and a very rewarding, long term, grown up job (my first one, really) as part of my eve of age 30 “big change”. And while I honestly don’t regret that choice, I freely admit there were moments during my darkest, poorest hours of unemployment when I wondered how I had gone from $35k to nothing. I felt like I had dove into an empty pool. I had to come to terms with the fact that my arts management skills are practically meaningless in a dying post-industrial economy.

Last summer, I received an offer from the Club and snapped it up without hesitation. The money was good, but the job wasn’t. At first, I wouldn’t even let myself consider leaving. It seemed like such an irresponsible choice in this brutal job market. But then one night, I found myself sitting in the middle of my bedroom floor, sobbing as I folded laundry, because I had been sobbing too much to not multi-task. Dan told me I couldn’t go on like this. He said, “Tara, this isn’t like Detroit. You can find something here. You can wait tables!”

I never thought that the phrase “you can wait tables” would ever give me such a warm sense of comfort, but it did. I knew I would be much happier waiting tables than working this salaried, soul-sucking job, so I immediately got cracking on my getaway plan.

In the course of a few weeks, I became a copyeditor/gift-packing elf. Copyediting is certainly more mentally stimulating and better paying than the mail order job, but I found the company of my assembly line colleagues strangely comforting. Many of them were middle aged, middle-class looking people who had taken buyouts from their auto industry jobs. People talked about the shitty economy like they talk about the weather; it’s that daily Michigan annoyance that rarely gets better but is never uninteresting. Everyone seemed to be struggling (why else would we work for eight bucks an hour for a few weeks in December?), but the struggle is now so common that we were all pretty nonchalant about it.

All in all, I guess this business of being poor has become far less shameful to me. I just landed a full-time job with that same company. It won’t pay nearly as well as the Club, but it’s worth it to me to work for a company that is known for treating its employees well. I honestly feel incredibly lucky for this opportunity, among so many other things.

Like, I think a lot about the sad, redheaded lady and what may have made her situation so devastating. She looked like a mom. What would I do if I had kids and I got laid off? I feel so lucky that I don’t have to worry about that. Or, I think about how much harder it was for me to get by in Detroit. But as hard as it was there, I could never feel too sorry for myself because I could easily spot someone who had it way worse than me. I feel lucky that I got a chance to live there and learn how to be poor. I am a far more conscientious money-manager for it. I’m remarkably lucky for having a man I can lean on in troubled times. I’m so grateful for being warm on this snowy winter day, especially since I’ve come to know how hard it can be to pay your rent.

I’m not trying to belittle the misery of this economy. It will probably get worse before it gets better (despite Governor Granholm’s claims, which bear a vacuous “prosperity is just around the corner” air). So, why am I riding this inexplicable wave of glee? I truly feel fortunate and free, especially since I discovered that the best things in my life have nothing to do with working a grown up job and making $35k a year.

Jane Addiction Part 2 - Northanger Abbey

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!

Northanger Abbey

Synopsis: Young Catherine Morland, one of ten children, is pleasantly shocked when her neighbors, the Allens, invite her to vacation with them in Bath. Unaccustomed to urban society, Catherine is immediately awed by the sights and sounds of this bustling city. She befriends Isabella Thorpe and the two bond over their shared love of tawdry Gothic romance novels. Isabella's dopey frat boy older brother John pursues Catherine, but she is too busy pining for the far more charming Henry Tilney to notice. Though pressured by John, Isabella and her older brother James (who turns out to be Isabella's secret beau) to dismiss the friendly society of Henry and his sister Eleanor, Catherine agrees to visit the Tilneys at their ancient estate, Northanger Abbey. General Tilney, the stern patriarch, rules the spooky castle with the same tight grasp he holds over his children's lives. Catherine's imagination is stoked by the General, the Abbey and the mystery surrounding the late Mrs. Tilney's death, and she begins to imagine herself a character in one of her cherished horror novels.

Jon Jones's 2007 version of Northanger Abbey, featured as the second installment of PBS's "Masterpiece: The Complete Jane Austen", is another successful Jane adaptation that manages to get the tone just right. This is due in large part to Andrew Davies's screenplay. Davies, a veteran adaptor of classic texts, is responsible for numerous Jane-based screenplays, including the 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series and the P&P derived chick lit megahit Bridget Jones's Diary. This will surely stand amongst his best work. Northanger Abbey is Austen's silliest story, a playful satire of the sort of trashy gothic horror that she herself loved. This verson of that story is appropriately light and, at times, appropriately suspenseful and frightening. It's also about as sexed-up as Jane Austen story should be. Sex is always hanging around the periphery of every Austen tale - it is often the downfall of a caddish, would-be suitor or a wayward lady - and Davies manages to insert it into believable scenarios, like Catherine's dark fantasies and Isabella's eventual (and predictable) betrayal of James.

A large credit is also due to Felicity Jones, whose sprightly, wide-eyed Catherine is winning from start to finish. Catherine might be Austen's least remarkable heroine but Jones brings such a charming good nature to this character that she comes off as one of the most relatable. Her chemistry with JJ Field's Henry really carries the story and is beautifully sealed by an awkwardly hormonal and truly funny romantic climax. Fields is a suitable Henry and, despite his indie rock band bassist hair-do, manages to pull off flirty without being smarmy. As always, the jerky characters are my favorite to watch and William Beck's cro-magnon John Thorpe is exactly right. His half-assed marriage proposal to Catherine is the funniest scene in the film.

In principle, Giles Foster's 1986 version of Northanger Abbey has the same basic qualities as the more modern adaptation. A script that balances horror and humor? Check. Sexed up depictions of Catherine's morbid daydreams? Check. Now, imagine yourself, as a filmmaker, taking those elements and then dropping several hits of acid before going into casting and production. That's how you end up with this sort of Abbey.

I can't say that I enjoyed watching this, but I couldn't stop watching. The tone is very '80's avant garde, very Kate Bush video-esque. Katharine Schlensiger's Catherine is frankly hideous, which brings me to the single biggest problem with so many Austen adaptations- often, Brits be ugly. Many of these actors come from theater, and they've got the faces for it. They should stay on stage and leave the close-up shots for those less homely. It doesn't help Ms. Schlesinger's situation that she is surrounded by other ghouls, outfitted in garb straight out of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" video. Bonus points for eschewing the customary empire waistlines and curly tendril-ed up dos that are practically mandatory in Austen-based productions, but does it have to be so garish? The soundtrack sounds like porn. Peter Firth's Henry acts like he's in porn and maybe that isn't inherently bad except that you would never want to even imagine these people having sex. Sadly, this only other Abbey completely loses the allure of its source and falls far short of it's successor. Yet it distinguishes itself by being so freakin' weird.

Your local PBS affiliate will surely rerun Northanger Abbey in the coming weeks and it will be available on DVD January 22nd. Look for the 1986 Northanger Abbey at your public library, if you dare invest the time. You would be a fool to invest a single dollar.

Jane Addiction Part 1 - Persuasion

I have the unfortunate luck of being a Jane Austen fan. We devotees are pretty obsessed with her work, and that's tough considering the woman wrote only six complete novels. We pore over those texts again and again, searching for newer nuances. When that becomes tiresome, we turn to screens big and small for those inherently less-nuanced adaptations. While the book will certainly always be better, Hollywood and the BBC have made up for quality with quantity and have supplied us with seemingly endless hours of Jane-based films and mini-series. Nearly 200 years after her death, this is how we make do.

I thought I had seen just about every English language movie or program based on an Austen novel until I discovered that there are four – count 'em, FOUR – new TV versions of her books, including Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion, and Sense and Sensibility. I was further elated to find that all of these programs would be aired as part of PBS's ten week "Masterpiece" series, "The Complete Jane Austen". In addition to those current takes on Jane, the series will also include a new biopic Miss Austen Regrets, a 1996 adaptation of Emma (TV version – Kate Beckinsale in lieu of Gwyneth) and the much beloved 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini-series starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth (you can check out the schedule at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/schedule/index.html).

Since watching this series will complete my exploration of the Austen video archive, I figure there's no better time for me to embrace my fanaticism and at long last compile my Jane Austen Movie Guide! Over the coming weeks, I will take a critical look at the most recent "Masterpiece" installment and recommend other renditions of the same novel. I'll also include a brief synopsis of each story, in case you haven't read it before, which brings me to the point of doing all this. I want fresh meat to proselytize. If you aren't already, I will do my best to make you a Jane Austen fan. And then, we can talk about her stories. There isn't much else left for me to do. The woman only wrote six novels!

And so…

Persuasion

Synopsis: 27-year-old Anne Elliot has resigned herself to spinsterhood. She lives a somewhat lonely but peaceful life with her vain, spendthrift father, Sir Walter Elliot and her snobby elder sister Elizabeth. When the Elliots are forced to lease their estate so that they can repay their vast debts, Anne is stunned to find that the new tenants are the sister and brother-in-law of her old flame, Captain Wentworth. Anne had broken her engagement to the young and inexperienced Wentworth eight years earlier, at the insistence of her family and her friend Lady Russell. Now, she must contend with her long-regretted choice and face the newly wealthy and successful Wentworth, as he woos other women and barely acknowledges her existence. But Anne's mettle shines through when an unexpected tragedy forces her to take action.

Adrian Shergold's 2007 version of Persuasion is a perfect example of how Jane Austen gets a bad rap. The tone is all wrong. One of the most prominent myths about Austen's work is that it's stuffy, which this is, but it's so much worse than that. The director and screenwriter ripped away every ounce of humor from the story. One of the reasons Anne is so immediately likable, despite her plainness and her shyness, is that she is so patient with everyone else's retardation. She's the straight (wo)man for so many jokers, like her aging, narcissistic father or her hypochondriac sister Mary. But in this incarnation, Sally Hawkins's Anne is morbid, moody, sulky. She's as tortured as the stormy grayish-blue palate of the art design and the minor chord soundtrack that accompanies this relentlessly downbeat interpretation. There isn't anything to like about this her and if we can't fall for Anne, how is Capt. Wentworth going to?

For me, Austen's stories are drenched in a dazzling light, no matter what perils our leading ladies face. Howard Baker's 1971 Persuasion mini series features fairy-tale-ish costume and set design in deep pastel hues (I think that the early '70's were the heyday for trippy art design in Masterpiece Theater productions). It kinda reminds me of old school Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Probably more than any other Austen adaptation, this one does the best at visually capturing the inherent beauty and fantasy of her narratives. For that reason, it's worth checking out. Otherwise, it's only a decent achievement. While the overall tone is appropriately airy and satirical, Anne Firbank's Anne Elliot is a bit too stately and glamorous for a woman who is so accustomed to being ignored.

For the definitive adaptation, look no further than Roger Michell's 1995 Persuasion. This might be my favorite of all the Austen adaptations. Screenwriter Nick Dear expertly distilled the story into a screenplay, building dialog from Jane's own words and imposing that upon a very simple and elegant piano soundtrack. The acting is superb. With her wide-eyed gaze, Amanda Root's Anne looks shell-shocked at the outset but becomes softer and more graceful, appearing to grow younger as the story progresses. The amazing thing is that the transformation is entirely in her facial expressions. Ciaran Hinds's woolly Wentworth is tender and sympathetic, even as he pursues silly young maidens in front of Anne (and he's super hot). And the snobs are so deliciously abhorrent. Corin Redgrave proves in his portrayal of Sir Walter that "metrosexuals" existed long before the post-modern era. This Persuasion grasps both the subtle heartache and the sharp humor of the original text, all in a neat 90 minute package. Highly recommended.

Both the 1971 and 1995 versions of Persuasion are available on DVD. While neither title is likely to be at your average strip mall's Blockbuster, your public library is a good place to look. Librarians love all things British, especially Jane Austen. Or just commit yourself to one of those monthly-plan mail order thingies. Your local PBS affiliate will probably rerun the 2007 Persuasion in the next couple weeks, but I wouldn't bother. While Bridget Jones: the Edge of Reason is both loosely based on this novel and very likely available at your nearest Blockbuster, I wouldn't bother with that, either.