Persuasion...

[fajrdrako]

I have talked before about my iffy relationship with Jane Austen and her books. Tonight maaseru and I watched the 2007 version of my favourite Austen novel, Persuasion. I always think that Austen had a good sense of irony but little or no sense of romance, and this novel is the one exception, where the hopeless faithful love of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth never fails to melt my heart.

This very much had the spirit of Jane Austen and the times, and I certainly enjoyed it - but still have criticisms and quibbles. I thought Anne was a little too nervous and mousy: she should be quiet and reserved, but her competence and her intelligence should still be abundantly clear. She is the backbone of the family. Likewise, the story is Persuasion, not Cinderella and still less Jane Eyre, and I Anne should not be quite so dowdily dressed at all times. The other women were wearing the lovely gowns of the Regency period; Anne was wearing drab upholstery.

Loved Alice Krige as Lady Russell, but I always love Alice Krige. Anthony Head was nicely obnoxious as Anne's vain father. Another familiar face from Doctor Who was Finlay Robertson, who played Captain Benwick here; he was Larry Nightingale in "Blink".

And Rupert Penry-Jones as Captain Wentworth.... He was nice to look at, and I kept thinking of him as a Georgette Heyer hero, with his good features and stylish hair. I wish he were a Georgette Heyer hero, I'm dying to see those novels filmed. But he was more a Darcy than a Wentworth - I couldn't quite believe that this man had spent the last eight years as Captain of a warship fighting the French. He seemed to have no life beyond his dialogue. He ought to have been an Edward Pellew type, but I couldn't imagine him shouting orders from the quarterdeck.

This movie also had the slowest kiss I have ever seen in cinema. Ludicrously so, when it should have been romantic.

So... it was good enough, and did justice to the story, but I preferred the 1995 version with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. That version also had one of my favourite put-down scenes of all time, when Sam West (as Mr. William Elliot)¹ says to Anne, "Have you considered my marriage proposal?" and she replies, "I'm afraid I have had no time to give it any thought at all."²

~ ~ ~

¹ It occurred to me while watching tonight that his name is Billy Elliot. Wrong connotation.

² Not an exact quote. I'm going to have to watch again to catch it - not a hardship. I don't think it's in the book.

Comments

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

I preferred the 1995 version with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds.

I like that version quite a bit. Plus, somewhere, I finally learned how the name "Ciaran" is pronounced -- you'd think I'd have figured it out, knowing how the "C" in "Celtic" (and Celtic languages) is a hard "K" sound, but I never had. I'd puzzled and puzzed over it, thinking 'perhaps some odd masculine version of Sharon...?' I'm so relieved now. *g*

(And then there's "Siobhan," which taraljc kindly pronounced for me.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Celtic spelling is a strange thing, and without knowing the language well, I can't see any easy way to know how anything is probounced. Especially when it seems that most letters are unpronounced!

Ciaran is prounounced "Keeran", isn't it? I'm not really sure.

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

Ciaran is prounounced "Keeran", isn't it? I'm not really sure.

Yes! :-)

And, definitely Celtic and Gaelic pronunciations are a bit of a challenge to the uninitiated. Worth the effort, though. :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Luckily it's not usually difficult to find out how things are said. Just ask the right people.

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

Which is so much easier with the Internet. :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes. I saw some Irish on a pub sign the other day and was curious what it said. So easy to look it up online! It said OL AGUS CEOL which is "Irish folk music" and TEACH TABHARNE which is "pub". I would guess "tabharne" is pronounced "tavern" though I've no idea about the rest of it. TEACH seemed to have a double stroke on the H, and I don't know if that's a distinct letter (as in Maltese) or just fancy script.

[jkluge.livejournal.com]

I have no clue. My Irish is sadly nonexistent.

But, yeah, the "bh" appears to be a "v" sound, so tavern sounds likely. :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

And considering that it was hanging over the door of a pub - the context seems right!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I haven't a clue about Irish (the pronunciation is a bit different), but in Scots Gaelic 'bh' and 'mh' are both pronounced as 'v'. The orthography is a complete swine, which is why I gave up on it a few years ago. (Manx Gaelic is written phonetically, though.) My great-grandfather's generation were the last native speakers in my family.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

that makes Manx sound a lot easier! My father read Gaelic, I'm not sure how well. Welsh is the only Celtic language I've studied at all, and it was fun, as far as it went - well, as far as I went with it - which wasn't very far. But I enjoyed the ride.

In the long run, it was the declensions that got to me.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

a double stroke on the H, and I don't know if that's a distinct letter (as in Maltese)

Yep, along with the z with a dot and the g with a dot and the "gh" that's a single letter. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love those letters - so hard to type in ASCII!

[janne-d.livejournal.com]

Amanda Root! I've been trying to remember who was Anne in the 1995 one... I liked it better too. I got really annoyed that they moved Anne's conversation with Hargreaves so that Wentworth didn't hear it, because I loved that bit of the novel. And slightly bothered that Anne sprinted about half a mile at the end - I didn't think that was Anne-like at all. Oh, and they mixed up the two separate endings Jane Austen wrote, though I can't quite remember how now, and I thought that was a little odd.

Re the celtic names, I once read a BtVS/Angel fic that named its Irish witch character Siobhan and then gave tham a nickname of Hanna. It took me nearly the entire fic to work out where on earth that came from and then it occurred to me that the author just had no idea how Siobhan is actually pronounced! They can definitely be tricky.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I got really annoyed that they moved Anne's conversation with Hargreaves so that Wentworth didn't hear it, because I loved that bit of the novel.

Some changes seemed inexplicable to me - including that one. Did they do it just to be different?

And slightly bothered that Anne sprinted about half a mile at the end - I didn't think that was Anne-like at all.

It was a romantic idea but I didn't really like the way it was done. It seemed unlike Austen, and unnecessary.

its Irish witch character Siobhan and then gave tham a nickname of Hanna

LOL - that gets kind of complicated! You'd think the writer would just look it up.