Masterpiece Theatre: Northanger Abbey
by Jon Jones
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DVD details
Actor: Felicity Jones, JJ FeildDirector: Jon Jones
Brand: Wgbh Wholesale
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 86 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-01-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
Product features:
- In Austen s gentle parody of gothic fiction, Felicity Jones (Meadowlands) plays romance addict Catherine Morland. Invited to a medieval country house that appeals to her most lurid fantasies, she forms a close friendship with the younger son on the estate, Henry Tilney (JJ Feild, The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton), but their budding romance is mysteriously cut short. Adapted by Andrew Davies. Fo
DVD Reviews of Masterpiece Theatre: Northanger Abbey
DVD Review: Best of the New PBS Adaptations
Summary: 5 Stars
Northanger Abbey is in my opinion the funniest of Jane Austen's novels. Written as an intentional parody, it is lighter fare than her other works, with still enough social satire for it to be thought-provoking as well as entertaining.
I was nervous about seeing it adapted for the screen. I haven't seen the old versions because of there overwhelmingly bad reviews, but as I loved and read the book, I felt that it would be very difficult to adapt for the screen. As someone else mentioned, much of the humor is in Austen's wonderful narration and frequent side comments to her readers. Also, the work is a parody of two genres not well known anymore: the "innocent girl enters society" novels of writers like Frances Burney, and the original Gothic novel as typefied by Anne Radcliffe. Even for readers of the book, it is disjointing when the parody switches genres halfway through when Catherine leaves Bath for Northanger Abbey.
Luckily, the film adaptors handled it masterfully, disregarding most of the parodying of Burney-type works for a consistant ribbing of gothic fiction played out in Catherine's over-acted fantasy scenes based on the novels she is reading, which also serve to familiarize the modern viewer with the genre being lampooned.
The only serious problem is roles Catherine is romanticizing in her fantasies. Catherine seems to fantasize about her abductors and captors, giving excited and inviting looks to the imaginary robber as he fondles her gold necklace, and grinning rapturously at her prison guard before fainting into his arms. This is not what Gothic heroines do, at least not the one's Catherine idolizes. What they seem to have missed is that there were two genres of Gothic fiction going on at this time. In Anne Radcliffe's books, the books that Jane Austen actually shows Catherine reading, rape and seduction constant threats, but are never successfully perpetrated, or at least never on the main characters. Villains are never glamorized, and in fact exist only to put the heroines in situations from which they need to be rescued by their real love interests. Their popularity stemmed from the "savior-on-a-white-horse" fantasy.
At the same time, books like "The Monk" and "Tom Jones" were being written by a different set of authors, in a different style, for a different audience. In novels like these, the villains are the main characters, raping and seducing their way through the novels in scenes described in intentionally erotic and provocative language. Though the characters are punished in the end, there are definite elements of sadomasochism, and no nice young lady would let herself be caught reading them. These two genres are sometimes called the "female" and "male" Gothic, because the more innocent novels were often written by women with female protagonists and aimed at a female audience, while the gender was reversed in the second type. (It is unknown how many women read works like "The Monk," but we have evidence that there were a lot more men reading works like "Udolpho" than society perceived.)
Jane Austen would never write a protagonist who would read such novels, nor one who would fixate her desires on her abductor rather than her rescuer. In fact, John Thorpe's relish of "The Monk" and the fact that he would actually recommend it to young lady is yet another clue that he is not a good or proper young man, since he enjoys that book in the first place, and in the second, does not realize how improper it is to tell Catherine to read it. Catherine is too naive to pick up on this, but Austen's readers at the time would have.
Not that this is something the movie should have portrayed (it's way too subtle and not really central to the plot), but it would have been much truer to simply portray scenes from the books she actually is portrayed reading and had her looking at the heroes with desire. It's not true to the book, or the time, or Catherine's character, and seems a really cheap way to add edginess to what is among Austen's most innocent stories.
But it's a minor issue that only the over-educated would probably catch. Overall, it's wonderfully written, skillfully acted, and beautifully shot. The humor is note-perfect, and let me conclude by saying that I'm now even more in love with Henry Tilney than I was when I read the book, and that his actor not only captured his charm and wit perfectly, but is extremely nice to look at besides.
Description of Masterpiece Theatre: Northanger Abbey
Studio: Wgbh Wholesale Release Date: 01/29/2008 Run time: 90 minutesBestsellers in DVD
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