Pride and Prejudice [Blu-ray]
by Simon Langton
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Blu-ray details
Actor: Anna Chancellor, Colin Firth, Crispin Bonham-Carter, David Bamber, Jennifer EhleDirector: Simon Langton
Brand: Pride
Blu-ray: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), PCM Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), PCM Stereo
Format: Color, Dolby, HiFi Sound, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 300 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 2009-04-14
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: A&E HOME VIDEO
Blu-ray Reviews of Pride and Prejudice [Blu-ray]
Blu-ray Review: An addictive cinematic classic
Summary: 5 Stars
Ever since first viewing the sumptuous BAFTA and Emmy Award - winning series Pride and Prejudice over a decade ago we have been addicted to it. With this reissue of it on Blu-ray it has to our great delight been restored to its pristine, colorful splendor. The prodigious effort expended on the making of this series was truly a devoted labor of love lavished on one of the most engaging and affecting love stories ever created. In this connection we would recommend the comprehensive and enlightening account of it in The Making of Pride and Prejudice by Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin published by Penguin Books, BBC Books. Rather than being recorded on video in the studio as customary for TV productions this Series was filmed on location in Wiltshire and Derbyshire over a period of five months. Viewers' eyes are thus enabled to feast on beckoning vistas of the verdant English countryside providing an exhilarating and authentic backdrop for the whole story. The extensive and complex preparations required to mount such a vast undertaking are mind boggling. The book offers readers a comprehensive and fascinating account of the myriad details and requirements that had to be attended to, such as hunting for appropriate locations to represent Longbourn, Meryton, Netherfield, Hunsford Parsonage, Rosingspark, Pemberley and London; the endless negotiations to secure the availability of these locations, to cite just one example.
This filmed series was the brain child of producer Sue Birtwistle and scriptwriter Andrew Davies, who promptly took her up on her initial proposal. In tackling such an ambitious project they and their dedicated collaborators were not about to do things by halves. Michael Wearing, Head of Drama/Serials at the BBC observed about this version of Pride and Prejudice "that the idea of doing it wasn't executive led, didn't come from within the BBC, but came directly out of the passion of the people involved", a passion that immediately drew in this viewer and swept him along from beginning to end.
A convincing film adaptation of a literary masterpiece has to stand on its own feet as a genuinely new creation in its own right. Literal adaptations do not come off on film because lengthy narrations tend to become tedious and undramatic. As Andrew Davies has pointed out, these can be replaced by a "show don't tell approach." His adaptation of the story as script edited by Susan Conklin is masterful. The division of six installments totaling approximately 327 minutes allowed for the inclusion of all essential scenes. While some incidents and two concluding chapters of the novel were omitted they are partially made up for by specially invented scenes that bring the story to life and capture its spirit in a graphic way. Even so, Davies most effectively managed to include telling portions of original dialogue and letters at key moments
We were so taken with this adaptation that it impelled us to pick up and read the original novel which, we are embarrassed to confess, we had never read. We frankly had not expected to be so captivated by a story told from a woman's' point of view. Indeed we found ourselves repeatedly rereading letters and dialogues, relishing them like relistening to favorite masterpieces of classical music.
No cinematic adaptation can ever replace a classic novel, but at its best, it can provide a fresh and complementary perspective to it. In our own mind there has been formed a fertile symbiosis between this TV series and the original novel, the two reinforcing each other to make the original story even more seductive.
Birtwistle and Davies succeeded in their aim to display the characters on screen as real people in all their physicality, to avoid merely presenting them as stilted historical figures. Although Darcy has been described by various commentators as an enigmatic character during the first half of the novel we did not find him deep down all that inscrutable in our reading. In spite of her judicious reticence in handling the male roles in her novels Jane Austen had a fine insight into the masculine psyche in our opinion. To make her story come off more effectively on screen, however, Davies wisely fleshed out the male characters, especially that of Darcy, by bringing to the fore his masculine physicality. We see him riding on horseback, taking fencing lessons and diving into a lake. The physical aspect of Elizabeth's playfulness and vivacity is displayed in scenes showing her jauntily swinging her bonnet as she is traipsing through the countryside. That Darcy's romantic sexual attraction to her is the motor of the story is graphically brought home in a cleverly invented scene showing him initially taking a tub bath and then, as he dries himself off, espying her from an upper story window making sport with a dog, totally unaware of being observed and how she is affecting him. Davies thus admits having pushed the story a bit more being about Elizabeth and Darcy, rather than just about Elizabeth. Nonetheless most of the action is still seen from her perspective.
The background music composed and adapted by Carl Davis is a perfect fit to this filmed series. With the appearance on the screen of the floral embroidery preceding the first scene, it immediately sets a lively mood of eager anticipation, of exhilaration induced by the ambiance of refreshing country air and underneath it all one senses an electricity sparked by intrigues of hunting for prospective well situated husbands in tension with affairs of the heart. Throughout the film the music always appropriately reflects and reinforces as needed the prevailing mood of a particular scene. A capital instance is the unexpected arrival of the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh's carriage at Longbourn, announced by regally ceremonious music in the Handelian manner of a French Overture. Especially noteworthy is the key moment when the music provides an added dimension by commenting in the manner of music dramas on the unarticulated and unseen significance of what is happening. Thus as Elizabeth and the Gardiners are wending their way towards Pemberley in the idyllic scenery of Derbyshire, soft music begins to gently insinuate a caressing intimation of budding romance as their carriage enters the woods of the estate with the stately mansion eventually coming into view. The unmistakable significance of that music becomes increasingly explicit as it is heard again while Elizabeth is viewing Darcy's portrait inside the mansion and near the end, as their romance attains full bloom after she accepts his second proposal during their walk together.
Composer Davis' choice of small instrumental chamber ensembles in the style of the late 18th and early 19th century was most appropriate, his decision to incorporate the fortepiano, the most fashionable instrument of the time, expertly played by Melvyn Tan, felicitous. His selections of authentic source music of that or the immediately preceding period being played, sung or danced to by the characters on screen were apt in every case. The fastidious sensitivity with which he chose his selections is particularly evident during that magic scene at Pemberley in which Elizabeth, standing besides Georgiana playing the piano, espies Darcy adoringly staring at her and reciprocates with an empathetic amorous look. Preceding Georgiana, she had just accompanied herself singing Cherubino's aria, Voi che sapete che rosa è amor (You indeed know what love is) from Mozart's and Da Ponte's Le Nozze di Figaro, an unmistakable musical emblem for this particular scene as indeed for the story as a whole. Georgiana then takes over at the keyboard with Beethoven's ingratiating Andante favori, its soothing strains gently sounding the melting away of former disapprobation and dislike under the warmth of embracing, reconciling love. Mr. Davis has provided an interesting account in The Making of Pride and Prejudice of his work on this film including his choice of music, what he was trying to achieve, how he set about composing the score, the rehearsals and the task of synchronizing the music with the action on the screen.
To our delight the film does justice to the important social function of longways dancing in this period and its specific role in this story. The dancing tunes heard during the dancing scene at Meryton are lively, those during the one at Netherfield more moderately paced, thereby highlighting the contrast between the boisterous social setting of one with the more elegant one of the other. Andrew Davies aptly characterizes the conversation between Darcy and Elizabeth at the Netherfield ball as "almost like a fencing match caught in dance. It echoes a tango or a paso doble. There's a lot of stamping feet, they come together and they part, and some turns they make are like the turns of a matador. You get a sense of combat as well as dancing."
What, of course, clinched the extraordinary acclaim with which this filmed series of Pride and Prejudice was going to be received was the outstanding team of actors and actresses assembled for it under the brilliant direction of Simon Langton. Poor love stricken Hector Berlioz! After our initial viewing of this series we could for the first time truly identify with his becoming madly infatuated while witnessing performances by the Irish Shakespearean actress, Harriet Smithson. The fanciful image of her formed by his fevered imagination could hardly be taken as an authentic representation of the real person, but Classical Music lovers are forever indebted to him for having channeled his obsession into a flamboyant Symphonie Fantastique, wherein his beloved is treated as an ideé fixe, symbolized by a haunting melody recurring in various guises. Alas, after pursuing his beloved actress for several years the extravagant expectation of his fantasy ran aground on the stubborn, disillusioning reality of the ensuing unhappy marriage to her! Yet that we are smitten with Jennifer Ehle's enchanting portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet we will not deny. With consummate artistry she captures every expressive nuance of Lizzy's varying reactions to the characters and situations she encounters throughout the story. Moreover she abundantly displays our heroine's defining traits: playfulness, an independent spirit, integrity, and, above all, a beguiling charm. Those "fine eyes", sparkling with mischievous wit, that much to Caroline Bingley's chagrin first irresistibly attracted the proud and aloof Darcy to her likewise cast their spell on us watching her on screen. Jane Austen confessed that she thought her heroine "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." With Jennifer's Ehle's impersonation of her she has as well become for us personally as delightful a creature as ever appeared on screen. During the fifteen years since her performance in this series for which she received the BAFTA Award for Best Actress she has been displaying the depth and breadth of her surpassing talent and artistry in a great variety of roles on stage in TV and film, twice winning a Tony for Best Actress and garnering several other prestigious awards. While we don't expect ever having the chance to witness her in a live production on stage, we have in the meantime watched with pleasure every one of her other cinematic performances issued to date. But more about that another time.
We owe Sue Birtwistle a debt of gratitude for refusing to take no for an answer when Colin Firth initially declined her offer for him to take on the role of Darcy. He proved to be the perfect choice for it. In his portrayal of him one senses underneath his snobbish aloofness in the company of strangers a well disguised shyness and vulnerability. His innate reserve and proud demeanor seem to serve as a convenient facade shielding his passion for Elizabeth that he is trying in vain to resist. As he paces back and forth in the living room of Hunsford Lodge before making his first proposal to her, one suspects a chink of insecurity in the armor of his smug assurance that his demeaning offer of marriage would be gratefully accepted by her. When he receives his unexpected but well deserved comeuppance with her scathing rebuke of his arrogance and crushing rejection of his suit, one cannot help pitying him while beholding the expression of extreme vexation spread over her lovely countenance and her "fine eyes" blazing with indignation. This entire adrenaline charged scene hues quite faithfully to its visual description in the novel and Andrew Davies has retained the major portion of the original dialogue to great effect. It is superbly executed by both protagonists under Simon Langton's brilliant direction.
The way the two play off each other is memorable throughout. Besides Davies' description, quoted earlier, of their dancing together at the Netherfield ball another fine example is their first tête à tête rencontre at Hunsford Lodge. Their body language marvelously conveys the pervading awkwardness of their interaction, her civility concealing her dislike of him and his reserve his smoldering passion for her. During their surprise encounter at Pemberley she fetchingly channels her discomfiture into an expression of bemused civility as she replies to his courteous enquiries about her family, his manifestly being ill at ease and inhibited tone of voice betraying a lingering romantic feeling for her. That magic scene, already commented on in connection with its accompanying music, was an inspired cinematic modification of Elizabeth's and the Gardiners' second visit at Pemberley as described in the novel. It further enhances in addition to brief earlier scenes Georgiana's role by showing her displaying her previously praised musical talent at the keyboard. More importantly that scene graphically answers the question Elizabeth had pondered in the novel during the preceding night, namely "how far it would be for the happiness of both that she should employ the power, which her fancy told her she still possessed, of bringing on the renewal of [Darcy's] addresses." The film brilliantly depicts how that power indeed fans the flames of his passion. After rebuffing Caroline Bingley's venting of her intense jealousy we see him standing alone leaning on the mantelpiece of a fireplace recollecting with his mind's eye Elizabeth's amorous look with a brief flashback to it, followed immediately by a shot showing him the following morning hurriedly getting dressed and galloping on his horse posthaste to see her at the Lampton Inn. The immediately following scene at the inn, faithfully adhering to its description in the novel, effectively brings home the poignant irony of the emotional bonding taking place between the two protagonists prompted by the very news that makes the prospect for any further contact between them seem hopeless,
On their long walk together during which Darcy makes his second proposal, that wonderful extended dialogue in which they mutually sort out their past relationship was boiled down to its essentials in this cinematic adaptation. In the novel we read that Elizabeth's acceptance of Darcy's renewed offer produced a happiness "such as he had probably never felt before.". We would not have minded a bit to linger in the bliss of that cinematically abbreviated scene, to vicariously dwell a while longer in the rapture of that happiness after all the frustrating vicissitudes of their past relationship. We would also have welcomed a scenic adaptation of the delightful chapter in which Elizabeth wants Darcy to account for his ever having fallen in love with her. It was probably deemed anticlimactic and one would suppose time constraints existing as well. Capping, on the other hand, the happy ending of this romantic tale with a solemn double wedding ceremony no doubt was considered cinematically de rigueur.
In conclusion we should acknowledge the outstanding job of the main supporting cast. Susan Harker as Jane convincingly portrays her equanimity and good will toward everyone and acts as a convincing foil to the more high spirited and judgmental Elizabeth. Julia Sawalha plays Lydia to the hilt, just as she is described in the novel, "untamed, unabashed, wild, noisy and fearless." Alison Steadman faithfully and amusingly portrays with utmost conviction Mrs. Bennet in all her foolishness. The interaction between the sardonic Mr. Bennet, as played by Benjamin Whitman, and his favorite daughter is delightful and affecting. Crispin Bonham Carter as Bingley clearly exhibits his good manners, unaffected cheerfulness and all too ready complaisance, Anna Chancellor his sister Caroline's snobbish elegance, persistent officiousness and barely disguised jealousy. Adrian Lukis displays, as called for, Wickham's superficial gallantry and suave manner. David Bamber thoroughly succeeds in his role as the pompous, unctuous, sanctimonious sycophant, Mr. Collins. Lucy Scott convincingly comes across as the sober, easily contented Charlotte. Barbara Leigh Hunt does full justice to the character of the peremptory Catherine de Bourgh and her supercilious air. She is absolutely terrific in the confrontational garden scene with Elizabeth. The rest of the cast all rises to the occasion as called for.
Incidentally the book, The Making of Pride and Prejudice recommended earlier, contains amusing and revealing vignettes by the principal actors and actresses relating their experiences during the filming of this series, a diary of a filming day, as well as an extended conversation with Colin Firth setting forth his insights into Darcy's character. As an added benefit the Blu-ray reissue of Pride and Prejudice also features a retrospective with interviews from Andrew Davies, costume designer, Dinah Collins and others as well as an account of the advanced technology used to painstakingly restore frame by frame the sumptuous colors and details of the original film.
This splendid adaptation of Jane Austin's masterpiece has already become a cinematic classic the luster of which is not likely to fade. It will always remain a source of perennial delight for film aficionados. Speaking for ourselves we could watch it again and again just to indulge each time anew in cherished romantic fantasies.
Description of Pride and Prejudice [Blu-ray]
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