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Sense & Sensibility
Jan. 30th, 2011 11:23 pmThis weekend we watched the latest BBC Sense & Sensibility, which is excellent. I thought the Edward/Elinor romance more convincing than that in the Emma Thompson version, although my friends inform me that this is blasphemous.
Elinor and Edward's romance is a problem in any S&S adaptation; it needs to be made up nearly out of whole cloth, as Austen doesn't bother portraying it at all. (This is clearly a deliberate contrast to Marianne and Willoughby's pages and pages of indecorous giddiness, but nonetheless rather frustrating.) Emma Thompson's S&S did a perfectly serviceable job, but I thought this new version did it one better: it shows not only that Elinor and Edward are well-suited, but that they do have deep currents of passion within them.
I think this is most obvious in the scene where Edward and Elinor meet. Elinor, who hitherto has been the soul of propriety, is beating carpets with wonderful fury when Edward, who has just galloped in and is deliciously disheveled, walks up to her. The air between them crackles.
And later on there's a lovely paired scene, where Edward chops up wood with unnecessary force, because he has no other way to express his pent-up misery that he can't tell Elinor how madly he loves her.
Of course, my judgment may be adversely affected by the fact that Edward was tremendously handsome. His eyes! His face! His hair! Which, I am pretty sure, was not cut in anything approaching a Regency style, but whatever.
Emma Thompson's Marianne/Willoughby story is superior, though. No one can top Kate Winslet's portrayal of wild, giddy romanticism, which makes her relationship with Willoughby quite the overpowering tornado that it in the books.
I will say, though, the new version makes Marianne/Col. Brandon much more palatable than either the book or the Emma Thompson movie. Of course it helps that Willoughby is not nearly attractive enough, at least in my opinion, although we were sharply divided on that score too. He has evil eyebrows! I don't see the appeal!
Elinor and Edward's romance is a problem in any S&S adaptation; it needs to be made up nearly out of whole cloth, as Austen doesn't bother portraying it at all. (This is clearly a deliberate contrast to Marianne and Willoughby's pages and pages of indecorous giddiness, but nonetheless rather frustrating.) Emma Thompson's S&S did a perfectly serviceable job, but I thought this new version did it one better: it shows not only that Elinor and Edward are well-suited, but that they do have deep currents of passion within them.
I think this is most obvious in the scene where Edward and Elinor meet. Elinor, who hitherto has been the soul of propriety, is beating carpets with wonderful fury when Edward, who has just galloped in and is deliciously disheveled, walks up to her. The air between them crackles.
And later on there's a lovely paired scene, where Edward chops up wood with unnecessary force, because he has no other way to express his pent-up misery that he can't tell Elinor how madly he loves her.
Of course, my judgment may be adversely affected by the fact that Edward was tremendously handsome. His eyes! His face! His hair! Which, I am pretty sure, was not cut in anything approaching a Regency style, but whatever.
Emma Thompson's Marianne/Willoughby story is superior, though. No one can top Kate Winslet's portrayal of wild, giddy romanticism, which makes her relationship with Willoughby quite the overpowering tornado that it in the books.
I will say, though, the new version makes Marianne/Col. Brandon much more palatable than either the book or the Emma Thompson movie. Of course it helps that Willoughby is not nearly attractive enough, at least in my opinion, although we were sharply divided on that score too. He has evil eyebrows! I don't see the appeal!
