Emma

[osprey_archer]

I must confess that I took against Autumn de Wilde’s Emma the moment I saw the poster, primarily because I found the entire aesthetic too fussy and could not, in particular, get over the hairstyle that the filmmakers inflicted on poor Emma.

But then I watched the movie and it totally won me over, so that will teach me to judge a movie by its poster. The movie commits to its aesthetic so hard that in the end it washed away all my reservations (except the reservations about Emma’s hair), because it’s so effective at building its own world.

A list of things I particularly liked, in no particular order.

1. The use of period songs in the soundtrack. A lot of period pieces use instrumental soundtracks (or alternatively have songs from modern times - the TV series Underground deployed these very effectively), but I really love the folksongs here.

2. Emma and Harriet’s friendship. In fact, I really enjoyed Harriet in general, and our glimpses of her life at the school (all the girls in long red capes, walking in lines like Madeleine!), and I thought certain adaptation choices (which I don’t want to spoil) showed a more genuine and lasting affection on Emma’s part than other adaptations often show… or, to be fair, than I think one can necessarily extrapolate from the book, but nonetheless I enjoyed watching it here.

3. Bill Nighy as Mr. Woodhouse. This is totally counterintuitive casting - he’s so much sprightlier than most Mr. Woodhouses! - but there’s something extra funny about this lively agile fussbudget who is so obsessed with drafts that in one scene we see him sitting in between a pair of screens.

4. In general, the movie allows its characters to display a level of human awkwardness and even goofiness that you don’t often see in period dramas. There’s a much-giffed scene where Mr. Knightly returns home from a ball and lies down on the floor in an excess of Drama, but I also liked Emma’s penchant for hoisting herself up to brood in a window recess next to a particularly dour bust. There’s also a scene where she sort of gathers her skirts up behind, the way one does when one’s skirts have gotten disarranged, which shows us a flash of her butt in a way that is not at all sexy - or rather, the focus is not on the sexiness - it’s just one of those undignified awkward moments that we all have occasionally, and it’s so relatable.

5. In a similar vein, Mr. Knightley is introduced while getting dressed so basically our first view of him is Mr. Knightley: Naked on Camera. This isn’t technically unnecessary (and, again, more “we all get dressed sometimes! It’s not graceful!” than sexy) but I’m loving the parity.

Comments

[kore]

I have to see this!....hell, I should just buy the DVD.

[osprey_archer]

I highly recommend it!

[kore]

Amazon (yeah) tells me it is "frequently bought with" Rise of Skywalker and Little Women, which is v pleasing.

[asakiyume]

How can one see this? (How did you see it?) It's not on Netflix (are there other platforms????<--... this is self mocking. I know there are others...)

I've heard both good things and bad; I'd like to see it just because it couldn't be as bad as so much stuff that's out there.

[osprey_archer]

I got it on a disc from Netflix. It might be available streaming somewhere, but there are so many streaming options these days, who even knows?

[asakiyume]

Huh; I didn't see it when I searched on disks on Netflix, but I must have been doing it wrong--I will try again!

[sovay]

But then I watched the movie and it totally won me over, so that will teach me to judge a movie by its poster.

I wanted so much to see this movie in theaters and then there was a plague. I am glad it's good!

there’s something extra funny about this lively agile fussbudget who is so obsessed with drafts that in one scene we see him sitting in between a pair of screens.

I am very fond of Bill Nighy.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, it came out just when the plague was getting its boots on in the United States. Bad timing!

[asakiyume]

(And Johnny Flynn plays Mr. Knightley! And there's an amazing song he composed for the film at the end, as the credits are running: Queen Bee.)

[sovay]

And there's an amazing song he composed for the film at the end, as the credits are running: Queen Bee.

That is also attractive to me.

[skygiants]

I think this film has both my favorite cinematic Harriet-Emma and my favorite cinematic Mr. Woodhouse. The red capes! In general I thought it was really successful at like ... giving an image of a world, not just Emma's bit or view of the world, but more broadly the layers of it and where the various people fit in.

[osprey_archer]

The red capes!!! I particularly liked that we got a little bit more insight into Harriet's context, like that scene where she and the other students at the school are playing that game where they... take apart a cake made out of sand? I'm not sure WHAT they're doing, but they're sure having fun doing it, and that scene shows us a lot more about Harriet's life away from Emma than we see in many other adaptations.

In general I liked how populated the world was, if that makes sense - we see Harriet's schoolmates, we see the servants, we get to visit the Martin's farm. As you say, we get to see at least glimpses of the whole world, not just Emma's bit of it. (In fact, I wished the movie were even longer, a whole miniseries maybe, just so we could explore more.)

[missroserose]

I actually had not experienced the story before so I got to enjoy Bill Nighy and Harriet (and Emma's genuinely shocking cruelty to Miss Bates) all for the first time with this cast. I was quite impressed! And similarly impressed by the film's dedication to its aesthetic.

[osprey_archer]

What I've always liked about that scene with Miss Bates is that this is the sort of zinger that books/shows often let their heroes get away with: it's not nice, but it's accurate and funny. So it's nice to see Emma pulled up short about it, like, even though you are the protagonist and even though it was witty, NO, you can't just say cruel things to people.

[missroserose]

YES! Thank you, that's exactly what I love about that scene but hadn't quite been able to articulate. I've noticed that, as I get older, I'm much less likely to forgive a character's unkindness, even if they're also truthful and funny—maybe I'm starting to better understand how damaging that kind of petty meanness can be.

[ladyherenya]

I too was put off by the movie poster (along with the feeling that I really don't need yet another adaptation, I love both the Kate Beckinsale and the Romola Garai versions, oh and there's Clueless as well). By the time I started coming across enthusiastic reactions, it was too late to see it in cinemas. So I'm very very slowly moving up in the queue for the library DVD.

I'm now really interested, because it sounds like it's really successful at doing new/different things from other adaptations and without sacrificng Austen's story in the process (or throwing in zombies).

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I also thought "Do we really need another adaptation of Emma? The Romola Garai version is RIGHT THERE"... which is how I felt about Greta Gerwig's Little Women, too, we already had the Winona Ryder version from 1994, so did we really need...?

But in the end both cases show a new adaptation can bring out different aspects of the story while still remaining true to it.

[ladyherenya]

I am hoping that these two films have done well enough that similar projects get to go ahead -- there are so many books waiting to be adapted, or which worthy of being adapted again.

[osprey_archer]

I know that Emma came out just around the time the pandemic was gathering steam, which probably hurt its box office. I hope that more adaptations get off the ground anyway!

[ladyherenya]

You're right, I thought it had come out earlier than that but maybe it's just that February feels like a really long time ago.

[littlerhymes]

Oh so it IS worth watching? I am glad to hear it, I was so dubious from the trailer!

[osprey_archer]

Yeah! I was really pleasantly surprised. Trailer makers seem surprisingly bad at their job a lot of the time.

[asakiyume]

OMG we just saw this tonight--I had committed to seeing this after your review, and **the soundtrack** It was truly to die for. But for me, personally--and relating to the sound track (though it was one of the pieces I liked least, actually), the most earth-shaking moment was when Mr. Knightley and Jane Fairfax are singing their duet, because suddenly the SCALES FELL FROM MY EYES and I realized that Mr. Knightley was Johnny Flynn! Johnny Flynn, whose music I love. And then at the very end of the film we get that absolutely gorgeous song by him, Queen Bee.

I knew he was an actor as well as a singer--he had a bit part (very bit) in the series The Detectorists (for which he also composed the theme song), but wow, there he was playing the lead role!

But apart from the adorable and talented Johnny Flynn, I enjoyed watching all the characters. Harriet was a delight, and Jane Fairfax seemed just right, and Mr. Martin, and Isabella and Knightley's brother, and Mr. Elton, and Mrs. Bates--just wonderful. And some of the cinematography: at one point Wakanomori pressed pause to take a photo of the TV screen because he thought it was so beautiful.

Thank you so much for reviewing it--I probably wouldn't have watched it if you hadn't, and I really loved it, and so did Waka!

[osprey_archer]

Isn't the soundtrack to die for? Your comment reminded me how much I love it, and I've been listening to the folksongs as I folded laundry this morning. And Johnny Flynn!!! I had not made that connection to The Detectorists at all, but now that you mention it, I can absolutely hear the similarity between the Detectorist theme song and Queen Bee.

The cinematography is so gorgeous, too. The director got her start as a photographer and I think you can really see that in the care taken in laying out the shots. There are so many beautiful tableaux that also look gorgeous in motion, too.

I'm so glad that I convinced you to watch the movie! It's always nice to feel influential.

influential

[asakiyume]

If it weren't for you and Sovay, I probably wouldn't watch any movies at all, lol!

[asakiyume]

Also, if you like the folksongs (which I did too--loved them), you might like some Sacred Harp (shape-note) singing.

Also the scene you highlighted with the sand-cake--we loved that too! What you say about there being more of a lived-in world--like the servants at a loss as to where to place the screens, or being called to open up the doors of the ridiculous portrait frame--all so good.

[osprey_archer]

I popped over to Youtube and watched a short documentary about Sacred Harp singing, and it's so beautiful! I'm always looking for old songs to listen to, particularly when I write historical fiction (really missed a trick by not putting together a late fifties playlist for Honeytrap...) and this would be so good for nineteenth century projects.

THAT PORTRAIT FRAME. Truly it astonishes me that Mr. Elton can hold his head up ever again when he meets Emma after he presented that frame.

[asakiyume]

I assure you, it is definitely not too late to compile a late-50s playlist for HONEYTRAP. Well I mean, late for listening to as you write/revise, but your fans will adore it! And may have further suggestions.

[osprey_archer]

TBH it would probably be a lot of Elvis and then Ya shagayu po Moskve on repeat (even though that's technically didn't come out till 1964... shhhhh).

[asakiyume]

You should seriously outsource this to Twitter (and Dreamwidth and possibly FB) and see what other suggestions you get. You still get to curate but who knows what you might find! Especially if friends of friends or followers of followers know some middle-aged Russian folks!

[osprey_archer]

Well... maybe I will!

It has also occurred to me that Nikita Mikhalkov (the actor in that clip from Ya shagayu po Moskve) was a sort of unconscious model for Gennady. There's even a scene (a flashback) that draws on the scene in that clip: the bit where Gennady is in the Moscow subway with his girlfriend, and she calls him back down the escalator because he's dropped a mitten.