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osprey_archerI 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.
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.
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Date: 2020-07-12 09:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-12 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-12 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-13 12:08 am (UTC)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.