Even though I’ve only read half of Jane Austen’s books, I consider her one of my favourite authors. Like many others, my first contact with Jane Austen was through BBCs miniversion of Pride and Prejudice. A couple of years later I read the book, and it was love at first… read. I’ve also read Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. I started to read Emma earlier this year, but gave it up as I really couldn’t stand Emma as a character.
I’ve seen several film and TV adaptations of Jane Austen’s work. Here, I thought I’d share my favourites.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (BBC 1995)
BBCs miniseries of Pride and Prejudice is, hands down, my favourite of all Austen adaptations. The overall feeling, the environments, the characters; pretty much all of it is spot on! Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet is brilliant. Mr. Darcy is of course played by Colin Firth. It doesn’t matter how many other actors portrays the pride gentleman, Colin Firth will always by my Mr. Darcy.THE LIZZIE BENNET DIARIES (2012-2013)
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is a Youtube-series that is essentially Pride and Prejudice in modern day USA in a vlog format. It is a very good modernization of the book that proves that the overall themes in the book are timeless. Ashley Clements plays Lizzie Bennet, and she is great! The other actors in the cast are, for the most part, very good as well.SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995)
This movie was nominated for 6 Oscars and won 1 (Emma Thompson for the script), and I am not surprised by that. This is a wonderful adaptation that is pretty faithful to the book. The cast is full of the best of English actors; Emma Thompson is great as Elinor, Kate Winslet is brilliant, Alan Rickman is wonderfully bitter and Hugh Grant… well, he is okay, but that’s all I can say. To be honest, I’m not really that big of a fan of his.SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (BBC 2008)
It is hard not to compare this miniseries with the movie from 1995. The series is almost as good as the film, and that is mostly thanks to the actress playing Elinor (Hattie Morahan). Worth mentioning is also Dan Stevens (who played Matthew in Downton Abbey), how is a much better Edward Ferrars than Hugh Grant, in my opinion, and Dominic Cooper who plays Mr Willoughby.Emma Approved (2013-2014)
As mentioned above, I started to read Emma earlier this year, but I could not finish the book. Emma just infuriate me too much. But when I started watching the modern Youtube adaptation of Emma, called Emma Approved, I just couldn’t stop. The actors are not all brilliant, but most of them are really good. My favourites are definitely Joanna Sotomura (who is really good as Emma Woodhouse) and Brent Bailey who plays Alex Knightley.Other films worth checking out, that in one way or another is tied to Jane Austen is:
- The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)
- Becoming Jane (2007)
- Clueless (1995) – the classic modern version of Emma.
Later!
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