Re-Liveblogging "Persuasion" '07

This is what I blogged when this inferior adaptation of the most inspiring of Austen's works aired in 2008. Enjoy, if you're watching or live-tweeting tonight!

Re-Liveblogging Northanger Abbey

This is what I blogged when it originally aired in '08. enjoy!

Little Dorrit, Episode 5--FINALE (Guest Blog)

Here is K, of South in the Winter, with her thoughts on the final chapter:

"Hello all! I’m very excited to be blogging about the conclusion of Little Dorrit. Apologies for the delay – I don’t have cable and I trusted to the Internet gods to save me, but as I live in Canada I had some issues with the PBS website. But all is well! I’ve been marathoning this for the past two days…

So we open with Mr. Dorrit back in Venice attempting a marriage proposal. This scene makes me squirmy with discomfort, perhaps because Mrs. General is so insufferable and Mr. Dorrit is so clearly in a state of decline. Side note: who else loves to play the “hey, it’s that character actor!” game? You will note that Mrs. General also played the evil headmistress in Matilda.

The scene where he falls apart at Mrs. Merdle’s farewell ball in Italy is heartbreaking as well. Poor Mr. Dorrit. Remember the scene where Mr. Chivery offers to let him look into the street and the noise and bustle is overwhelming? I imagine that’s what the entire Italian interlude has been. The strain of keeping the past a secret and trying to live in the open after years of confinement is just too much.

And… a double character death. Oh Dickens, why must you tug at my heartstrings so? I’m a cynic, but killing the clarinet-playing uncle is too much. I’ll just weep over here in my corner.

Hee, the Sparklers are quite the comic relief, though. “And just when he was beginning to enjoy society!” Fanny never disappoints.

As Arthur visits Miss Wade, I’m forced to ask: does anyone else find this Miss Wade/Harriet storyline boring and/or just plain odd? This is the only instance of any kind of same-sex relationship in a Dickens novel – correct me if I’m wrong, of course. But I want to see some more. And I don’t mean sex scenes.

Ah, the inevitable reunion between Arthur and Amy! My eyes are watering in preparation. But actually it’s quite restrained, another accidental meeting in the street. Claire Foy is excellent, I must say. I mean, I don’t object to looking at Matthew Macfayden but Foy has a much harder role to pull off. She manages to keep Amy right on the border between "sweet" and "saintly."

And Mr. Merdle commits suicide – in what I excitedly thought was an opium den, but it turns out to be a bathhouse. Most shocking! Wouldn’t it hurt to kill yourself with a pen knife? Apparently all of England is thrown into financial ruin. There’ll be a run on rooms at the Marshalsea!

The shockwaves ripple… the Merdles are ruined, and plan a rather cowardly (but highly entertaining) back-door exit, while Arthur is nobler and heads over to Marshalsea because he’s lost all of his money by investing in Merdle. And so the tables have turned, and the financially solvent become the debtors. I would watch a spinoff of Mrs. Merdle, Fanny and Sparkler trying to survive on nothing but his Circumlocution Office salary, spite, and parrot food. Anyone else?

Arthur is thrown into a fever by his new status as inmate at Marshalsea and has strange dreams. When he wakes, Amy is there. And you know, I think Fellowette is right – it’s not quite the right ending to the longing and restrained love story we’ve been watching. When did he realize he was in love with her? I don’t remember seeing it happen. There’s too much money talk and not enough unburdening of the soul for my liking.

Rigaud makes his reappearance and generally behaves creepily. He lays into Mrs. Clennam but I can’t understand a word of what he’s saying… however, he is threateningly arching his brows and leaning in way too close. I conclude that he is blackmailing her! Interspersed with this are shots of Harriet discovering the Missing Box of Important Papers. And… then she’s gone.

Mrs. Clennam is apparently cured by the power of Rigaud’s insane French accent, because she stumbles off and runs into Amy, telling her the whole confusing story of Arthur’s real parentage. I will admit that I had to look this part up because it puzzled me. And then the Clennam house falls down around Rigaud and Flintwitch. This is one of those dramatic but highly unrealistic Dickensian moments – like the spontaneous combustion in Bleak House – that are completely spectacular. It’s also been heavily foreshadowed, what with all the dust and creaking. I love it! Flintwitch runs through the house trying to escape and Rigaud mutters French curse words as the roof collapses on him.

This is getting too long, sorry. Let’s skip the public shaming of Mr. Casby and move right to the happy ending. John stands by stoically in the yard as Amy enters the Marshalsea. (Oh John. There are plenty of other young ladies out there. Stop making me cry.) Our lovers reunite. It’s sweet, as Arthur picks her up and spins her about, but there isn’t quite enough sweeping emotion for me. In yet another plot twist, Daniel Doyce comes back from Russia having saved the business. Doyce is wearing fur, as all travellers to Russia must.

Wedding scene! Everyone is there – including, inexplicably, Harriet and the Meagles. Where’s Pet? Hopefully not languishing in Italy still. I like that Amy is wearing a purple dress - a lot of the colours thus far (around the Dorrit family in particular) have been subdued greys and violets, and her wedding dress is in the same family but a bit brighter and happier.

And the camera freezes on Little Dorrit, now all grown up, as your cynical heartless blogger wipes away a tear. Dickens and Davies are obviously out to sell a lot of Kleenex to classic novel lovers. The John storyline alone broke my heart repeatedly. I must say, despite the dropped threads of the plot (Pet, Harriet and Miss Wade) and the somewhat disappointing end to the love story, this miniseries was highly entertaining. As always with Dickens, the secondary comic characters are so important, and the casting was uniformly excellent. What did everyone else think?

Thanks so much for the opportunity, Fellowette!"

Little Dorritt Episode Two (a live-guest-blog!)

Episode 2

Guest Blog Post by a TRUE egalitarian bookworm chick, Beth Dunn

Story of my life: I always love all the wrong people. All throughout the Harry Potter movie series, I was that creepy 30-something in the back row, moaning in erotic bliss whenever Snape oozed across the screen. Could have used an occasional shower, sure, but Christ that voice.

Trouble is, once I fall in love with one of your former characters, it is almost impossible to make me hate you even when you play a baddie. OK ESPECIALLY when you play a baddie. Because that just plays into my already well established ATTRACTION to baddies, and what you get is, well…

…me, sitting down to watch the second episode of Little Dorrit (which no I haven’t read or ever watched or anything before I am as untouched as Darcy’s precious little sister), and I am already rooting HARD for Dan Pegotty Flintwitch to pitch that cranky old lady down the stairs one of these dark, rainy nights. Just for not ever letting dreamy old Arthur ever touch her. I mean, honestly. When has young Clennam ever heard “don’t touch me” from a lady? C’MERE YOU.

And of course Andy Serkis Gollem Rigaud can roll his wicked old eyes at me anytime. LOVE him. Randy old bugger.

So yes, I suppose my other inclinations and affiliations are all as Mr. Dickens would have them be right now, as we begin episode two (which God knows was probably episode 317 back when he was serializing this stuff in teasing little thimble-sized doses in The Journals Of The Day). I’m quite in love with young Arthur Clennam, half in love with that puppy at the gate of the jail, and… I can’t stand Pet. So I’ve got that much right, at least.

But I am also secretly sort of in love with Miss Ward, who will no doubt reward me for my affection one of these days with unspeakable cruelty and wickedness.

I can only hope.

SO. Episode two. I am a big fan of the Live Blog format, so I have been typing all these prologue-y musings with the beginning of the episode on freeze frame – the new PBS intro music, really, accessorized with the lovely Colin Firth’s face beaming at me (quite insupportably) through gauzy red curtains. Let’s put him out of his adorableness and hit PLAY.

Ah! Puppy! Young John Chivery! And the elder Mr. Dorrit! Let us begin.

Have I mentioned yet that I covet those soft caps worn by doddering old gentlemen in these things? They look so COMFORTABLE. One can hardly get a good doddering on without one.

Ooh, Pet has an evil emo interloper suitor. He looks like that insufferable twit with the hair in his face from Mansfield Park. Well good. He can have her, silly little simpering thing with an overbite.

Here comes Puppy, literally cap in hand, to propose to Amy by the river.

(What was that old comic bit? Don’t go to the river!!!)

Aw crap, this proposal scene is going to hurt, isn’t it. John is such an adorable little thing, and so openhearted and kind and pure and OH GOD NO JOHN DON’T CRY.

Oh don’t cry. Oh how awful. Excuse me. I need to hit pause and sob alone for a few minutes. Crap crap crap crap crap.

Way to rip my heart out in the first bloody five minutes of the episode, assholes. Goddammit.

OK. Better stock up on tissues and settle down.

Meanwhile, back in the land of the Upper Class Twit, Young Clennam is inexplicably captivated by the kind of empty-headed blond girl-child apparently favored by gentlemen of his class. Look at him. He’s got actual stars in his eyes.

HEY ASSHOLE. Amy is over here breaking her best friend’s heart by the river, all so she can keep fingering your button. Show a little respect.

Tattycoram is the only one in the drawing room with any sense of decorum, and storms out of this putrid scene, apparently aghast at the awfulness of it all. Good instincts, kid. Very sound.

Father Dorrit is rather adorable, in his soft knit cap and his self-delusional grandstanding with his brother. But I do wish he would catch on and stop being so damn tactless with Chivery senior, while John is inside licking his wounds…

Oh god no more crying. William Dorrit’s little monologue of distress, after he sees Amy weeping with the sadness of it all, and then he realizes what a sad, selfish, tactless Dad he has been, is killing me. Crying Dads really get to me, too.

Why did I get assigned the Crying Episode? This is going to take me forever to get through, what with all the pausing and the weeping.

Thank god, now we can get back to some good old-fashioned evil-watching with Rigaud and Pegotty Flintwitch-the-Inexplicably-Other crossing paths. Hilarity can only ensue.

Oh lord, Flintwitch, don’t be drunkenly lured down dark alleys – NEAR THE RIVER NO LESS – by handsome, hairy Frenchmen who slip you roofies in your wine. RULES TO LIVE BY.

Stabby stabby stabby SPLASH. Happens every time. What an enthusiastic murderer Monsieur Rigaud is turning out to be.

What a MARVELOUS exchange between the little sharpie Fanny and the big sharpie, young Sparkler’s ma. Not much separates those two, when you get right down to it.

Oh God, Rigaud smells like my first boyfriend. YES I CAN SMELL HIM THROUGH THE TV SET. Like… unwashed denim and thrift shop leather jacket. Yum.

So Amy is going to work for shy, retiring little Flora, now. That ought to produce some heartfelt confidences.

Hey HEY and why not get started on that agenda right away?

Flora: “ILOVEARTHURCLENNAM ILOVEARTHURCLENNAM ILOVEARTHURLENNAM OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH YESIDOOOOO”

OOH Amy you industrious little fairy. Good job outta you, bearing up under that verbal flood.

AH YES and now the RIGHT man walks down the stairs by the river to talk to Little Dorrit. Well hello, Arthur. And what do you have to say for yourself?

Arthur: “I understand these matters of the heart, Amy… There’s someone I care about, very much. And I have held back from declaring my love.”

Amy: “…”

Arthur: “You don’t know her.”

OH SMACK. More crying by the river.

Arthur: “Are we still friends?”

Amy: “Yes, (SOB) we’re still friends.”

Yep. I’ve had that conversation.

Hey everybody, I know! Let’s all fight with our families and then go back to the river. And cry.

Swear to GOD Amy if you throw that button in the river I will smack you so hard

crap.

Nobody ever listens to me.

Mr. Pancks indulges in a nice bit of foreshadowing, grabbing Amy’s palm and going all gypsy on it. He is starting to really like his job, I think.

And Dickensian Italian Stereotype Mr. Cavaletto is clearly getting laid in his new digs with Mrs. Plawdish. Good for him. Good for Mrs. Plawdish. Oh wait, Mr. Plawdish is still alive. Whoops. My bad.

AAAHHHH ANDREW DAVIES I BLAME YOU for that awful shot of Mr. Doice with the steam coming out of his ears, followed by sad little spurts of water!!! You sir will have to answer for THAT in hell. (as for so much else…)

Now Clennam is making his sweet, ill-considered offer of marriage to Pet. And another proposal bites the dust. No crying in this one, though. Nope. Clennam thinks about it for a second, notices (finally) that Pet’s upper lip is always blue with frostbite from hanging a foot away from the rest of her face, and laughs with the sheer joy of escape. Dodged a bullet that time, m’boy.

He even goes so far as to wish the two lovers well. Yes, I’m sure you’ll both be very very happy, you frightful, insipid, worthless little twerps.

Good day!

Mr. Chivery and Mr. Dorrit make up and restore their friendship after Amy breaks John’s heart forever, and in return Mr. Chivery offers to mock Mr. Dorrit with a glimpse of the world he can never have again. And in a surprise move to none, Mr. Dorrit is completely institutionalized, and can’t even step outside.

Get busy living, or get busy dying. “IT’S HIM! With the CAKE!!!” Maggy knows what she likes in a man.

“Has Mr. Clennam behaved improperly towards you?”

“No, father, not at all.” THAT’S THE PROBLEM, FATHER

Aaaaaand Tattycoram is ready for her long-awaited psychotic break.

Good for her. Every teenager needs a good psychotic break now and again.

Let’s see just what sort of wickedness that Miss Wade is up to anyway.

…huh. Seems like a nice enough lady to me. I suppose I’ll find out more about her LATER.
I have to say that Mr. Pancks is rapidly becoming a crowd favorite.

He is clearly so VERY pleased with himself, so transparently not here to wish Mrs. Clennam her good health! Snort snort chuckle snort! (OH he has made me clap my hands in delight!) Uncle Ned is dead, is he? IS HE???

I smell Dickensian-deus-ex-machina!!! Wheee!

And we close with my great smelling ex-boyfriend Rigaud arriving on the very doorstep of the House of Clennam. Whomever will he penetrate murder next?

STAY TUNED

(And thank you for letting me guest-blog! What fun!)

[you're more than welcome--Fellow-ette]

Re-Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season" Sense and Sensibility Installment TWO

Just as the PBS showing of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility on Masterpiece Classic tonight is a re-broadcast, so is this a re-liveblog. So warning, SPOILERS AHEAD. Read ahead at your own risk ;)
See you next week for Chazz Dickens-mania!


SO I've been thinking about the idea of the two film versions as "companion" pieces, each picking up on a different aspect of the novel. Ang/Emma's version (S&S95) riffs on Austen's satire of Marianne's out-of-whack romanticism and her infatuation with Willoughby, and also plays up on the differences between the sisters ("I compare my behavior to what it ought have been. I compare it to yours!"). Davies version picks up on the precarious situation of women in the time down to the house perched vulnerably on the edge of cliffs/crashing waves, which is obviously one of Austen's favorite themes, and it's treated particularly strongly in this novel. Even the darker hues and music fit into it...here goes.


9:01 pm-- Why is Gillian "Lily Bart" Anderson talking about Tom LeFroy? What does this fave to do with anything? Enough of this crap, bring on Elinor and Marianne!

9:04--Elinor says there must be "some explanation" for Edward's not visiting. Turns out, she's right, cause she's Elinor and she has so much sense.

9:05--Marianne recites some poem and talks like Cathy in Wuthering Heights. 'He is in me! He is with me all the time...I am Heathcliff!"

9:07--They talk about whether money can buy happiness. Elinor prosaic, Marianne poetic. Edward utterly tortured, dying to speak words unspoken, to utter sentiments un-uttered.

9:09--The famed, oft-discussed Edward WOOD-CHOPPING in the rain scene. Less sexy than sticky. No Darcy in the lake, that's for sure.

9:12--Still, it has affected Elinor; she lies sleepless and troubled.

9:13--BREAK from live-blogging while I devour my Vietnamese noodles and watch the screen uninterrupted.

_________________________

9:30--And I'm back. Just in time for the misty-morning DUEL?? Huh? Is this a fantasy scene or what? Oh, I get it. They're dueling over Eliza. That's what they did back then. [In fact, as Raquel mentioned in the last week's liveblog, Austen mentions it in an elliptical conversation as related by Brandon]

9:31--In the interim, there have been some wonderful scenes... but a lot of them are just like S&S 95. Stopcomparingstopcomparing.

9:35--Marianne: "Happy Elinor, you have no idea of what I suffer?"
Um, yes she does you selfish, overly "sensible" girl! She just has the "sense" to hide it.

9:37--Brandon tells Eliza's tale of woe to Elinor. Like I said, the theme of the social situation of women is everywhere--but doesn't the duel undercut it a bit? Precarious women, yeah, but who cares when they could be defended by manly men with their swords?

9:40--Margaret delivers an abridged version of Anne's speech at the end of "Persuasion." "Girls must sit around and wait for things to happen. Men ride about the country!"

9:41--Oh sheeet, Brandon visits Eliza's daughter and her infant. Isn't it kind of f'ed up that he's Eliza's "father" figure and she's the same age as Marianne, whom he wants to bone?

Ouch, he tells her about Willoughby's engagement.

9:43--Fanny Ferrars calls Marianne "damaged goods." John Dashwood says Marianne has "lost her bloom" and urges Elinor to "try for Colonel Brandon." Mrs. Ferrars the elder is reincarnated as Lady Catherine de Bourgh from P&P '95 and gets into a staring contest with Marianne.
In short, they suck.
But this dinner party scene is awesome. Virginia Woolf should write a stream-of-consciousness narration detailing everyone's feelings.

9:46-- Oof, oof, oof, the scenes between Elinor and Miss Steele, and Edward and Elior and Miss Steele, are so painful. And so perfect. The longing in his face, and in Elinor's, is beautifully rendered.

9:51--Anne spills the beans. The defendants stand trial at the course of the elder Mrs. Ferrars. So much glaring!

9:53--I just love this portrayal of Edward.. even more than that of H-h-hugh Grant... his pain is so apparent, and he's seen as so much more an upright man than just a doddering fool.

9:55--Elinor's big scene: "Let me assure you, I have been very unhappy."

9:56--This scene is both derivative of S&S '95 AND P&P '95, what with the silhouettes against the windows. But yes, it's really sad. Poor Elinor. Losing your man to Lucy Steele... it doesn't get worse than this.

9:59--Elinor and Marianne talk about the menz. "Perhaps they see us not as people but as playthings, Elinor," says Marianne.

10:01--Marianne fantasizes in the rain about kissing Willoughby. Brandon comes riding up to her rescue, unlike in the book--it does feel like Ang Lee's version has become dogma, like as Mags said, this film is as much a remake of that one as it is of the book.

10:03--Colonel Brandon holds Marianne's hand. Pedophile alert! Naw, jk, it's mad sexy. He's a sweet, stern not-really-old man.

10:07--Willoughby's "confession." He's just a whiny emo-schoolboy here. No Greg Wise, I repeat. And Elinor gives it to him good--no sign of the pity she feels in the novel.

10:11--Marianne talks about how Colonel Brandon is a true Romantic for keeping faith with Eliza throughout the years. "It is not what we say... but what we do." This explaines the connection between Brandon and Marianne, and why Brandon loves her instead of Elinor, who seems to be a better match.

10:12--OK Davies, why follow up that great speech with comparing women to horses who need to be tamed? Or is Elinor just being deeply ironic?


Another break while I watch the end and savor it.

_______________________________


10:31--So the ending was wonderful, I even choked up a bit, but I have to wonder why again Elinor started sobbing convulsively just like Emma Thompson did. The book describes it as Elinor " burst into tears of joy, which at first she thought would never cease. " Does it follow that they must be hiccoughing tears? Ah, well. Maybe it does! It does feel wonderful to see Elinor release her feelings. It's so cathartic.

But showing the evolution of the Marianne-Brandon relationship and the talk between the sisters on the beach were all well-done.

Companion pieces. I have to see the two films as companion pieces. Must stop comparing!

Well, it's been a wonderful Jane Austen season. See you next time there are six Jane Austen movies in the same year. Probably in 2012 or even sooner, sigh ;)

Re-Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season" Sense and Sensibility Installment ONE

Just as the PBS showing of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility on Masterpiece Classic tonight is a re-broadcast, so is this a re-liveblog. So warning, SPOILERS AHEAD. Read ahead at your own risk ;)


9pm.

Here goes. I'm counting the laughs throughout the evening to see if Davies accurately nails Austen's big satire.

If you read my JA coverage you know I adore the Ang Lee film version, but more as a product of Ang Lee's and Emma Thompson's genius than Jane's/ So let's see if Davies can keep his ego in check and not be influenced too much by the '95 version.


9:04--The highly-anticipated "sex scene" isn't very controversial so far--but I wonder if this "do you truly love me," Willoughby stuff isn't seeing things through a modern lens.

9:05--John promises Mr. Dashwood that he will "do something by the girls." So far, it's all very Serious.

9:06--The first laugh of the evening, when Margaret says "will they have to live with Gypsys?"

9:09--Fanny Dashwood, such a bitch!

9:11--The first mention of a COTTAGE! I am EXC-essively fond of a cottage.

9:13--Laugh count, according to my boyfriend and our good friend Mike: 3 to 4.

9:14--A side note--the production value of this is SO MUCH better than the ITV productions earlier this year. Another example of the longstanding British oppression of the Irish.

9:16--Side note number two: Andrew Davies is still good at distilling the essence of a novel, but he's using more of his own language relative to Jane's--"carpet-beating" etc. etc. Still, so far so good.

9:17--Edward is HOT. And he's a total Hugh Grant type.

9:18--Edward and Elinor discuss his career; the scene is shot just like S&S95.

9:20--Remind me those who have read the book. Is this whole Edward-bonds-with-Margaret thing actually in the book or is it just a trope that filmmakers continually use to show how great Edward is?

9:25--Fanny, such a BITCH, redux.

9:25--Mrs. Dashwood on John Middleton: "Such kindness, from a man we have never met." Flash to John Dashwood's uncomfortable face. This is what we love about Andrew Davies. This is the kind of subtlety Jane demands.

9:28--Edward values Elinor's friendship but can't stay anymore. His eyes are all teary. He's a bit awkward but I actually may like him better than Hugh Grant, not in terms of loveability but in terms of being true to the character from the novel. Shy, yes, proper yes, but not a stammering ninny.

9:32--WOW. What beautiful shots of the English countryside. Let's go there! Fetch my trap and pony! Or perhaps I am the type who would prefer a barouche?

9:37--Sir John Middleton is MR WEASLEY FROM HARRY POTTER! But Ang Lee still has Snape, Sybil Trelawney, Madame Pomfrey, Dolores Umbridge and Cornelius Fudge in his picture. Not too fair.

9:38--Colonel Brandon is so ...dashing. Quoth my boyfriend's sister over gmail chat: LOOK AT THAT HUNK!

9:41--We get that this cottage is seriously uncomfortable. Cold. Damp. British. Almost Irish. The surrounding cliffs are absolutely gorgeous, in a stark way.

Hey, you ever notice how Marianne and Elinor are living on a cliff, both literally cause there's a cliff onscreen, and figuratively because they're women with no money and they're one step away from ruin? Nice symbolism, Davies.

9:45--I like the way they are developing the Marianne and Brandon thing. Very slowly. But I feel that Marianne's over-the-top romanticism is not quite being played for laughs the way Austen wants it to. She's supposed to be a walking, talking embodiment of the Romantic fangirl, and she just comes off as a bit spoiled here. But I think it's almost impossible to live up to Kate Wiinslet's performance, no?

9:52--Willoughby is no Greg Wise. He doesn't have the smoldering looks that make his creepy behavior seem pass-able. The whole point of Willoughby is that he looks the part of the hero so much so everyone is fooled by him.

9:57--"How do you do sir?" "How do you do Brandon?"
AWKWARD.
"Poor Brandon. You shall none of you think of him now."--Sir John Middleton from S&S 95.

No laughs for a while now, incidentally. It's gotten pretty serious. Unfortunately I can't take Willoughby seriously.

10:00--OH SHYTE, A CONFRONTATION BETWEEN WILLOUGHBY AND BRANDON. This is sooooooo not in the book!

Willoughby has some sass on his mouth. He needs a good whack from Brandon's rifle-butt.

10:04--This buying them a horse business has totally lost me. I know it's right out of the book, but...

10:09--Andrew Davies sure knows how to sex up a lock-cutting scene, eh? The snipping of the scissors, the movement of hands... very hot stuff.

10:14--In which Willoughby and Marianne go to Allenham. Is he taking her up to the bedroom? Is he talking to her about fairytales? This all feels a bit too modern Joe-Wrighty for me.

Oh shit, they're making out!!!

I dunno...

I was so into this at the beginning, but I'm souring. Marianne is supposed to be comically carried away.

However, I LOVE this Elinor. She's giving Emma Thompson a run for her money. She is so proper and sympathetic without being fussy or fastidious. She is just a tough, strong, centered woman.

10:23--Quoth Marianne: "I am sure he will find a way to come back and see us very soon." WHY Marianne being so rational? She's supposed to be FREAKING OUT!!

**
Okay, concluding thoughts. Not as good as '95 in the respect that the caricature and wit totally falls away about 40 minutes in, and Jane Austen never never never stops being a satirist even when she's describing pathos.

However, the scenery and the acting on the part of Elinor, Edward, and Brandon are all excellent, and obviously it's fun to watch it develop at a novel-like pace. Can't wait for next week!

Live-Blogging PBS' "Wuthering Heights," Installment II, ( part 3)

Part I, Part II, Review of Installment I

• So we've cut to the future. Nelly Dean looks really good for like, an octegenarian! Heathcliff on the other hand seems a bit ragged.
  
• And the number of deathbed scenes has increased to three. Life was tough on the moors for the Linton clan.
  
• Hareton and Cathy II spar verbally whilst sitting by the kitchen fire. Oh no s/he didn't. Truths are revaled, a connection is forged, but try as we might it's so hard to care about these kids the way we cared about their irritatingly vital parents.
  
• Shaky camerawork speeding over the moors and through the halls of the Heights approximates the ghost of Cathy I. "Let me in!" she cries, sounding a lot like Kate Bush.
  
• And Linton Heathcliff has left this earthly realm. Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for that whiny miserable invalid. Sorry to speak ill of the dead, but it is true!
• And fairly quickly we see that Hareton and the recently-widowed-but-it-doesn't-count bc it was-a-marriage-forced-upon her Cathy are falling in lurve. Heathcliff can't do much to thwart these two besotted lovers and he knows it, because they both look like Cathy I and because let's face it, he's losing that Heathcliff touch. Hearing ghosts, not viciously beating those who piss him off, unable to get his rocks off by exacting cruel revenge. Is this the Heathcliff of yesteryear? When did he become such a shadow of his Fiendish self?
• [SPOILERS BELOW]
  
• Uh-oh, the cheesy music signifies that the scene everyone's been mocking is coming our way. And here it is, Heathcliff is happy and smiling (I know he's supposed to be all weirdly hyped and grinning at the end of his life but this is sap-city) and he joins the ghost of Cathy in the hallway. This cannot end well.
• Wait, huh, did Heathcliff SHOOT HIMSELF? Wtf? Cath's ghost is supposed to do the job, not Hindley's pistol! This is mad confusing and happening quite quickly.
  

• It's moving day. This reminds me of the time the Bushes moved out of the white house earlier this week. That was a good move. But back to the 19th century... Our happy couple move from the infernal Heights to the celestial Grange--or is it the other way around, eh? Are they leaving freedom in favor of propriety, thus shattering the bucolic memory of their parent generations' blissful childhood? And then...
  
• The older couple, H and C #1 stand at the window watching and smiling(?) as the young couple moves off. Why they so happy, prat tell? Is it because they can prowl the halls in ghostly forms without the damn kids getting in the way? Because those young folks just grow up and have love affairs so damn fast? Or is it because the director didn't know how else to end this tale? Also, if they're going to put them in the window, they should look more ghostly.
• Okay, so I think the last five minutes were kinda crap-tastic. And the first half was definitely better than the second half, but on the whole I remain fairly pleased with the adaptation particularly 1) Tom Hardy and 2) the scenery and filming.
  

That's a wrap folks. Let's let Nelly Dean take us out: "But the country folks, if you ask them, would swear on the Bible that he WALKS: there are those who speak to having met him near the church, and on the moor, and even within this house. Idle tales, you'll say, and so say I. Yet that old man by the kitchen fire affirms he has seen two on 'em looking out of his chamber window on every rainy night since his death:- and an odd thing happened to me about a month ago. I was going to the Grange one evening - a dark evening, threatening thunder - and, just at the turn of the Heights, I encountered a little boy with a sheep and two lambs before him; he was crying terribly; and I supposed the lambs were skittish, and would not be guided. 'What is the matter, my little man?' I asked. 'There's Heathcliff and a woman yonder, under t' nab,' he blubbered, 'un' I darnut pass 'em.'

What did you think?

Live-Blogging PBS' "Wuthering Heights," Installment II, (part 2)

• And everything is falling apart. Cathy is histrionic, Heathcliff has gone from man to monster, Hindley is waving a gun all over the place. Edgar is tyrannical and conventional. And everyone reveals their worst selves! Emily Bronte is merciless.
• Here come some vital exchanges:
• Nelly remarks on the fact that Cathy won't eat, which is a super important metaphoricaly--her self-starvation is her way of rebelling against the ties that bind by punishing herself (or the part of herself that is aligned with the strictures of the social-patriarchal order?).
• And Cathy longs to be a "savage" again...to no longer be stuck in her gilded cage but to be wild, to be one with Heathcliff once more.
• Cathy runs out onto the moors in the rain calling Heathclif's name. He hears her, he finds her!
• And just when you think they are both horrible people and deserve nothing, they have a tender scene in the rain revealing their primal connection. "There's no Edgar, there's no Hindley, there's just you and I," he says.
  
• On her deathbed, Cathy asks that her child not be too tame. Oh man, if this book is not a giant FU to the patriarchy I shall eat my bonnet.
  
• Hindley, pointing a gun at Heathcliff, tells the story about how Cathy asked for a "whip" from her dad as a child and got Heathcliff instead. But of course, he is her whip--the weapon she uses against the world, the part of herself that exacts a brutal revenge on those who subdue her wildness, who tame her.
  
• And when Isabella encounters her brother, he reveals himself to be just as cruel as Heathcliff, totally spurns her. Of course, his wife IS departing this earthly realm and she loves another dude, so one might be inclined to cut him some slack. Who am I kidding, Edward is a !@#$t..
  

...

• And Cathy is dead. Heathcliff does NOT bang his forehead on the tree whilst she is dying, which is disappointing. But he does talk to her corpse, quite intimately. And here comes his big line, his "I am Heathcliff" moment.
• wait for it, wait for it, wait for it,
• and here it comes...
• I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT MY LIFE, I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT MY SOUL.

...

• 15 years later and Heathcliff is exacting his revenge by forcing emo-Linton Heathcliff to marry baby Cathy. See you in the next liveblog thread!
  

Live-Blogging PBS' "Wuthering Heights," Installment II (Part I)

9.p.m. Here we go. When we last left our heroes, Heathcliff was exacting revenge on Hindley while Cathy was smarting with regret and chafing at her situation at Thrushcross Grange. Also, Isabella thinks Heathcliff is hot. Feel free to add your thoughts as the movie goes on... consider this and the subsequent live-blog posts as an open thread.
And don't forget to vote/allocate blame.

9:05--Isabella and Cathy have a catfight over Heathcliff at the door to the Grange. Cathy's having a temper tantrum, reaping what she sows.

9:06--And Edgar kicks Heathcliff out. Here comes an important line "Cathy this lamb of yours threatens like a bull" revealing that Edgar is cruel too and not as gentle as he posits himself.

9:07 and now the men have their own catfight! So many couples fighting and switching around. Is this Wuthering Heights or Fleetwood Mac??

9:10 Another woman running away from home... and another sex scene! Yay! Except it's not exactly romantic... poor Isabella.

9:13 Cathy tantrum number two. My viewing companion says: "She's like a child." Yes, yes she is. A primal child longing to run through the moors and escape her prison of creature comforts. Sigh.

Golden Globes

I'm live-blogging the Golden Globes over on Twitter, if you're watching. I'll be focusing of course, on EBC lit-adaptation favorites like Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, and more.

Half-heartedly live-blogging A Room With a View

Andrew Davies takes his hatchet to EM Forster AND the Merchant/Ivory team, a combo I've blogged about before, upon my return from Firenze. Methinks nudity and a lack of subtlety is in store.

So to start with some 6 degress of period drama: Mr. Beebe is Arthur Weasley, Sophie Thompson aka Mary Eliot is Mrs. Charlotte Bartlett, and Peter Pettigrew is Mr. Emerson.

9;10 pm So far, so good. Definitely, a darker tone that the Merchant-Ivory version (AND the book). The fact that it's told by the widowed, and bob-haired Lucy after George has been killed in WWI, does cast a pal over things.

9:16--"If Ms. Honeychurch takes to live as she plays, it will be very exciting for us."
Said to the backdrop of rain. Mr. Beebe says he hasn't the courage to live his life to the fullest. And by that he means he doesn't have the guts bone other men. We get it it.

9:18-- Lucy stares at bare buttocks of statues, mouth agape. Oh, the dark, sensual, Italian landscape. Erotic transference wherever you go! Still, would it be a BBC production without women starting at portraits or statues to symbolize sexual repression?

9:21--The murder-fight scene on the piazza is vastly inferior to the Merchant-Ivory one. Why the slow-mo blood spitting? That's just gross.

9:26--I just realized--Miss Lavish is played by Mrs. Thornton from North and South. What totally different role, steel vs. feathers, and she's awesome at both of them.

9:27--Oh, the italian countryside, part due. At least the Italian driver and his "sister" actually look Italian. His poor sorella, she has to walk back.

9:30--Yo, WHERE"S THE PUCCINI? Here it is.



9:34--Smooches in the poppy-and golden Florentine Hills! And more smooches.

9:37--This half-naked, near the toilet, smooching in the Pensione hallway business seems a bit unnecessary, no?

9:41--Cecil Vyse is the weird Mr. Wizely or whatever, who was the best part of Becoming Jane. Not bad casting, eh? but still, no Daniel-Day Lewis.

And now they're engaged.

9:47, redux: Mr. Beebe to Cecil: "You asked her to marry you? But...but... you don't like the vagina!"

9:50--Ah, the nude bathing scene. My personal fave. Even better: Channel 13 is BLURRING THE BUTTOCKS. Too risque for the baby boomers!

9;51--Andrew Davies is milking Forster's "piano as an outlet for sexual and emotional frustration" metaphor to the extreeeeme. Everytime anything happens, Lucy dashes to the piano.

9:55--Cecil Vyse reads Miss Lavish's sexy novel-passages out loud whilst his fiancee gets frisky neath the shrubbery with George Emerson. What a cuckold.

9:57--Miss Bartlett talks about "thrashing" and "horse-whipping" and elicits my first hearty laugh of the production.

10:00--George professes his amore to Lucy. This is a good speech. I like the fact that Davies gives George Emerson so many words.

...And he's rejected. Charlotte Bartlett shows her less spinstery side by shedding a tear on behalf of True Romance.

10:03--Lucy gets ready to dump Cecil. Instead of talking about how Cecil thinks women are like Leonardos, possessions, she talks about all he cares about are books and music, which is less convincing. Also, the scenes with his mother where she says they'll "take the Honeychurch" out of her are gone.

10:09--Mrs. Honeychurch and Lucy are shouting at each other. I'm bored. Lucy goes off to the woods. wouldn't it be awesome if this production ended up with a co-ed skinny-dipping scene?

10:12--Sophie Thompson rocks, but this Miss Bartlett-is0really nice meme is taken a bit to far.

10:17--Taking one last SWIM. Andrew Davies will do anything to show more nudity. And they are both in the water! Yo, I CALLED IT at 10:09.

And we flash from a water-logged make-out session to a full-on sex scene.

10:19--Finally, some opera. And the war comes. George Emerson lies dead in the trenches. That's pretty graphic. And sad. I can't get too mad at Davies for tacking this on--I mean the Great War pretty much killed an entire generation of young men.

10:22--She's picnicking with the Italian, and they're going to have sex. Are those fascists marching by them in the hills? Is is already Mussolini time?
Suddenly I think I'm seeing Lady Brett Ashley and the Toreador in The Sun Also Rises.

10:27--Andrew Davies, taking us from EM Forster to Ernest Hemmingway in 90 minutes.

While this is not as groundbreakingly fantasmic as the 1985 production, it was interesting and had good moments and the War stuff added a good dimension. Classics can withstand a battering, I always say ;) But still, he would have done better to adapt a book that hadn't already been turned in to one of the defining movies in recent history.
Just sayin'.

Signing out, til Cranford.

Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season" Sense and Sensibility Installment TWO

SO I've been thinking about the idea of the two film versions as "companion" pieces, each picking up on a different aspect of the novel. Ang/Emma's version (S&S95) riffs on Austen's satire of Marianne's out-of-whack romanticism and her infatuation with Willoughby, and also plays up on the differences between the sisters ("I compare my behavior to what it ought have been. I compare it to yours!"). Davies version picks up on the precarious situation of women in the time down to the house perched vulnerably on the edge of cliffs/crashing waves, which is obviously one of Austen's favorite themes, and it's treated particularly strongly in this novel. Even the darker hues and music fit into it...here goes.


9:01 pm-- Why is Gillian "Lily Bart" Anderson talking about Tom LeFroy? What does this fave to do with anything? Enough of this crap, bring on Elinor and Marianne!

9:04--Elinor says there must be "some explanation" for Edward's not visiting. Turns out, she's right, cause she's Elinor and she has so much sense.

9:05--Marianne recites some poem and talks like Cathy in Wuthering Heights. 'He is in me! He is with me all the time...I am Heathcliff!"

9:07--They talk about whether money can buy happiness. Elinor prosaic, Marianne poetic. Edward utterly tortured, dying to speak words unspoken, to utter sentiments un-uttered.

9:09--The famed, oft-discussed Edward WOOD-CHOPPING in the rain scene. Less sexy than sticky. No Darcy in the lake, that's for sure.

9:12--Still, it has affected Elinor; she lies sleepless and troubled.

9:13--BREAK from live-blogging while I devour my Vietnamese noodles and watch the screen uninterrupted.

_________________________

9:30--And I'm back. Just in time for the misty-morning DUEL?? Huh? Is this a fantasy scene or what? Oh, I get it. They're dueling over Eliza. That's what they did back then.

9:31--In the interim, there have been some wonderful scenes... but a lot of them are just like S&S 95. Stopcomparingstopcomparing.

9:35--Marianne: "Happy Elinor, you have no idea of what I suffer?"
Um, yes she does you selfish, overly "sensible" girl! She just has the "sense" to hide it.

9:37--Brandon tells Eliza's tale of woe to Elinor. Like I said, the theme of the social situation of women is everywhere--but doesn't the duel undercut it a bit? Precarious women, yeah, but who cares when they could be defended by manly men with their swords?

9:40--Margaret delivers an abridged version of Anne's speech at the end of "Persuasion." "Girls must sit around and wait for things to happen. Men ride about the country!"

9:41--Oh sheeet, Brandon visits Eliza's daughter and her infant. Isn't it kind of f'ed up that he's Eliza's "father" figure and she's the same age as Marianne, whom he wants to bone?

Ouch, he tells her about Willoughby's engagement.

9:43--Fanny Ferrars calls Marianne "damaged goods." John Dashwood says Marianne has "lost her bloom" and urges Elinor to "try for Colonel Brandon." Mrs. Ferrars the elder is reincarnated as Lady Catherine de Bourgh from P&P '95 and gets into a staring contest with Marianne.
In short, they suck.
But this dinner party scene is awesome. Virginia Woolf should write a stream-of-consciousness narration detailing everyone's feelings.

9:46-- Oof, oof, oof, the scenes between Elinor and Miss Steele, and Edward and Elior and Miss Steele, are so painful. And so perfect. The longing in his face, and in Elinor's, is beautifully rendered.

9:51--Anne spills the beans. The defendants stand trial at the course of the elder Mrs. Ferrars. So much glaring!

9:53--I just love this portrayal of Edward.. even more than that of H-h-hugh Grant... his pain is so apparent, and he's seen as so much more an upright man than just a doddering fool.

9:55--Elinor's big scene: "Let me assure you, I have been very unhappy."

9:56--This scene is both derivative of S&S '95 AND P&P '95, what with the silhouettes against the windows. But yes, it's really sad. Poor Elinor. Losing your man to Lucy Steele... it doesn't get worse than this.

9:59--Elinor and Marianne talk about the menz. "Perhaps they see us not as people but as playthings, Elinor," says Marianne.

10:01--Marianne fantasizes in the rain about kissing Willoughby. Brandon comes riding up to her rescue, unlike in the book--it does feel like Ang Lee's version has become dogma, like as Mags said, this film is as much a remake of that one as it is of the book.

10:03--Colonel Brandon holds Marianne's hand. Pedophile alert! Naw, jk, it's mad sexy. He's a sweet, stern not-really-old man.

10:07--Willoughby's "confession." He's just a whiny emo-schoolboy here. No Greg Wise, I repeat. And Elinor gives it to him good--no sign of the pity she feels in the novel.

10:11--Marianne talks about how Colonel Brandon is a true Romantic for keeping faith with Eliza throughout the years. "It is not what we say... but what we do." This explaines the connection between Brandon and Marianne, and why Brandon loves her instead of Elinor, who seems to be a better match.

10:12--OK Davies, why follow up that great speech with comparing women to horses who need to be tamed? Or is Elinor just being deeply ironic?


Another break while I watch the end and savor it.

_______________________________

10:31--So the ending was wonderful, I even choked up a bit, but I have to wonder why again Elinor started sobbing convulsively just like Emma Thompson did. The book describes it as Elinor " burst into tears of joy, which at first she thought would never cease. " Does it follow that they must be hiccoughing tears? Ah, well. Maybe it does! It does feel wonderful to see Elinor release her feelings. It's so cathartic.

But showing the evolution of the Marianne-Brandon relationship and the talk between the sisters on the beach were all well-done.

Companion pieces. I have to see the two films as companion pieces. Must stop comparing!

Well, it's been a wonderful Jane Austen season. See you next time there are six Jane Austen movies in the same year. Probably in 2012 or even sooner, sigh ;)

Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season": Sense and Sensibility, installment 1

Here goes. I'm counting the laughs throughout the evening to see if Davies accurately nails Austen's big satire.

If you read my JA coverage you know I adore the Ang Lee film version, but more as a product of Ang Lee's and Emma Thompson's genius than Jane's/ So let's see if Davies can keep his ego in check and not be influenced too much by the '95 version.


9:04--The highly-anticipated "sex scene" isn't very controversial so far--but I wonder if this "do you truly love me," Willoughby stuff isn't seeing things through a modern lens.

9:05--John promises Mr. Dashwood that he will "do something by the girls." So far, it's all very Serious.

9:06--The first laugh of the evening, when Margaret says "will they have to live with Gypsys?"

9:09--Fanny Dashwood, such a bitch!

9:11--The first mention of a COTTAGE! I am EXC-essively fond of a cottage.

9:13--Laugh count, according to my boyfriend and our good friend Mike: 3 to 4.

9:14--A side note--the production value of this is SO MUCH better than the ITV productions earlier this year. Another example of the longstanding British oppression of the Irish.

9:16--Side note number two: Andrew Davies is still good at distilling the essence of a novel, but he's using more of his own language relative to Jane's--"carpet-beating" etc. etc. Still, so far so good.

9:17--Edward is HOT. And he's a total Hugh Grant type.

9:18--Edward and Elinor discuss his career; the scene is shot just like S&S95.

9:20--Remind me those who have read the book. Is this whole Edward-bonds-with-Margaret thing actually in the book or is it just a trope that filmmakers continually use to show how great Edward is?

9:25--Fanny, such a BITCH, redux.

9:25--Mrs. Dashwood on John Middleton: "Such kindness, from a man we have never met." Flash to John Dashwood's uncomfortable face. This is what we love about Andrew Davies. This is the kind of subtlety Jane demands.

9:28--Edward values Elinor's friendship but can't stay anymore. His eyes are all teary. He's a bit awkward but I actually may like him better than Hugh Grant, not in terms of loveability but in terms of being true to the character from the novel. Shy, yes, proper yes, but not a stammering ninny.

9:32--WOW. What beautiful shots of the English countryside. Let's go there! Fetch my trap and pony! Or perhaps I am the type who would prefer a barouche?

9:37--Sir John Middleton is MR WEASLEY FROM HARRY POTTER! But Ang Lee still has Snape, Sybil Trelawney, Madame Pomfrey, Dolores Umbridge and Cornelius Fudge in his picture. Not too fair.

9:38--Colonel Brandon is so ...dashing. Quoth my boyfriend's sister over gmail chat: LOOK AT THAT HUNK!

9:41--We get that this cottage is seriously uncomfortable. Cold. Damp. British. Almost Irish. The surrounding cliffs are absolutely gorgeous, in a stark way.

Hey, you ever notice how Marianne and Elinor are living on a cliff, both literally cause there's a cliff onscreen, and figuratively because they're women with no money and they're one step away from ruin? Nice symbolism, Davies.

9:45--I like the way they are developing the Marianne and Brandon thing. Very slowly. But I feel that Marianne's over-the-top romanticism is not quite being played for laughs the way Austen wants it to. She's supposed to be a walking, talking embodiment of the Romantic fangirl, and she just comes off as a bit spoiled here. But I think it's almost impossible to live up to Kate Wiinslet's performance, no?

9:52--Willoughby is no Greg Wise. He doesn't have the smoldering looks that make his creepy behavior seem pass-able. The whole point of Willoughby is that he looks the part of the hero so much so everyone is fooled by him.

9:57--"How do you do sir?" "How do you do Brandon?"
AWKWARD.
"Poor Brandon. You shall none of you think of him now."--Sir John Middleton from S&S 95.

No laughs for a while now, incidentally. It's gotten pretty serious. Unfortunately I can't take Willoughby seriously.

10:00--OH SHYTE, A CONFRONTATION BETWEEN WILLOUGHBY AND BRANDON. This is sooooooo not in the book!

Willoughby has some sass on his mouth. He needs a good whack from Brandon's rifle-butt.

10:04--This buying them a horse business has totally lost me. I know it's right out of the book, but...

10:09--Andrew Davies sure knows how to sex up a lock-cutting scene, eh? The snipping of the scissors, the movement of hands... very hot stuff.

10:14--In which Willoughby and Marianne go to Allenham. Is he taking her up to the bedroom? Is he talking to her about fairytales? This all feels a bit too modern Joe-Wrighty for me.

Oh shit, they're making out!!!

I dunno...

I was so into this at the beginning, but I'm souring. Marianne is supposed to be funny! It's not supposed to get serious until later.

However, I LOVE this Elinor. She's giving Emma Thompson a run for her money. She is so proper and sympathetic without being fussy or fastidious. She is just a tough, strong, centered woman.

10:23--Quoth Marianne: "I am sure he will find a way to come back and see us very soon." WHY Marianne being so rational? She's supposed to be FREAKING OUT!!

**
Okay, concluding thoughts. Not as good as '95 in the respect that the caricature and wit totally falls away about 40 minutes in, and Jane Austen never never never stops being a satirist even when she's describing pathos.

However, the scenery and the acting on the part of Elinor, Edward, and Brandon are all excellent, and obviously it's fun to watch it develop at a novel-like pace. Can't wait for next week!

PS Check out this hilarious review from the Editrix of austenblog herself.

Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season": Part 3, Mansfield Park

The main issue I always have with Mansfield Park and all its adaptations is the COUSINCEST. But I'm a mini-expert on it, having written my 30-page junior paper on the changes feminist post-colonialist film director Patricia Rozema made to Austen' original in her 1997 adaptation. It' a problematic adaptation of a problematic book, but with moments of brilliance.

From what I've heard, this is supposed to be a wanky-ass adaptation with no moments of brilliance.

9:03--Ohmilord. Mr. Bertram is LYDGATE from Middlemarch! He looks old. Life with Rosamond Vincy will do that to ya.

9:05--What is with the voice-over narration? Also, what's with Edmund's Beatle Haircut and Fanny's Courtney-love dye-job? Edmund and Fanny do look like the two leads of an indie-rock hipster band.

9:08: "His life is one long party." 'it may not count, but..." Okay, they're talking like it's like, 2001.

9:10 I know they're the resident baddies, but as characters go in this irritatingest yet endlessly intriguingest of all Austen novels, I LOVE those nasty, scheming Crawfords! Don't reduce them to stereotypes, please. They're too witty for that.

9:12 This is Gossip Girl in corsets. Couple here, couple there. The Crawfords are well on their way to being stereotypes.

9:16 Mary discusses Edmund's career prospects: "Don't be a clergyman; you'd make such a good frontman in an indie-rock band."

9:19 That Mary Crawford, so manipulative, so flirtatious, so bold! God Edmund is such a douche for falling for her. No other word for it.

9:20 Does Fanny do anything in this movie except pout and look sad? Actually, does she do anything in the book except that and have her mind be astutely described by free-indirect discourse?

9:26--Orgy party play's over.

9:31--Everyone in these ITV production is too pretty.

9:32--Fanny has kind of a savant-like quality to her in this adaptation. "Me plain and simple Fanny. Me chase children through library.Hee hee."

9:33--Sez Henry: "All I'm asking is to make a small hole in fanny Price's heart." What un-Austenlike, ridiculous prose. And even a bit too rakish for Henry Crawford.

9:35--Come to think of it, Henry Crawford looks a bit like the lost fifth member of Led Zeppelin. This might a well be re-named Live at Mansfield Mark! So many rockstars.

9:36--A pic-nic instead of a ball. How heretical. At least they included brother William's visit and Henry's sick manipulation of Fanny's fraternal love for her bro to open a hole in her heart.

9:38--During a spirited game of blind mand's buff (ahh, 19th century entertainment) Edmund realizes that Fanny has boobs. Something we all knew quite well already. His entire world is turned upside down. 9:42--Edmund to Fanny: I'm just a cheerful Beatle, but Crawford, Crawford is the granddaddy of heavy metal. His hair is awesome.

9:46-- Oh, smack. Mr. Bertram pulls the I-want-a-word-with-you-but-I'm-gonna-leave-you alone-with-Mr. Crawford-so-he-can-propose trick.

9:50--Lydgate Mr. Bertram is peeshed.

9:55--"Whine, Whine, whine I love Mary." See, this is the thing that always bugs me about Mansfield Park. Edmund is such a drippy drippy douche. He's like the anti-Tilney.?

10:01--This is a terrible terrible sequence of dialogue. Dear god. This is devolving into high melodrama--and it's boring to boot.

10:05--Leeches, Eww.

10:10--Blah blah blah. Now Bertram sees the error of his ways. It's the end of a Hallmark movie.

10:14 In which Edmund finally grows a pair.

10:17 In which E-edmund become H-h-hugh Grant.

10:19--Fanny the savant chases children--AND DOGS!

10:20 First we had the Bath marathon. Now we have the Mansfield one.

10:11--And the movie ends with a kiss!!... between Mr. and Mr. Bertram?

Oh, and a Wedding. And a glittery dress. Nice dress. Oh, and a... waltz? This movie lost me way back there but I just got waltzed back into the action. NOT.

Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season": Part 2, Northanger Abbey

Hi again readers fair. I am here again on my couch with my austen-loving boyfriend, and a special guest, his sister who is a fellow Austen-obsessive on the level of yours truly.

We've heard down the blogopipes that this version of Northanger Abbey is not exactly hip to Jane Austen's biting wit but that it's sort of sweet... so here goes.

For those who don't know, NA (which I just re-read) is Jane's "Gothic Parody" but more than just a send-up of the Radcliffe ouvre, it's also a very straightforward skewering of ideals of female friendship, fidelity, and social mores. The heroine of the novel, who is not suited to be a heroine, is the innocent, wide-eyed Catherine Morland, and the hero, Henry Tilney, has a charmingly ironic sense of humor.


9:01: Gillian Anderson talks about gothic novels and Jane Austen: "Shocking; is it possible to read too many novels?" answer: NO!

9:03 Andrew Davies' name just pops right up there on the screen, suggesting great heights and also sordid depths.

9:04; Catherine is so cute; her face oozes naivete.

9:06: Off to Bath--and our first extended Gothic fantasy sequence... robbers, duels, sexy bandits. Oops; turns out it was all in her head, and the only thing acting wild is Mr. Allan's gout.

9:08: When in bath... let's go shopping! It's like Sex in the Regency city.

9:11 At "The Rooms," Mr. Allan ditches the ladies for cards. The intimidating atmosphere of bath is surely too much to be borne.

9:12: Mr. Tilney is joking about various types of muslin. He has a nice dry wit. He also has such an understanding of Muslin. This is my favorite thing about him.

9:13: A dance? with me? Little old Catherine Morland?

9:14 Tilney's smirk: an expertly sarcastic smirk.

9:15 "Perhaps I don't keep a journal at all!" Cut to scene of her writing in a journal. Visual irony, folks.

9:17: Bitchy Isabella Thorpe tantalizes our innocent Catherine with stories of Lord Bryon's peccadilloes.

9:19: Dudes on the prowl stare at Isabella for the second time in five minutes; Isabella, it might be prudent to add, is clad in a very stylish [ahem! low cut] dress: "God, Bath!" say my companions.

9:20: Thorpes vs. Tilneys: there will be blood.

9:24: Putting down my computer to enjoy this for a bit... Catherine is sooo naive. She reminds me of Burney's Evelina even more on screen.

9:27: The "spot of rain" and sheep traffic jam are both so unromantic--however it doesn't seem to have turned Catherine off the novels. Now she's abandoned The Mysteries of Udolpho for "The Monk"--which, if you know anything about gothic novels, is the opposite of Anne Radcliffe: the horror to her terror, the masculine gothic to her feminine gothic, the body behind the curtain rather than the curtain behind the curtain.

9:33: I repeat: Henry Tilney is adorable! "That's a dope outfit" says my boyfriend.

9:36; The Morland siblings are a pair of naive twits, but loveable none the less.

9:39: Isabella's heart may be "40 miles away"... but her boobs are right there! And Captain Tilney is well aware of them.

9:45 The General is so intimidating that even his inviting smirk has a hint of death and mystery to it.

9:50 The shots of the abbey's exterior and exterior lead us to debate the relative merits and disadvantages of living in a regency mansion...good: four poster beds. Bad: chamber pots.

9:56: The secret of the stashed-away laundry bills... I do wish they had given us a close-up of the laundry bills themselves...

10:01: The Tilneys are the sweetest siblings eva... too bad their dad and brother are such douchebags.

10:04: Tilney is explaining his monetary situation to Catherine. This, and all the other hints and money stuff, are a bit of a deviation from the book, but it helps clue the audience in to why the general is such a dick.

10:07: Tilney isn't supposed to be this mad at her. He's breaking character. I know it's all about the narrative tension, but DAVIES!"

10:10: Oh, christ. Are we actually implying that Isabella got seduced? DAVIES!!

10:14; "He may not have killed his wife, but General Tilney is definitely an asshole."-my bf. True.

10:16: The public stagecoach--the Greyhound bus of its time.

10:19: A comforting Austen mother... so rare.

10:24:Happily ever after. Okay, so maybe his speech about ma and pa is a little emo for its time. But still.

I have to admit though that despite the mini-blasphemies, this movie totally charmed me and for the most part, I was at a loss for nasty, snarky comments to make. I thought the leads were pitch-perfect and it did a good job of following Austen's brilliant tightrope between mocking Catherine and taking her concerns seriously.

I am so happy that there's a new awesome Austen adaptation to add to the canon.
It wipes the bad taste of last week's Persuasion right outta my mouth.

Live-Blogging PBS' "Jane Austen Season": Part 1, Persuasion

9:12. I arrive late due to a rainstorm and miss Gillian "Lily Bart" Anderson's intro, alas. But just to kick off the post, I'd like to say that Persuasion is pretty much in constant contention with Pride and Prejudice for my fave Austen book, and the 1995 film with Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root is my favorite 2 hour feature film of all time. So this production, which has gotten "eh" reviews from the Austen blogosphere, has a high bar to reach. But I am still looking forward to it.

Anyway, on with the heaving bosoms, social maneuvering, marital prospects, chance encounters at social watering places, dashing admirals and lonely spinsters.

9:12 I see Anne Eliot and Lady Russell sitting side by side, sniffing and sniffing with high emotion because Anne once yielded to LR's persuasion, and Anne talking about h0w "rich" Captain Wentworth has become. This does not bode well.

9:13 The leave-taking scene between Elizabeth and Anne feels like a shot-for shot budget remake of the 1995 production, as does Anne's reunion with Mary.

9:15 I'm not sure I buy this Mary as a hypochondriac. Her face is too modern. She belongs in a pair of stilettos or on an episode of Weeds or something.

9:17 but I love Louisa and Henrietta. They are so appropriately tittery. A giggly greek chorus.

9:18 Hmm, but on the other hand, why aren't the Musgroves more jolly? They're supposed to be nice, but kinda crazy-happy-country-folk.

9:20 ahh. This is all going too fast. I need some lingering shots. Where is the stuff where all the Musgroves confide in Ann? That's one of my fave passages in the book.

9:21 Aight, here comes perfect lingering shot, with a window, and flowers and streaming light and stuff.

9:22 So much for the lingering shot. Enter Mr. Right. Hmmm, Wentworth's cute, but not weatherbeaten enough.

"Mr Wentworth, this is my eldest sister Anne." Umm, yeah. I think he knows that already.
I miss the shot from the 1995 Persuasion where she grips the chair subtlety.

I need to stop comparing, right? Right?

Resolved; I will stop comparing.

9:22 This Anne's getting prettier and I like her a lot. But what's with the goddamn diary? Since when do Austen adaptations borrow from Bridget Jones?

9:25 OMG TREASON TREASON WHY IS FREDERICK SAYING THIS LINE AT THE DINNER TABLE? "I am ready to settle down and make a foolish match etc etc." This is not his line! This is supposed to be the Croft's territory.
Also, this is also way too much personal info for the recency era, innit. "I want someone with firmness of charcter, not open to persuasion." Ohhh. I see now. I'm looking at you, Anne.

UPDATE: Okay so as commenter Julie reminded me, it is Frederick's line. But he's not supposed to say it at dinner. He's supposed to say it during a quiet heart to heart with Sophy. Hmmph.

9:26 Anne is playing a funereal dirge on the piano. Such subtlety.

9:28 Charles and Mary argue about which sister Wentworth will marry while Anne walks just ahead of them and emotes. Awk-ward!

9:29 Mary's got no love for the, erm, Hayters.

9:30 Anne falls and Wentworth's marvelously sculpted face floats above her. He lifts her up, scowls.

9:32 Trying to figure out when Anne rejected Charles, Captain Wentworth calculates the intervening years in his head... "I'm not so good at Math you see, but I do look damn fine in a pair of breeches."

9:34 Wentworth roughly pushes Anne forward, lifts her up, and shoves her onto the carriage. How forceful. All women want a man who can put them in their place, right?

9:35 They're already going to Lyme. Damn this movie moves zipplily through hundreds of pages of Georgian prose. It's like Austen on speed. Hello. The camera is supposed to be a substitute for free-indirect-discourse. Everybody knows that.

9:40 A panoramic Lyme shot--what ominous walls leading down to the sea.I wonder who will fall down them and provide a major plot point.

9:42--What happens when you put two ex-fiancees on a winding staircase? Aw-kward x2!

9:43--My boyfriend, a big Persuasion fan says: "Down goes Louisa--this sure went quickly. Are you sure this goes til 11?" ...And he adds "I agree, Mary doesn't look Regency at all, and Wentworth is some pretty boy, he isn't a hardened sailor."

9:45 Me: "Where have we seen Wenthworth before?" My boyfriend, "In an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog?" Snark. UPDATE: True Answer: He played St. John Rivers, and Jane Eyre dumped him for Rochester/Ciaran Hinds in the '97 Jane Eyre. Which is weird because he's now lost out to Ciaran in two (count'em, TWO) separate categories.

9;46. Aww, by asking Anne whether she approves of his plan to tell the Musgroves about Louisa's fall while she remains with Henrietta, Wentworth is implicitly showing her that he trusts her. And she's so happy! Aww. They are such a good team. Aww.

9:48: My gosh, Henrietta has a Williamsburg-hipster haircut. Killer bangs.

9:48: Don't bring up Lady Russell in front of the ex-fiancee whose engagement she helped break off, Anne! That's mad not smart. It might even make Wentworth jump on his pacing steed and ride off into the night. Haven't you read "The Rules?"

9:50 Well the Camden-place snobs are pretty snobby. I'll give you that.

9:51 OMG Mr. Eliot is totally Brutus from Rome! Anne, beware the Ides of March!

9:52--Oooh, a scene between Wentworth and Harville that was only hinted at in the book. How daring, how irreverent. How pointless.

9:53--That Brutus Mr. Eliot. He's so smooth, so charming, but he'll stab you in the toga back when you're not paying attention. Also, does anyone else find it ironic that his character betrays and stabs Ciaran Hind's character on Rome? Just like this movie is betraying and stabbing my favorite movie of all time which starred Ciaran Hinds? Just like he's going to betray Anne?

9:56--That is a looong hand-kiss on the part of Mr. Eliot towards Anne. Elizabeth, needless to say, is not too happy.

9:58--This version is certainly milking the "poor Anne" sentiment" even more than the book, and the 1995 version, dared to. So let's all say it together: "Poor Anne!" However, I'll admit that this Sally Hawkins person is a very good actress. She's doing a good job with the part. They're doing a lot of close-ups of her face and she's handling them in the true Anne Eliot spirit.

9:59--Come on, Anne. Are you going to stand for this treatment of the part of your papa? Say your famous "not the only widow in Bath with little to live on and no surname of dignity" line! Say it.
...
She said it. Yay.

10:02: Here's a long long scene where the Crofts show up, Anne thinks they’re talking about Wentworth and Louisa and gets all breathless, but oops! they’re talking about Benwick and Louisa. Whew.

Now she knows her ex-fiancee is free once more, and she’s all heaving bosom and tears.

10:04—Bath. Rainy day. Tea-shop. Ex-fiancees are stuck together, mere inches apart. Speechlessness ensues. Then speech. Good speech. Soulmate speech. Austen-penned speech, for once.

10:05—Well, this is a sweet moment. I acknowledge it. Way to show your chops, British actors.

10:06--Mr. Eliot shows up. The men stare each other down. Is this like a reverse catfight for the benefit of the ladies?

10:08--Oh pant, pant, pant, run, run, run right out of the concert Anne. But be warned. You want a proposal from one man, but you're gonnna get one from another.

10:12 Ok, this ticking clock thing is just ridiculous.

10:13 Why do they keep talking about "Haters?" Snark.

10:14--They are adding the deleted scene where Wentworth comes to be an emissary from the Admiral under the mistaken belief that Anne is engaged to Mr. Eliot. Not a happy job on his part. It's almost like that time when Jane Eyre said "screw you and your missionary work. I'm goingback to that blind cripple, Rochester Ciaran Hinds."

10:15--Some nice Firth-esque micro-facial movements on the part of the good Captain when he realizes his ex-fiancee is free. No panting and heaving for him. Still, he loves his Anne so much.

10:17: Why is the invalid Mrs. Smith running through Bath? Shouldn't she be hacking up a lung in a sanitorium somewhere?

10:17--Wha? Huh? "Mr. Eliot has promised to set Mrs. Clay up as his mistress when he marries Anne." Said out loud, on the street, to an unmarried woman. What happened to whispers and gossip and Mrs. Rooke?

10:18--She's running again. Is this Forrest Gump or Persuasion?

10:19--She's running again again.

10:19--She reads the first two lines of his note: "You pierce my soul. I am half-agony, half-hope." At least they keep this Austen-original gem in.

10:20--Still running. Damn girl. In a corset no less.

10:20--Haha Charles keeps talking about a gun but Wentworth and Anne are all half agony half hope and shit and he... has no... idea!

10:22--She's determined. Get it? She won't be persuaded anymore. She's come full circle. What a character arc.

Let's omit the fact that Anne felt she was right to refuse him those eight years back, even though on some level she regretted it, and that had his pride allowed him to re-propose two years after that, she would have totally said yes.

10:22 Kissssssssy kiss kiss.

Hey, remember the scene in the 1995 version where he takes her hand and the sexual tension jumps off the screen and it's the most important hand-taking of all time ever? Yeah, me too. I liked that scene.

10:22 "Dear Diary. Today I ran a marathon and got re-proposed-to-by my ex-Fiancee."

10:22--She's got a blindfold on. Kinky.

10:23--"I'd like you to to see your wedding present. I got you Wuthering Heights! Not the book, the, umm, house." Camera pans to huge gothic mansion. Austen-ending as real estate commercial. Not entirely inappropriate, actually. Austen was a big fan of real estate.

But what happened to the SEA, Austen's great romantic reconciliation/post-aristocratic utopia?

10:24--Apparently, there's a merry-go-round in front of the new digs, cause they keep spinning.

10:26--Credits roll, previews for next week. Northanger Abbey looks good.

Final verdict: eh. Even badly-adapted Jane Austen is good, and the two leads did a really excellent job of acting. But I'm not sure I get the point of this sped-up, relatively unoriginal production. I bet the un-deleted, sophisticated British version was better. But anyway, with the exception of proving some really good thespian talent, particularly Sally Hawkins, it didn't do enough that was new to wow me. I respect it, but don't adore it, and oh how I long for Amanda Root and yes, Ciaran Hinds.


See you next week, same time/place, for much more unbiased, earnest coverage of Northanger Abbey.

Liveblogging Part TWO of Jane Eyre, Masterpiece Theater

Adjust your breeches, bodices, smoulders and stares. Here we go.

9:09 Brilliantly Masterpiece Theaterish addition of dialogue between Blanche Ingram and Edward Rochhester. "What do you really want, Blanche?" says he between cigar puffs. Such artistic license!

9:11 I'm glad the director chose to include the pathetic dialogue between Jane's two bitchy cousins (the nun and the coquette), as well as the drama with Jane's uncle in Madeira, aunt, and inheritance. Aunt Reed is so evil.

"Because I hated you too much, I could not forgive you," says the dying Aunt Reed to Jane. She's coughing, hacking, wheezing, all very grotesque and Victorian. Beside her sits Jane, complacent, calm, seething inside (a super feministly in-tune director would cue up a fuzzy shot Bertha, stalking up and down in her chamber to represent Jane's repressed anger. But I guess that would give away the plot).

9:17--Jane seems so happy to be back at Thornfield; Ruth Wilson can sure muster a sweet smile. "Wherever you are is my home, is my true home," she tells R. Now he's the one who's smiling.

9:19--They're talking about twins being in tune with each other's minds. Clearly this is a symbol for J and R (or Heathcliff and Cathy, for that matter).

9:20--A frosty exchange between Blanche and Rochester as he hands her into the carriage.

9:22--Rochester seems a bit too happy that Jane has no one else in the world "outside Thornfield" to care for her. Now he's torturing her with the suggestion of sending her off Ireland. He'll get his comeuppance though, Bronte-style.

9:23--The view from the attic window. Oooo-oooh!

9:26 Rochester to little Adele on Carribean women: "tantalizing, dangerous." "The Caribbean is not as beautiful as it seems, Adele," he snaps angrily as she hums a strange tune. Flash to the attic, and someone else singing that very same, eerie song... double oo-ooh!....I guess the director is taking my advice from above.

9:29 ROCH, STOP TORTURING HER WITH THIS "IRELAND" BUSINESS.

9:33--"Let no man meddle with me, I will keep her," says Roch, after his blissfully accepted, somewhat protracted proposal of marriage. Oh, but someone will. Someone will.

9:36--Fairfax is not happy with this turn of events.

9:37--"We will go on as before," says Jane. Rochester frowns. "He doesn't want to go on as before," says my bf. "He wants to go on otherwise!"

9:47--Rochester seems AWFULL-Y anxious to get married RIGHT AWAY. Could he be hiding something? Or someone?
Every time I read the book or (and now, time numero dos) see a movie of JE I cannot stand this part... the anticipation of Mason showing up to break up the wedding. It's so heartbreaking. And this version is playing it beautifully by focusing so closely on Jane's face as she realizes the secret.

9:52--This madwoman is beautiful, charming, and totally psycho.

9:59--Jane, running away from Thornfield, is under a rock. I know that rock! It's the crag from Wuthering Heights. Now she's wandering on the moors, her hair blowing. I'm getting my Bronte's all confused. Next thing we know, that pesky Tenant of Wildfell Hall is going to show up.

10:00--As her eyes close, she sees the dying Helen. Nice touch.

10:04--I really like this interpretation of the Riverses... they're an annoying but essential part of the plot, and they're not getting short-shrift at all here. Everything about their snug little cottage, and the stout maid Hannah, is just as I imagined.

10:09-- And the Rosamond Oliver plot--I forgot all about that. "It is a crime against god to deny yourself love," says one of the Rivers sisters about her brother, the noble St. John. Can you say "repressed" Diana?

10:12--No matter how kind the Riverses are, Jane still hears Edward's voice. Oh, Rochester! Rochester, Rochester, Rochester.

10:23--St. John, the epitome of restraint. Rochester, the epitome of passion. Damn, the filmmakers keep flashing back to J an R making out hard-core. That's something Charlotte Bronte would have approved of.

10:26--"One Year Later." Naw, it's only one minute later.

10:28--St. John tells a shocked Jane her life story. Says he of Rochester, "he must have been a very bad man." He can never understand what J and R had together. Never. But we can, cause we just saw them making out.

10:33--Jane, newly independently wealthy, faces St. John telling her that it is her "destiny" to go to Africa with him and convert heathen children. Don't do it, Jane! Don't go!

10:38--Besides a turgid waterfall, in a gathering storm, Jane hears Rochester's voice! "JANE!" he gries, "Jane!" She turns and runs.

10:39. Go Jane go! Wait, what happened to Thornfield? It's a ghastly ruin. The story of Bertha's death is acted out in quite a ghoulish, and beautiful way, as she chases a white bird into the abyss.

10:43. The approach to misty, damp Ferndean is so perfect. And Toby Stephens does a great blind man impression!

10:48--I couldn't blog during their reunion because it was too touching, too wonderful.
Rochester to Jane, gaining an inkling of suspicion--"Were there only ladies at the house where you were?"

10:51--I don't want this movie to end. ever. And especially not in nine minutes. It's so, so wonderful. And neither, apparently, does Toby Stephens' Rochester. He likes good times to last. "I want a wife to share my bed every night. All day, if we wish!" And...they're making out horizontally again.

10:55 Nice ending. But why didn't they show Rochester regaining sight in one eye? That's an interesting choice on the part of the director. Very feminist.

10:56. Credits roll. My mother, whose re-reading of J.E. inspired me to try it for the first time at the age of 10, calls me. "IT WAS SOOO GOOOD" we shriek at each other over the phone for several minutes. "I can't believe it's OVERRRR."


What a wonderful four hours folks. Want to help out with a good cause? Contribute this movie to a needy literary adaptation-obsessed britlitophile near you.

Liveblogging Part One of Jane Eyre, Masterpiece Theater

Toby Stephens, Ruth Wilson, served up in a fest of towers, moors, and mysteries like the Brontes do it best.

9:10 So I've been utterly taken in by the big-eyed precociousness of the actress playing young Jane... turns out she's Georgie Henley, who played none other than Lucy Pevensie in the Chronicles of Narnia. She's much less wide-eyed and Christ-like here, leaving that to the consumptive Helen Burns, and gets the somewhat blasphemous character of young Jane right, impressive for someone so young. She's utterly adorable. Yes, I said "utterly" twice in one paragraph. Ten minutes in and I'm already going Victorian.

9:30 As for the older Jane, Ruth Wilson, she has intense eyebrows and a very sensuous mouth--I'm undecided as to whether she's too strangely seductive to be our plain Jane yet.

9:50--I take it back. She's got the prim thing down. And Toby Stephens' grumpy Rochester is good too, if a bit effete (more like an Austen hero, p'raps?). But I miss the electricity I saw generated in the Samantha Morton/Ciaran Hinds pairing. I'm not sure whether the actors are not intense enough or the screenplay is too meandering, but I'm not as drawn in as I usually am by anything Jane Eyre or anything Masterpiece Theater for that matter... on the other hand, it has more of the sense of humor that marks the Jane/Rochester banter so well..

9:56...uh-oh, a lengthy gaze in the looking glass signals that she's starting to fall for E. Fairfax Rochester. Trouble Ahead!

10:00 The fire in the bedroom is way gothic and out of control. "This is creepy," says my devoted boyfriend, who is now watching his second Jane Eyre adaptation with me in a matter of weeks. This makes him more of a hero than any Rochester or Darcy would-be in the world.

10:03 Taking its cue from Matthew "Screw diving in lakes, I signal sensuality when I clench the hand that Kiera Knightley's Elizabeth touched" our Jane Eyre kisses the hand that Rochester, post-fire, grapsed eagerly, and falls backward into a reverie thinking of her "master". Meanwhile, he stares through his window at a light in the turret, where we know the madwoman resides.

10:05 Grace Poole after JE confronts her: "It would be wise to lock your door as soon as you go to bed. Who knows what might happen?"

10:08 Jane to herself in the mirror: "you were mistaken, Jane Eyre," (she's thinking of Blanche Ingram). Then she draws an angry portrait of herself frowning. Dude, Charlotte Bronte was way before her time...this is seriously emo.

10:12 This version is growing on me.

10:14 Rochester and Blanche Ingram are cantering over the hillsides.

10:22 Blah blah pseudo-symbolic drawing room patter about "tainted blood" and child-rearing that's pissing Rochester off.

10:25-Rochester's flirtation with Ingram and torment of Jane Eyre is coming across more snarky than savage.

10:28: They're playing with a Victorian ouija board! "Heart" becomes "heartless" for Blanche. Oh Edward, you're so nasty!

10:38 Edward F. Rochester, apres the stunt with the old gypsy woman; "Oh Jane, I wish I were on a desert island somewhere, with only you for company." Wow. That's quite a line, screenwriters.

10:44 The Dick Mason/Rochester attack scene is handled grotesquely and frighteningly. "She tried to suck my blood," sobs Mason as he collapses on the bed and the doornob rattles incessantly.

10:55 closing shot of Rochester in a flaming red coat... and of Jane watching Rochester and Blanche Ingram...and then a mysterious woman watching it all from the attic and breathing heavily. Oh, shit.

TO BE CONTINUED.