Emma * * * ½
What a strange thing to want to make film of. I'm surprised she got away with it. A first time director, persuading her producers to invest in a costume drama, and one that has been done many times before. Moreover, each production has brought a lot of praise. So it's not like no one ever got it right.
Anyway, here we go again. As Miss Austen has already written the dialogue (and it simply would defeat the purpose to not use her wonderfully florid language), the skill of adapting Jane Austen for the screen is to cast the right people and make it look pretty. And this version ticks both those boxes.
It takes a while for your ear to adjust to the Regency talk, and also to figure out who is who and what their relationship might be to one the other. But it becomes clear after about twenty minutes (at least, it took me that long).
Unless you are willing to enter their world you will be aghast at their pettiness; and you might even find yourself asking, "Have you people nothing better to do?!" Actually they don't. That's the whole point.
It looks splendid. It is quite amusing and romantic. Most of the time they can't say anything in less than two hundred words, which makes some of the wordless exchanges between Emma and Mr.Knightly quite beautiful and - dare I say it - even a bit hot, especially at the dance.
There are a few scenes which I wished there had been more of. These peoples lives are so steeped in restraint, manners and decorum you have to wonder, what do they do when they are alone? The few scenes of her hoisting a skirt to enjoy the open fire, or ripping off heavy suffocating clothes at the end of the day gave us some idea.
Overall this is a good Emma.
In fact, I am obliged to inform you it is a very fine film and extraordinarily well done in concept and execution, revealing talents that would command a vanity which is otherwise restrained by their good breeding, education and decorum. (I think that's how she would say it, at least something like that).
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| An intensely erotic scene from Emma |
It takes a while for your ear to adjust to the Regency talk, and also to figure out who is who and what their relationship might be to one the other. But it becomes clear after about twenty minutes (at least, it took me that long).
Unless you are willing to enter their world you will be aghast at their pettiness; and you might even find yourself asking, "Have you people nothing better to do?!" Actually they don't. That's the whole point.
It looks splendid. It is quite amusing and romantic. Most of the time they can't say anything in less than two hundred words, which makes some of the wordless exchanges between Emma and Mr.Knightly quite beautiful and - dare I say it - even a bit hot, especially at the dance.
There are a few scenes which I wished there had been more of. These peoples lives are so steeped in restraint, manners and decorum you have to wonder, what do they do when they are alone? The few scenes of her hoisting a skirt to enjoy the open fire, or ripping off heavy suffocating clothes at the end of the day gave us some idea.
Overall this is a good Emma.
In fact, I am obliged to inform you it is a very fine film and extraordinarily well done in concept and execution, revealing talents that would command a vanity which is otherwise restrained by their good breeding, education and decorum. (I think that's how she would say it, at least something like that).
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