Janespotting: Emma (2010 miniseries)

So a few years ago, PBS presented a whole season of Austen adaptations, five of them new ones. (Pride & Prejudice being the lone exception, of course. You don't mess with your audience.) And despite having two relatively new versions of Emma barely more than ten years old, the powers that be (in this case the BBC) decreed it was time for a new one—and why not, if you're going to make it a miniseries?

With almost four hours to tell the story, we're treated to a relatively faithful telling of the story, plus lots of scenes that further develop both major and minor characters. Most important is the opening that contrasts the early childhoods of Emma, Frank Weston, and Jane Fairfax. We see all three lose their mothers, but Emma is kept at home while Frank (now Frank Churchill) and Jane are sent away from loving homes for their own good. This is a very effective contrast, and further scenes of Emma as an older child hearing Miss Bates natter on about Jane, with another nattering 7 years later, make her distaste for Jane a little more understandable.

Another added scene is of a young Emma claiming to see a future match between John Knightley and Isabella—something Mr. Knightley finds ridiculous—but she is proven right at their wedding, also shown. Although this doesn't happen in the book, it gives her self-confidence in matchmaking an added boost, especially after she foresees the wedding of Miss Taylor and Mr. Weston. We might find Emma a bit insufferable by now, but we also get a scene portraying Emma's loneliness after Miss Taylor marries and leaves, making her a bit more sympathetic.

With this leisurely pace, we don't even meet Harriet Smith until over 20 minutes in. We do get to see the discussion between Mr. Knightley and Mrs. Weston over Emma's friendship with Harriet (although not the line about Knightley wanting to see Emma in love with some doubt of return, boo). He seems to agree with her advice not to press Emma about it, but when Emma helps Harriet reject Robert Martin (whom we see apply to Mr. Knightley for advice in an earlier scene), he can't help but start a big argument. At first he seems more frustrated than angry, but the discussion becomes very heated, as only true friends can argue. "Men don't want wives who argue," Knightley tells Emma, adding that "Harriet and Robert are not your dolls" and warning she will regret her meddling. As the first hour ends, we see the argument has made Emma thoughtful.

The second hour begins with the Christmas party at the Westons; the scenes are quite amusing, showing Emma's growing realization that Mr. Elton is making a play for her. As we had seen her before being very giggly with Harriet over the match, we also see her truly upset at Harriet's disappointment. There are also some very amusing moments, for instance when Emma has not received an invitation to the Coles' party and discusses it with Mr. Knightley. They have some very witty exchanges, with Knightley sometimes sarcastic in response to Emma's silliness—but always amused, never nasty.

The rest follows fairly closely to the plot of the book, but that isn't what I like best about this version. The miniseries format gives it a steady pace and depth that allows the film to portray both Emma and Mr. Knightley's growing feelings for each other. At the Coles' party, we see Emma very thoughtful as she considers Mrs. Weston's idea that Mr. Knightley gave Jane Fairfax a piano. When Emma is upset at the upstart Mrs. Elton and complains to Mr. Knightley, we see how he wishes she could get out and experience more of the world. We also see Mr. Knightley's growing jealousy of Frank Churchill—although after he dances with Emma at the ball, he shouldn't need to worry, as the scene wonderfully hints at the pair's growing feelings for each other, as do the scenes of both remembering the dance.

The casting and acting is also uniformly good, with care in all the minor roles. Jane Fairfax is quiet and reserved, as she should be, but we do see occasional hints of more as she reads Frank's letters or gets excited about the ball. We get additional scenes with the Bateses, and Miss Bates is appropriately dignified and flighty. Mr. Elton is suitably obsequious and ingratiating, while Mrs. Elton is infuriatingly interfering. And finally! We have a Harriet that looks the part, a sweet round face framed by lovely blond curls. Although she is obviously inexperienced and inferior in wit to Emma, we can also see her improvement in sense and sophistication over the film, enough that you might actually believe a sensible gentleman could overlook her background or her more polished friend.

Best of all the minor characters is Michael Gambon, better known as Professor Dumbledore in the later Harry Potter films; he is terrific as missish Mr. Woodhouse, obsessing over cake and health risks. In other versions the character can seem somewhat peevish, but Gambon shows his worry as grounded in losing the ones he loves, and we see him genuinely doting upon Emma and his family. To emphasize this, John Knightley's grumpy worrying provides an amusing counter to Mr. Woodhouse's loving concern.

BBC/PBS Masterpiece

Of course, the film really belongs to the two actors who play Emma and Mr. Knightley, Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller. I had never seen Garai in anything before, but I particularly liked her approach to the character. She made Emma able to hold her own with Mr. Knightley without seeming bratty, and really captured the combination of overconfidence and inexperience that makes the character. As for Jonny Lee Miller, he is not very tall, or darkly handsome, but I do believe he is my favorite Mr. Knightley. After all, Mr. Knightley is not supposed to be a lofty dreamboat like Mr. Darcy; he's the steady guy who's the treasure that's been under your nose for a long time but you were too stupid to see it. And as Miller plays him, we see his steadiness, his frustration (rather than anger), and his journey as he realizes the friend he has guided for so long means more to him than just a friend. I guess the Emma and Knightley in this version feel more like real, complicated people who evolve, rather than characters who follow a prescribed plot. This is the version that makes me understand why some people might find Emma their favorite Austen novel, so I recommend it if you're a fan.

Photo of the Week--5/9/11

Okay, so I'm a week late to celebrate the royal wedding, but here is a photo from Merrie Olde England, a veddy British garden at beautiful Sissinghurst Castle in Kent. It had been a medieval castle once visited by Queen Elizabeth I, then fell into disrepair, was built and re-built, housed prisoners of war in the 18th century, and was finally rediscovered by married writers Vita Sackville-West and Sir Harold Nicolson in the 1930s. They're the ones who designed the marvelous garden, which was full of beautiful blooms when we visited in summer of 2001. I'm hoping I'm going to have some beautiful blooms of my own in my garden soon.

Janespotting: Emma (1996 TV film)

Not long after the feature film version of Emma came out in 1996, this BBC adaptation appeared on American television. Although it was written by Andrew Davies, the same screenwriter who penned the previous year's Pride and Prejudice miniseries, this version was only two hours long. Nonetheless, the film opens with a scene that isn't in the book but is crucial to the conclusion: someone robbing a hen house and stealing chickens.

We are then very quickly taken through Emma and Harriet's interactions with Mr. Elton—we get no "courtship" puzzle to encourage them—and after just 20 minutes we are at the start of the Weston party, where Emma finally realizes that Elton has been courting her, not Harriet. Despite skimming over a lot of the Elton story, the film does take time to show Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightley discussing Emma's relationship with Harriet (he thinks it is a bad idea), and throw in the line from the book that Mr. Knightley should like to see Emma "in love, and in some doubt of a return." I don't know why more adaptations don't use this line—probably because it suggests that Mr. Knightley is not thinking of Emma as a match for himself at this point— but I like it because it's nice ironic foreshadowing.

In any case, we swiftly get Emma's soon-broken vow to stop matchmaking, our first visits from Jane Fairfax and Frank Churchill, the introduction of Mrs. Elton, and the events on Box Hill. The strawberry party is left out entirely (or else mashed together with Box Hill so thoroughly I didn't recognize it), which is no great loss, as the two events are rather similar. We do get a scene of Jane Fairfax weeping in a field, cluing us in to the revelation to come. However, in this version we don't see Emma really encourage Harriet in her new infatuation, which Emma thinks is for Frank Churchill but is really for Mr. Knightley, no comment that "raising your thoughts to him is a mark of good taste." This may seem like a minor quibble, but without it, Emma's discovery that she and Harriet love the same man loses a bit of effectiveness.

All is resolved happily, of course, and we get an added coda not in the book: a harvest dinner in which Emma gives an invitation to Robert Martin and sisters and gets to dance again with Mr. Knightley. The final scene is of more chicken raiding—so crucial to getting Mr. Woodhouse to agree to the marriage, as my college professor stressed when we read the book. I won't quibble with these additions, as they help illustrate the change in Emma's character while bringing the story full circle.

So the plot condensation had some pluses and minuses. What about the casting and acting? As Emma, Kate Beckinsale—the lone brunette to play the role—conveys a real sense of youth and inexperience, and is very good at conveying Emma's interior confusion and doubt when things don't turn out the way she expects. She's probably the most likeable Emma on film, although that may not be truest to the character.

Mark Strong is brooding and attractive, but his Mr. Knightley is very angry in arguing with Emma, almost uncomfortably so. He seems better suited to Mr. Darcy than Mr. Knightley, whom Austen describes as having "a cheerful manner, which always did him good." Raymond Coulthard's Frank Churchill has much the look of Ewan McGregor's, with charm and amiability but a little less smarm (and much better hair). The jewel here is Olivia Williams as Jane Fairfax, who is very good at showing subtle hints of her fondness for Frank Churchill. The screenplay also wisely includes her comment comparing the "governess trade" to the slave trade, giving her more wit than most adaptations, which make Jane as insipid as Emma thinks she is.

The one real drawback, again, is the miscasting of Harriet. Again, I remind you of Austen's description of the  "very pretty" Harriet: "She was short, plump, and fair, with a fine bloom, blue eyes, light hair, regular features, and a look of great sweetness." While Samantha Morton is a very good actress with two Oscar nominations to her credit, and as such gives Harriet the right temperament, her face is thin and sharp-featured, foxy rather than plump. Compared to Kate Beckinsale's radiantly elegant Emma, Harriet looks plain, again making it hard for me to believe that men would overlook her dubious background, or that Emma might believe she is a serious competitor for Knightley's attention.

So all in all, I think I prefer the other 1996 adaptation to this one, which doesn't have quite the wit and easiness of the Gwyneth Paltrow version. It's definitely worth a viewing, though, especially for comparison purposes. If you're at all interested in the mechanics of story, it's always a fun exercise to see what someone thinks are the essential elements when they create their adaptation.

Photo of the Week--5/2/11

Okay, I want my next house to have a room like this one: crystal chandelier, mosaic floor, marble walls, gilt-covered wainscoting. This is the Pavilion Room in the Hermitage, the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg. Besides this gorgeous room (and others), the Hermitage has an amazing art collection with some 20 works by Rembrandt alone, as well as Renaissance masters, Impressionists, and all sorts of fun stuff. Of course, it was so crowded when we visited there during our Baltic Cruise that we didn't get very long looks at them, but it was still a great trip.

Janespotting: Emma (1996 film)

Among the cinematic Austen revival of the mid-1990s were two versions of Emma, both released in 1996. The first was released in theaters and was written and directed by American Douglas McGrath, who had previously written Bullets over Broadway with Woody Allen. It was also the first starring role for Gwyneth Paltrow, whose performance made many people wonder where this British actress had come from (America, it turns out).

At under two hours, there was quite a bit of condensing necessary. I found this version very well-paced, with the first half hour showing Emma's romantic machinations, all in a very playful manner. In one sequence, the director made several clever cuts, taking the subjects from one scene to another mid-sentence, quickly continuing the thought and the story. Of course, other events are combined or simplified. The gypsy attack happens to Harriet and Emma, rather than Harriet and a classmate we never see again, and the film combines the events of the strawberry party and the Box Hill outing. Finally, as Emma struggles with the news that Harriet believes Mr. Knightley cares for her, she discusses her feelings with Mrs. Weston, writes in her diary, and says a prayer for him "to at least stay single." These events aren't in the novel, but they dramatize Emma's change of heart very well and contribute to continued good pacing.

Neither was the screenplay slavish in reproducing Austen's dialogue. Although this meant no "If I loved you less I could talk about it more" line (sigh), there were quite a few witty gems in there. On our first encounter with Miss Bates, she tells Mr. Elton, "Your sermon on Daniel left us quite speechless, we could not stop talking about it!", encapsulating her character perfectly. And there are several amusing exchanges between Emma and Mr. Knightley; the scene where they argue about Harriet and Robert Martin takes place during an archery practice at Donwell Abbey. As Emma's aim gets worse during the argument, Mr. Knightley murmurs "try not to kill my dogs," with a fond smile.

I thought this version did a very good job of portraying the genuine affection between Emma and Mr. Knightley, as he is instructive and never angry, not even after Box Hill, when he sounds frustrated. Of course, that might be due to Jeremy Northam, who is yummy yummy dreamy and brings the right sense of brotherliness, exasperation, and playfulness to role. (Although I'm not sure Mr. Knightley should be so yummy yummy dreamy.)

Gwyneth Paltrow is pretty good as Emma, with the right mix of sincerity and brattiness and her emotions easy to read on her face—maybe a little too easy, though, as it wasn't a very subtle performance. Most of the minor characters are very good, with some stellar Brit actors: Alan Cumming has right mix of smarm and solicitousness as Mr. Elton, and Juliet Stevenson is perfect as tacky, imposing upstart Mrs. Elton. Sophie Thompson (sister of actress Emma) brings out the silly and the dignified in Miss Bates, and Ewan MacGregor gives Frank Churchill the right mix of vivacity and secrecy, although he has to act while wearing one of the nastiest wigs I have ever seen.

The one serious flaw in casting is in Toni Collette as Harriet Smith. While I think she's a wonderful actress, with her own quirky attractiveness, she doesn't match Austen's description at all: "She was a very pretty girl, and her beauty happened to be of a sort which Emma particularly admired. She was short, plump, and fair, with a fine bloom, blue eyes, light hair, regular features, and a look of great sweetness." Collette is not plump (her face is more angular), nor does she have regular features or light hair. Plus, she plays Harriet with a slight dippiness that makes Harriet completely overshadowed by Paltrow's elegant Emma. Harriet is supposed to be pretty and charming enough for Emma to think that men will overlook her dubious background, and in this case I didn't buy it.

Still, this version was fast-paced and witty enough for me to enjoy it very much. It got to the essential bits of the story, and for the most part kept my favorite parts from the book. If you only have a couple of hours to introduce yourself to Emma, this is a good place to start.

Photo of the Week--4/25/11

So I discovered that not only did Jean Sibelius write one of my favorite pieces of music (his 2nd Symphony), but he also had this gorgeous house outside Helsinki. He named Ainola, it after his wife Aino, and had it designed with a study facing a lake. We were there in the summer, as you can probably tell from all the lovely sunshine and green. Some days I'd like one of these little writing retreats in the middle of nowhere (but not too far from somewhere).

Mr. Popularity....

So six months ago I reviewed the pile of college advertisements Boy had begun getting. Six months later, he's almost done with his junior year and has a good ACT score to his credit—and the pile is becoming a deluge, so it's time to wade through the mail again ... because he doesn't care to. The numbers in parens indicate what number mailing from that particular school.

Kentucky (5): Newsletter style this time, what's new on campus and new academic program.
U of Chicago (4): Another foldout postcard, touting overseas programs.
Kentucky (6): New school year starting, think of us!
Kentucky (7): Letter pegged to fall activities.
U of Chicago (5): Foldout postcard on fun school scavenger hunt.
Iowa: Glossy brochure. Smallest Big Ten school, small faculty: student ratio. No mention of cows.
Kentucky (8): I know it's homecoming week, but your stalking is starting to freak me out.
U of Chicago (6): It's a race to waste the most paper!
Kentucky (9): I didn't mean it, really. Stop it.
U of Chicago (7): Summer high school program, but still. Stop it.
U of Evansville (IN): PSAT scores earn you this letter and shiny brochure!
Wayne State (2): "See it to believe it" ... um, we've already been to Detroit.
Missouri S&T: Go to a specialized university! But there are clubs, too!
Rochester IT: I didn't even know there was an Insitute of Tech in Rochester. And I don't want to know why Admissions is in the "Bausch & Lomb Center."
U of Rochester (2): Do they use the same mail service? They give a login and password for an "academic guide!"
Washington U in St. Louis (2): We'll match your online service and raise you an SASE.
Washington & Lee (VA): We're like Harvard, Northwestern, Notre Dame, & Duke, except you've heard of them!
Drexel U (PA): If our online quiz doesn't tempt you, maybe our dragon logo will!
U of Miami (FL, 2): Another online quiz, helping you figure out who you are and where to go...
Kentucky (10): Spring semester is starting, and these winter months bring challenges ... like figuring out which season it is.
Carnegie Mellon: In big letters: "Are You Technology?" In fine print: "Yet we're about so much more than technology."
Kettering U (MI): Check us out! We have a smart phone code!
U Detroit Mercy: Postcard personalized with name and interest! Someone's been reading their PSAT list!
Illinois Wesleyan (2): "What's the big deal about small colleges?" Hmm, who will tell me?
Swarthmore (PA): "within easy reach of the excitement of Philadelphia!" We do like our ratings, don't we?
Carthage (WI): Another fan of touting college ratings.
Rensselaer Polytechnic (NY): "Galileo ... Fahrenheit ... Edison ... Gates ... Boy?" Are you the next great mind?
Case Western Reserve (2): a letter this time, and invitation to "how to choose the ideal college" ... and that might be ... CWR?
Tulane (2): Wow, you've been selected to take part in the online quiz!
Bellarmine U (KY): Another free guide "Where to Hang Your Hat" ... people still wear hats?
Wittenberg U (OH): Not just a guide ... a free checklist!
CO School of Mines (2): Focus on engineering and science ... in the Rockies ... and a career center to find you work.
Columbia Engineering (NY): "You may be competitive for admission" ... we're Ivy League, we don't beg.
Bowdoin College (ME): former home of Longfellow and Hawthorne. We hope you know who that is.
Penn/Wharton: summer program, management and technology?
Missouri S&T (2): Come fly in and visit!
Carnegie Mellon (2): summer "pre-college" programs ... is it "pre-college" tuition?
DePaul (IL): Hmmm ... are they in Chicago? I can't tell from the dozens of pictures.
Oberlin (OH): What liberal arts education should be ... did they read his areas of interest?
Northeastern (MA): online quiz, "Find out why you are a high achiever!" Good genes?
Macalester (MN):  A big glossy brochure and no pictures of snow.
Norwich (VT): Offers to look at "working life of an engineer."

I'm not even two-thirds through the stack, so I'll save the rest for later, and get some totals together then. I don't remember getting this much mail when I was in high school ... are there more colleges than there used to be, or do they just want our money that badly?