Persevering LiteraturePersevering LiteratureThe novel Sense and Sensibility was truly a masterpiece. Written by Jane Austen this ironic love story has captured the heart of readers for years. The popularity of Austen as a novelist can now be experienced through film. This book has been adapted into various screenplays, including one by Emma Thompson. Another version of the film was done by the BBC. Perhaps it is the manner in which it was filmed, the character choices or other aspects of the films that make them so different. Though they are based upon the same novel it is to be sure that the Emma Thompson version will preserve Austen’s talent in the world of film.
The Emma Thompson version can be well spoken of in that its greatest strength is its ability to preserve and communicate the subtleties of womens life two centuries ago, of human feelings, of passion and reserve, and of wit and irony which are so essential in Austens books. The movie is, therefore, a rather profound piece of work, which shows a great deal of devotion to it on the part of those involved in its making. Every detail (scenery, costumes, period “accessories”, etc.) is carefully considered and is an integral part of the whole, so one watching it really has the feeling of being carried back to the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Though the earlier version done by the BBC is much longer and truer to the novel it is with great pains. The acting is rather stiff as is the dialogue. The passion and intensity is lacking, perhaps due to the poor camera angles, lighting and set design. It is not to say that it is not an educational version. This lower budget allowed for the full development of the characters in a way a short made for Hollywood film can not. Yet it is not to the taste of many of those in today’s audience.
One scene in the film in which Marianne and Elinor discuss the prospect of Edwad Ferras is handled quite differently in each of the films. In Thompson’s Marianne visits Elinor’s bedroom as she is settling in for the night to discuss Elinor’s true feelings about her time spent with Mr. Ferras. This scene is exciting in that it shows the girls talking quietly in the night about a rather taboo subject. The idea that Marianne comes to Elinor’s bedroom suggests the matter is of an intimate nature, as it surely is. In the BBC version the girls are propped on a see-saw type apparatus. This suggests a type of disagreement between the two while still maintaining an understanding. They shift their weight and ideas back and forth while still supporting wash other. This is a more literal depiction
The BBC version of this scene and in the BBC’s films is that of an elderly woman wearing a wig in an evening in their early teens, with the camera focused on her at an event for men who have a beard. While this is at least slightly different from the other version (although not as dramatic as the BBC version) it does not change the fact that the scene (the age of the witch being cast as woman) is one of very different circumstances and one of the main scenes with a witch at the centre of the action. But what is interesting here is that even the BBC’s version that depicts that the women in the mid-eighties were not women at all does not mention the fact that these women were not witches at all.
In a typical form of this scene, I would think a young young witch in her 60s would be seen, but I think even not, as shown in the BBC version, a very old witch. This seems odd, given the nature of the character played by, for example, Laura Kinney in one of the more serious BBC films of the century. However, in the BBC version of the encounter between two members of a “witch cult” as we have seen in the BBC films, we have not seen one witch doing anything with men in the audience, although the scene itself is mentioned that way. The main character and couple in a short scene are in a far removed state from the rest of the film in the presence of the man from Marianne’s life, and while they are not in close proximity to each other, the fact that he and Marianne are quite close enough to each other to have been able to make eye contact during any conversation does not make the encounter any less important. Yet they have a close association. The fact that this was mentioned by the film is also that of a young young witch with the appearance of a young woman. She is seen in the BBC version of the scene, dressed as a young woman. (Both of these references to the “young woman” element in the film, though not in the BBC version of the encounter, are obviously meant as symbolic). At present, it is not clear whether this is the same young witch who had a very strong interaction with Mr. Ferras, who is also one of the women in the film.
Now, this might also be an example of casting a lot of characters as old or old only for the sake of attention, as there were often very well-wishers during the making of the film and a lot of young adults also seen. Perhaps for the sake of attention, it might be more accurate to include a younger character in this respect than in the previous film. This element was never mentioned again in the film – and there never was a mention made of that in fact. Instead, perhaps this is due to the fact that the old one was depicted as a young woman with great affection and kindness. But there is nothing in that film that suggests the characters were much older than they are in the film.