Jane Austen Done Right

by Cláudio Alves

Recently, Nathaniel reviewed Netflix's Persuasion adaptation, pointing out many of the film's issues. That said, our beloved editor is not an Austenite, so his critique lacks the militant outrage you could expect from the writer's biggest fans. Speaking as one of those demented individuals, I found the latest adaptation to be terrible beyond belief, starting from its basic premise. After all, why would one choose Austen's most melancholic, wistful, and mature novel for this Fleabag-esque treatment full of anachronistic jokes and fourth-wall-breaking jests? Isn't something like Northanger Abbey better suited for such an interpretation? The whole thing is a panoply of bad choices.

Still, while the new movie is terrible, the impulse to modernize Jane Austen's writing isn't necessarily wrong-headed. One just has to understand each text's particularities. The author's work is eminently cinematic and quite malleable when handled well. To prove its endless plasticity, here's a list of Austen-related films that took wildly disparate approaches to the material… 

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Showbiz History: The Girl From Missouri, The Princess from Genovia

10 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history...

1904 Dolores del Rio born in Mexico. By 1925 she's a star in silent films, Hollywood's first Mexican movie star, but her time in Hollywood is short. She reinvents herself back home in Mexico becoming a huge movie star all over again and ushering in Mexican cinema's Golden Era. 

1926 Gordon Scott, future Tarzan beefcake born in Portland. He stars in one of the most interesting Tarzan films, Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) which also features Sean Connery!

1934 The Girl from Missouri opens in movie theaters, a vehicle for Jean Harlow who was actually from Missouri...

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25th Anniversary: Looking Back at 'Metropolitan' with Chris Eigeman

Jose here. Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan turns 25 in 2015, and you wouldn’t be able to guess it based on how fresh and original its dialogues and performances feel. Stillman, who once was touted as the heir to Woody Allen - but has proved to be a less nihilistic, brutally sardonic, slightly WASP-ier cousin - delivered a screen debut as powerful as it was unconventional. Perhaps the one thing that gives the film’s age away (other than the very late 80s hairstyles and costumes) is how interested the characters are in connecting to each other, in making a difference and affecting other people’s perceptions. Whether their agendas are strictly narcissistic or actually noble depends on the eye of the beholder.

The film marked Stillman’s debut, and it also introduced audiences to several actors including Chris Eigeman, who as the Mr. Darcy-esque Nick Smith proved to be the ultimate snob. The actor followed his work in the film with appearances in two more Stillman projects, not to mention films with Noah Baumbach and a recurring role in the beloved series Gilmore Girls. I had the chance to talk to Mr. Eigeman about the making of Metropolitan and also discussed his own directorial work, and the raison d'être behind his hilarious tweets.

JOSE: Can you believe it’s been twenty five years since Metropolitan premiered?

CHRIS EIGEMAN: Oddly I’m not surprised, because the film was shown at Sundance for its twentieth anniversary, so I had this anniversary in sight.

Read more after the jump...

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Thirteen Links About Eleven Things

Antagony & Ecstasy remembers Whit Stilllman's great comedy Metropolitan (1990)
Monkey See Kevin Kline and a puppy because... well... Kevin Kline and a puppy!
Empire Ben Kingsley will provide the mustache twirling for Iron Man 3
Telegraph Tim Robey sees an expo reel from Ridley Scott's Prometheus 
MNPP who wore it best? 'cubist memory disintegration' with Colin Farrel & Jake Gyllenhaal

Movie|Line sums up all the "will Gary Ross direct The Hunger Games sequel Catching Fire?" serialized drama that's been syndicated all over the internet. I've ignored it until this recap because who has time for meaningless speculation that reverses itself each day?
World of Wonder "The Hunger GAYmes"
Coming Soon Woody Harrelson joining the cast of Out of the Furnace (the new film from Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper) as the villain
Cinema Blend still more Woody news. He's signed on for a cable series with his BFF Matthew McConaughey that sounds like a prestigey version of Cold Case. Why? His film career is going so well at the moment... stranger still is that Cary Fukunaga who has directed two terrific movies (Sin Nombre and Jane Eyre) and needs to keep stoking the early fires of his screen career has signed on to direct it.

The Mary Sue Tim Burton may be lining up another stop motion movie Night of the Living
24 Frames no full frontal this time for Jason Segel in Five Year Engagement
Flavorwire has an interesting list of the best platonic boy/girl friendships on tv. It is an underexplored realm.
Playbill Margaret obsessives take note. Kenneth Lonergan's next play "Medieval Play" opens in May. It's a story of two French knights described thusly.

A story of friendship, love, noble feats of arms, indiscriminate brutality, the progressive refinement of medieval table manners and the general decline of the chivalric ideal at the onset of the Great Papal Schism of 1378.

So in other words he's going to keep shoving as many ideas as possible into his narratives.