#i'd love a book accurate mr collins

[bennetsbonnet]

Going to see a production of Pride and Prejudice tonight and I am sO excited to see it onstage, if a little nervous because I hope they do it justice! My friend, who has never read it or seen any adaptations is going with me and I really hope she falls in love with it just as I did. Though I'm a little envious because I wish I could go back and discover it for the first time all over again :')

[bennetsbonnet]

have you watched pride and prejudice and zombies btw? i saw it for the first time yesterday and it was as wild as i had hoped sfhjkgf. both a terrible p&p adaptation obviously and a terrible zombie movie but highly entertaining! idk what are your thoughts? ^^

I have indeed! I watched it on Halloween last year. I cannot believe it exists but, honestly? I'm grateful that it does because it's so unhinged and such an utterly absurd concept it actually (for me) kind of worked... but then again I don't really care for zombie media. Not really sure who the target audience is because I wouldn't imagine there to be a huge amount of overlap between P&P stans and zombie enjoyers hehe but I'm not going to complain that someone decided to make it!

I thought it was a nice homage to the original story and actually it was surprisingly faithful to the source material in terms of dialogue?? Minus the zombies, of course. Though I wasn't very impressed with the Darcy, he wasn't tall enough and didn't really have the haughtiness down (well, as haughty as one could be mid-zombie apocalypse)... plus I wanted to hand him a throat lozenge throughout the entire movie lol, he sounded like something was stuck in his throat! BUT I loved Lily James as Elizabeth and the cast had so many familiar faces from various other things I've watched. Matt Smith might be my favourite Mr Collins, too. He was so book accurate and brilliantly tall and awkward, especially at the Netherfield ball.

Also Darcy's first proposal? 100000/10. The only way the original scene could have been improved in the novel would have been if Elizabeth could've kicked him after he told her that he was responsible for separating Jane and Bingley and then thrown various objects at him. I loved that for her! 'Indifferent?!😡SHE'S!!👊SHY!!👊' lives rent free in my mind, too.

I also cannot believe it included the line which deserves to be in every adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, when Darcy included in his letter the, 'I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words which laid the foundation. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun,' line, ahhhhhh! I was swooning.

I wouldn't watch it frequently and it's not the greatest film I've ever seen but it's guaranteed to put a smile on your face and I appreciate how unserious yet 100% serious the entire thing is. To be honest, I'd rather see 1000 more silly P&P adaptations like that than have it adapted by people who don't understand the original novel or respect Jane Austen as an author!!

[bennetsbonnet]

I love the '95 version so much, maybe because it's so similar to the book, or maybe because they nailed both Darcy and Lizzy. I think that everyone and their mother already have praised Darcy, you know, for the yearning, the glances from across the room, but my god their Lizzy is just spot on. She's almost exactly how I imagined her, so fun, lively, feeling so much and the only criticism I can give is that she's way more beautiful than Jane in this adaptation. They didn't get Mr Collins or Catherine de berg right for me tho (although their mr Collins sure is a specimen, I'm still in awe of that performance), but the Bennet girls all acted like they jumped from my head onto the screen. I could never get into the 2005 version, and it's frankly so ironic that I'm too prejudiced against their choice of the male lead to enjoy it

Yesssss, P&P '95 really nailed the warm, fuzzy feelings that I get inside every time I read the novel and captured the dynamic between Elizabeth and Darcy brilliantly as, imo, if they mutually look at each other with affection in their eyes instead of some level of disgust before Pemberley, it's all wrong! Jennifer Ehle really did so much with her eyes. You can understand why Darcy fell in love with her because those little glances are EVERYTHING! I love her physicality too! She is a great Lizzy, very very close to how I picture her when I read it. She won a BAFTA too which was fully deserved, I'm glad she got that recognition, even if everyone lost their minds over the Wet White Shirt™. The rest of the Bennet girls are fantastic too, so many little background acting moments I adore, like Lydia pushing Mary out of the way at the church right at the beginning, it's so funny! Their dynamic is great and I really enjoy the scenes around the dinner table at Longbourn.

I do wish some things were slightly different; the dialogue between Darcy and Elizabeth when she stays at Netherfield is some of my favourite and I'm not fond of the changes they made (though I can see why compressing multiple scenes of dialogue into two makes sense from a production standpoint). Also the Rosings arc is disappointingly different from the novel, though I think the proposal scene is absolute perfection. I really don't think that will ever be topped, it's amazing! Susannah Harker who played Jane is so pretty but they really messed up her hair imo, it didn't flatter her at all! Not sure it's that wrong for the period, but I don't think the style suited her :(

Lady Catherine is probably too old, but she's such a snob in this portrayal, I still enjoy the performance! Mr Collins differs from the novel too, he should be far younger and TALL! but he's so loathsome which is vital for any portrayal of him :')

I have a complex relationship to '05 because in many ways it's what truly sparked my love for P&P. I'd read the book a few months before but it wasn't until I saw the story on the screen and got to grips with all the characters that I really understood how great it was. So, while I had some idea of the plot thanks to reading the book first, it was like seeing it anew. Then I re-read the book and found it to be even better than the film and, well... here we are now.

I will say that although Matthew Macfadyen is not really my type at all, I got it by the end, much like how Elizabeth comes to see the best in him. He is charming and tall, and they have great chemistry! Though I now struggle to see it as a really faithful interpretation of Mr Darcy, I did enjoy his performance and he made a great Regency hero... just perhaps not an accurate Mr Darcy. Still, I don't think it's his fault that people misunderstand the character based on it, it seems like the director's fault, if anything.

I always think watching any adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is worthwhile, even if it makes you consider things from the perspective of 'they'd never do that!' Helps you get to know the characters better. Plus, the '05 does has a lot of good points, the music is very dreamy and it's visually stunning. I can see why it appeals!