Sunday 15 June 2008

Northanger Abbey

Tonight the ABC is showing Northanger Abbey. One of my top six favourite Austen novels and the movie is really not too bad all things considered. Pop in here afterwards and let me know how you liked it.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw it here in the US, and I loved it. It's the first Northanger Abbey screen adaptation I'd seen, and I thought they did a lovely and funny job.

What I really want to see, though, is a full-on Bollywood version of Northanger Abbey.

tigtog said...

Ah, I knew you wouldn't miss this week!

I really liked this one. The way they handled the Gothic fantasy scenes was v. well done, methinks. Isabella was excellent. Apart from our Mr Tilney the other men are mere ciphers, but that's pretty true to the book.

Lovely costumes.

Miss Schlegel said...

Well, I adored it, but then I think it's fairly well established that my critical faculties leave me of a Sunday night, only to return with a vengeance on Monday morning when I think everything's BLOODY CRAP.

I especially liked Mr Tilney's warm-eyed level of attractiveness. I liked that girl who played Isabella — she was the sweet cousin in Bleak House, right?

tigtog said...

Mr T. was rather loverly, wasn't he?

Carey Mulligan Played orphan Ada Clare in Bleak House, she was also Kitty in the latest movie adaptation of P&P, and also Sally Sparrow in possibly the best episode of Doctor Who ever.

Ampersand Duck said...

Mr T *was* lovely, and I approved of this week's screen kiss. Catharine was a bit close in looks to Chloe Lattanzi for my liking, but that's not anyone's fault in particular :)

I really enjoyed the Gothic fantasy scenes, and Colonel Tilney was fantastically creepy.

Unknown said...

I didn't like it at all! Except for Catherine's mother and for Elinor (?Eleanor). I didn't like the actor playing Catherine.

Anonymous said...

I loved it. It had Andrew Davies' mark, and I think he nearly always gets the essence of the story, characters and tension right.

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Um, that's a very flattering photo of Chloe Lattanzi.

I only saw the first 20 minutes (because of reasons, as Thirdcat would say) but I thought the Catherine actress person was really sweet, though perhaps a little too pretty and a little too self-possessed. (Which would be a directorial thing not an actor thing.) And yes, Isabella was terrific.

I've got a festering grudge against Andrew Davies for cornering the market in adapting 19thC women's writing for the screen with no apparent awareness that there is an inescapable gender-politics agenda here. I think one can see this lack of awareness in the screenplays, though I grudgingly admit that they are well-constructed and so on.

Elsewhere007 said...

I fell asleep watching it (after camping trip on which I didn't get much sleep the night before) but enjoyed what I saw. I think I liked the earlier 80s version more, which I felt handled the Gothic sequences in a more interesting way.

However, a big plus with this version was that most of the actors pronounced the name 'Eleanor' correctly...as 'Elennahr' rather than 'Elennoar'.

Anonymous said...

Really enjoyed it - funny and a bit raunchy. At the risk of sounding a complete girly-girl I thought the costuming was absolutely superb - those divine short fitted jackets over the empire frocks. And Miss Thorpe had some lovely jewels.

Anonymous said...

"Mr T *was* lovely, and I approved of this week's screen kiss. "

The kiss was splendidly non-typical for period drama - they bent in to kiss each other, and then she delicately slammed him up against a tree. Noice.

Anonymous said...

Eleanor was a bit too Amelie for my liking. I really liked the guy from Peep Show who played John Thorn. All the various bits of teasing had a nice playful tone and consistency which I enjoyed. Actually I preferred this week's version of Bath to last week's.

Janine & Steve said...

Speaking of Chloe Lazzani, which were were (sort of)- MY, didn't she improve with age, genes and lots of money? She was a very plain child.
Perhaps there's hope for Bindi Irwin yet.

I enjoyed last night. Young Isabella stole the show though- fantastic dimples.

Ampersand Duck said...

I'd approve of Chloe more if she ate more, but I suppose she's working on that. Poor child's had a lot to live up to ;)