I knew there was another film version of Northanger Abbey out there and since it was made by BBC and they made an okay version of Pride and Prejudice, I figured that it would be an okay version as well. It wasn't. I'm just really not surer that the makers of the movie realized that Jane Austen was writing a PARODY of Gothic novels... not actually writing a Gothic novel. There were so many aspects of this film that were done wrong that I really don't know where to begin. I probably spent as much time gagging over this movie as I did watching the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice or the 2007 version of Mansfield Park... and that's saying a lot.
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Casting
Okay... meaning not quite bad but definitely not good. I think some of the cast could have done a lot better with just some better script writing.
Scriptwriting
Atrocious! As I said above, I don't think they realized the whole point of Austen's book! They also left out chunks of it and added in new parts that added NOTHING. Everything was very rushed, it was an hour and a half long movie and not put together well.
Catherine's Fantasies
As in the 2007 version of Northanger Abbey, this version dramatizes Catherine's fantasies. This is a very interesting idea but despite my not quite liking how they did it in the 2007 version, they did it better than in this version. The fantasies were just to weird... I mean weird, and oftentimes gory!
Music
Music you ask? Why would the music factor into our analysis? Why not! In this case, the music strongly influenced my dislike of the movie. It was terrible! I'm not sure how to describe it, though my mother likened it to blues. It went along with the whole theme of making it a rather gothic movie.
Overall, I suggest you do not waste your time watching this movie. Read the book! Always read the book. Then I would cautiously recommend the 2007 version of Northanger Abbey as a film version to watch.
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I watched this version a long time ago and I can say that I really don't remember anything about it. It doesn't stand out, I haven't seen the 2007 version as I didn't know there was one. I checked out your review of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park..lol. I thought the best thing about that version of P&P was Mathew McFadden..lol. (I think ever woman will forever love Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy no matter how many remakes they make of this movie..lol)
ReplyDeleteSo I am curious, what is your favorite Persuasion movie? Mine is the 1995 version but I admit it's mainly because I am a huge Ciran Hinds fan...lol. :)
I prefer the 1995 version but the more recent version isn't bad. :)
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