This is a guest post from the lovely Heidi at Along the Brandywine. Check out her blog! You will love it! Also be sure to check out her original post HERE.
Enjoy!
I was quite curious about this adaptation as it was the only
(available) Emma I hadn’t yet seen—and
as I was finding it hard to gather much concrete information on it. Imagine my
excitement when I found our library did indeed have it!
To begin with, the theme music is sprightly and
light-hearted (in fact, my sisters and I agreed it would be fun to add to our piano
repertoire). As a whole the film is very 70’s, but if you’re willing to
overlook some things (and know what to expect in that regard), it definitely
has its merits.
On the dress, the main item I wasn’t sure about was why
Emma—and Harriet—often wore caps (as my understanding has always been that
women would don caps after marriage). I was looking at some portraits, however—principally
by Joshua Reynolds and Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin (both in the 1700’s/early
1800’s)—and the young girls there are
occasionally wearing indoor caps. Emma takes place about 1803 and the pictures I
found were also mostly of nursery age children (excepting the married women, of
course) and maids (who may or may not have been married)—so I’m not sure my
research was conclusive, but it was interesting.
Simplicity: A
Portrait of Miss Theophilia Ghatkin, 1785
by Joshua Reynolds
But back to Emma! Several
of the costumes reappear in later films (a number of them in the BBC 1985 P&P) so—along with the dresses—it
was fun to see Emma in Jane Bennet’s pelisse and Jane Fairfax wearing Lizzy’s
(or rather the other way round).
Emma herself does appear
older in this version. But she does also have a dignity, a warm enunciation,
and a collected liveliness of manner for an Emma. (In her turns of expression, she
actually sometimes reminded us of Gwyneth Paltrow.) Occasionally, I think she
does seem a bit more like a governess, a bit schoolmarm-ish (particularly with
Harriet and when she’s trying to be especially calm), but she did quite all right
with the part.
And Mr. Knightley! Mr. Knightley is Sir Nigel!!! (Do pardon
my excitement, but we love the b/w Richard
Green Robin Hood tv show—and it’s
always thrilling to discover a friend from there elsewhere. :))
So yes, (ahem!) Sir Nigel was very good as Mr. Knightley. With
dry flashes of humor, he managed his entire role (including his management of
Emma) most excellently well.
Mr. Woodhouse is
quite good.
Mr. Weston was open
and friendly, and Mrs. Weston certainly gentle and ladylike. (And they have a
real baby at the end…well done, indeed!)
Mr. Elton was always
eager, smiling, and obliging—if awkward—and I thought it easy to see how Emma
could misinterpret his character.
Mrs. Elton is quite adequately
rude, vulgar, and funny.
Harriet is very
sweet, pretty, and perfectly naïve.
We get to see Robert
Martin in a conversation at the end, which is very nice.
And also a lot of
Miss Fairfax! Miss Fairfax I very much
liked. Gentle and soft, maddeningly reserved, elegant and fascinating—I think
she was just about perfect.
And Frank Churchill
is high-spirited and engaging—playing his part quite well.
The John Knightleys visit
for Christmas…
Isabella is fine.
While John Knightley
is quite perfectly John Knightley-ish (and has one of my favorite lines in the
film). Referring to Elton, “With men
he can be quite simple and rational, but with ladies…ha! I confess he makes my
boot itch.”
And now some more particulars: at 270 minutes, this is the
longest Emma and oddly enough, I felt to be the one with the most alterations.
(There will be some spoilers ahead.) A number of scenes—along with some both
major and minor details—are changed (rather unaccountably so due to the length
of time). For a few instances: Emma
sends the apples to Miss Bates (thus weakening the Knightley-Fairfax puzzle a
bit), the Dixons become a completely unrelated couple wanting to hire Jane as a
governess, and Jane (and Mr. Elton) are not present at the Box Hill picnic. The
John Knightley’s are to end up moving into Donwell and Jane breaks off her
engagement not because of Frank’s behavior to Emma—but apparently because of
his long absences waiting upon his aunt.
The script was changed quite a fair amount—in general
softening or abridging some of the lines (particularly Mr. Knightley’s). I felt
those changes did weaken the theme and even some plot connections—creating less
tension and a much calmer tone. Looking at it, I’ve decided they were trying to
emphasize the danger of flattery. To
illustrate, near the beginning Mr. Knightley is concerned about Emma keeping company
with Harriet mostly because she is inadvertently a flatterer—and there is a
following emphasis on the lines referring to flattery at both the ball and the
end proposal scene. There is also a line change at Box Hill. When confronting
Emma about her speech to Miss Bates he says, “Emma! Emma! That you—of all
people—should allow the flattery of a moment to cloud your judgment so!” At the
same time, Emma is never quite as taken in by Frank and since his influence is
less, Mr. Knightley never gets particularly jealous of him.
Overall, I don’t think they twisted the story, but I do
think that by emphasizing the flattery lines they missed some stronger unifying
threads.
As to a few more particulars on certain scenes (and this example
is a bit of a side note), but this version has the distinction of having the
most forward Mr. E. proposal of any (not the most dramatic, but quite possibly the
most mushily romantic—if you can so call the Elton experience). It’s entirely
easy to enter into Emma’s feelings on the occasion!
And as I mentioned earlier, you get to see a delightful
amount of Jane Fairfax, especially near the end (and including the scene with
Emma calling on Miss Bates where Mrs. E. is also present, dutifully awaiting her
lord and master).
It’s delightful to see Jane’s gracious warmth and civility,
and to see her and Emma laying the foundation for a friendship. Quite
satisfying!
Thank you so much for this great guest post Heidi!
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