Alatar wrote:Keira was great in Bend it like Beckham.
Really funny that you mentioned this, as I believe it's her absolute finest performance. She's great in it.
Perhaps she became more self-conscious about herself and her acting as she got older? In everything since, she seems to jut her chin out a lot and make a vaguely mischievous face, and that's about it. But I agree with others that she is very likeable off-stage.
I think Keira Knightley, like Kate Winslet, is becoming less self-conscious as she ages, and hence a better actress. She was much better, I thought, in 'Never Let Me Go" - which I think was after P and P, although I'm not sure. I also think Kate Winslet is an example of an actress who when young looked as though she was acting. But I found her quite convincing in a very weird film called 'Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind' and truly excellent in 'The Reader.'
Talking of Kate Winslet and Jane Austen, she of course played Marianne in 'Sense And Sensibility,' alongside Emma Thompson's Elinor. There is an adaptation of the same novel made in 1980, and the actress who played Marianne in that looked uncannily similar to a young Kate Winslet. I wonder if that in any way influenced the later casting.
Hey, I got The Annotated Pride and Prejudice for Christmas (ed. David M. Shapard), and I am having a ton of fun with it. Novel text on verso, notes on recto. Extremely detailed and explanatory notes, with many contemporary illustrations.
It's not for someone who just has problems understanding the book; they might find it boring and confusing. It's really more for serious fans—the kind of people who, for a film, would listen to all the commentary tracks. I consider myself fairly well grounded in the Austen era, and I've learned things (and encountered interesting interpretations) already.
This probably belongs in a non-adaptations thread, but I didn't find one right away.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Yes. It was from my future DIL, who I saw reading her own copy last summer. She remembered how interested I was and got it for me.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I think we should all pitch in and get a copy for you, Inanna.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Oh, yes. Because nothing overcomes a visceral dislike of a particular literary style like being forced to read it closely and in immense detail. I remember that from school.
And it's good for your moral development. I remember that, as well.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
"If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding, if you don't eat your meat?"
Ahem. Sorry, we now return to our regularly scheduled Pride and Prejudice adaptation thread, already in progress.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
So I got one of these for Clare as part of her Christmas present. Part of me recoils at the thought of folding the pages, but I love the idea of making art from books.
So, I don't dislike P&P - I just feel like banging the girls' heads together. Slam. Bang.
I don't like the prose style of the classics. Which is why I have mostly read the abridged versions of the classics. Right now I can't remember if I ever did read the original of P&P, given Prim's accolade of it, it should be worth a try.
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Please bear with my typos & grammar mistakes. Sent from my iPhone - Palantirs make mistakes too.
'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude
Inanna, I know plenty of very well-read people with excellent literary taste who cannot STAND Austen. In some cases it's not the story—one of my friends adores the BBC miniseries—but rather the prose style, which they just can't penetrate. It takes a while to read enough writing in that style to be able to "hear through" it clearly—to see shades of meaning and notes of humor and so on. It's much like learning to understand someone speaking with a very heavy accent. There can't really be communication until your brain learns to compensate for the manner of speech and "hear through" to the meaning of it.
I was immunized from an early age because I grew up reading books like Robin Hood and The Swiss Family Robinson and Heidi and The Three Musketeers that had all been written or translated and published early in the 20th century, so I learned to read past the conventional stilted-sounding language and unrealistic dialogue well enough to truly enjoy the story.
But there's nothing wrong with not being able to do that. It's not as if there are no other books worth reading.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
"Frodo undertook his quest out of love - to save the world he knew from disaster at his own expense, if he could ... " Letter no. 246, The Collected Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien Avatar by goldlighticons on Live Journal
Reading classic literature does take practice and experience, and it is a difficult skill to learn for those not raised in it. Personally I think the rewards are worth the effort, but it is a long road to walk down. I had a co-worker who was able to read (and enjoy) LotR, after which I lent him Dracula (which he also finished and enjoyed) and, given more time, I have no doubt that I could have got him onto some Orwell, Vonnegut or John O’Hara (I doubt he would have ever been a P&P fan). I had another friend who tried to read Dracula but couldn’t manage the nineteenth-century language – he is a smart guy but he did not come from a family that was in any sense literary.
And even those who can and do read classic literature won’t like all classic literature. I read but actively disliked Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, find Dickens and Trollope too wordy most of the time (although I do love The Way We Live Now) and I have never really been drawn into a Jane Austen novel outside Pride and Prejudice and Emma. There are no doubt plenty of people who read Dickens and Trollope who simply don’t like Austen.
