GimletBlog

When Austenblog reported that there was an advance screening of Becoming Jane in town, I had to go. Sure, the logline brings on a twitching fit (“Their love story was her greatest inspiration”) but it was a great opportunity for a girls’ night out — and free!

JASNA’s web site features an excellent article: “Becoming Jane: Sorting Fact from Fiction.” So much has been said about this film already; without repeating others too much, here are some of my observations. (Spoilers follow after the jump.) (more…)

Editor’s note: This year’s Very Cool Patent Lawyer Client Appreciation Event was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Thing Two did not attend but enjoyed playing with the goodie bag contents afterwards. Goodie bags included glasses, leftover Triwizard Tournament decals (We scored Hogwarts and Beauxbatons but couldn’t find a Durmstrang one), and light-up wands. Accio Milk Duds!

Last Saturday I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We got free goodies, including a triwizard card, Harry Potter glasses, a wand, and 2 books, 2 about the history of broomsticks, and Harry and Ron’s book on magical creatures, which Ron and Harry wrote in. where it showed the classifications of animals. Ron or Harry wrote next to the most dangerous types of the animal “or anything Hagrid likes”.

In the movie, Harry saw Sirius Black’s house. When Harry, Fred, George, Hermione and Ron were listening to an Order of the Phoenix conversation, Hermione’s cat grabbed the extendable ear and played with it. I also liked when Professor Umbridge (Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher) interviewed Snape and asked “So you were unsuccessful getting the job of defense against the dark arts?” and Snape said “Obviously!” and she said stuff cutely and her room had cute kitten pictures.I also liked when the Weasely twins barged in the great hall and set off fireworks shaped liked dragons and shattered all the rule posters.

I think the movie would be scary in some parts for younger children, in the end, especially.

New this weekend, the latest ITV1 trailer is available for download from The Guardian‘s media blog (.wmv format). The trailer does a nice job of stirring up excitement for the new Jane Austen films, with quick flashes of some very lovely images and choice little bits of dialogue. Very much amuse-bouches, but since I’m not really that cultured, my first comparison was to those “fun size” mini candy bars haunting the stores during Halloween.

Judging from the media focus (and my own bias), Persuasion looks to be the showpiece of these three new adaptations. We may not get to see Catherine Morland running to Milsom-Street, but there appears to be more than enough Anne Elliot sprinting through the streets of Bath to compensate. Our new Captain Wentworth certainly possesses the “glowing, manly, open look” mentioned in the novel. That’s not Gowland’s Lotion. I want his aesthetician’s number.

Mansfield Park could be a surprise hit. The little we’ve seen in the previews looks good. The Northern Echo reports that much of the film was shot using a handheld, which should be a fresh, interesting approach. I liked most of the handheld work in the 2005 P&P, but it could also go horribly wrong and leave us with COPS: in Mansfield.

Last but not least, Northanger Abbey looks lovely. This is our first peek at several cast members, and they’re a very attractive group. In particular, this trailer features some gorgeous shots of Felicity Jones. She looks quite a bit like C.E. Brock’s Catherine. Carey Mulligan has a nice resemblance to Brock’s Isabella as well. I also like this adaptation’s decision to cast a younger, prettier Mrs. Allen — more of a mother/aunt figure than the grandmotherly type seen in the Brock illustrations and in some of the other stage or film adaptations. Finally, a quick note on the acting: Henry’s glare in the theater scene is fantastic. (P.S.: Nice use of dim theater lighting plus top hat to disguise the helmet hair.)

I bought an inexpensive little region-free DVD player so I can watch these films almost as soon as they’re available from the UK. Enjoying the tastes, but growing more impatient to learn when dinner will be served.

ETA 6 March: First course begins 18 March. See my site for more details.

A few weeks ago I looked over the ITV-1 teaser trailer for their Jane Austen season, complained that a teaser trailer ought to tantalize, and the Northanger Abbey scenes were rather lacking in that respect. So I was poking around today and found a new teaser trailer on ITV’s web site called Winter on ITV1 (ETA 22 February – updated link).

Described as “a tantalising glimpse of the highlights of the winter season”, its Jane Austen scenes belong almost entirely to Northanger Abbey. As these scenes do not occur in the book, follow the jump for spoilers. (more…)

They’re still about a year away from their Masterpiece Theatre broadcast dates, but three new Jane Austen adaptations will debut on the UK’s ITV-1 some time this winter. ITV has not announced specific dates, but the managers for the estate at which Mansfield Park was filmed were told March. Masterpiece Theatre will show these films in the USA in November along with the BBC’s new Sense and Sensibility. AustenBlog has all kinds of news and links pertaining to the films and my web site is the home of the unofficial Northanger Abbey press room and cast gallery. And at long last, a winter preview trailer is up on YouTube. Follow the jump to see a few still images from the trailer accompanied by my commentary, most of which is devoted to dissecting the Northanger Abbey teaser. (more…)

Oh! Mr. Tilney, how frightful! — This is just like a book!

Saturday morning we followed excellent directions given to us by a native New Yorker and fellow Pemberlian, and set out for the morning. On the way, we located the restaurant and the Park Avenue Christian Church, home of Theater Ten Ten. To our delight, the church was a Gothic edifice! Perhaps more Blaize Castle than Otranto, but still, very exciting.

We arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before the crowds and spent most of the day exploring its long passages and galleries, as our passion for ancient edifices and artifacts was next in degree to our passion for — well, you know. While we weren’t able to see all the exhibits, we chose favorites to linger over and briskly worked our way through several others. I was thrilled to find a collection of red figure vases by the Berlin and Achilles painters in the Greek and Roman galleries; Kelley’s must-see was George Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. We especially enjoyed the special exhibit titled Americans in Paris, 1860-1900.

By mid-afternoon the museum was getting crowded, so we left, walking several blocks south along Fifth Avenue, then turning around to walk back to 86^th Street through Central Park. We saw the viewing station for Pale Male, the Model Boat Pond, and took in the vast array of families, dog walkers, pedestrians, and cyclists. We took another loving look at the church — it was on the way, I promise — and hurried back to the hotel to meet the other Pemberlians and (hopefully) the Virtue Queen, who was making her way north from Times Square. (more…)

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Today was a holiday from school, so I went to the office with my dad for lunch. We had was fish fillets and onion rings. The fish was good but I didn’t like the onion rings. Then, we walked to the movies and watched Flushed Away. It is about a pet mouse named Roddy with dolls he’s living with. A sewer rat comes up the sink and flushes him down the toilet. While he’s falling down the drain, he sees Nemo. Then, he falls and finds another rat named Rita. Some other rats are looking for her ruby, which Roddy proves that it is a fake by hitting it on the boat. The Toad tries to freeze Roddy and Rita, but they escape and the other rats are frozen. Everywhere, there are singing slugs, and the little ones sing bass. The frog tries to repopulate the sewer with his children because he hates rodents. He will flood the sewer at halftime in the world cup. Roddy and Rita stop them and the sewer rat that flushed him stays at Roddy’s house watching the world cup.

I liked the movie, but I think it is a bit scary for little children. There were some funny things in it, and it is adventurous. Some parts of it were scary.

In this part of the world, Halloween is usually the week of our first frost, so the Things wear the warmest costumes we can find. Team Gimlet attends the annual Trunk or Treat in the church parking lot, where the adults guzzle hot cider to stay warm while the kids run from car to car (some elaborately decorated, some not), collecting about one ton of candy each (You think I’m exaggerating?). The Trunk or Treat is always a fun way to socialize, catch up with old friends and contract hypothermia at the same time.

Thing One usually requests a homemade costume (once he wanted to be Spaceman Spiff; another year, StrongBad) but this time he wanted to use a previous year’s knight costume, perhaps in homage to the computer game he plays with his uncles. Thing Two was a frog, in heavily insulated polar fleece. Stranger anxiety is always an issue with Thing Two, and the strangers were especially strange Halloween night, so he spent the evening on the verge of tears. Truly it’s not easy being green.

After the Trunk or Treat, we put Thing Two to bed and let Thing One stay up a little later than usual to watch F.W. Murnau’s classic film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922). This unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is justifiably praised for its use of imagery and unique portrayal of the vampire, Count Orlok. Werner Herzog’s very faithful 1979 remake is also one of my favorite films. Thing One was very interested in the special effects Murnau used to make the Count seem otherworldly.

Several editions are available; ours is distributed by Image Entertainment and features color tinting (blue for night scenes, sepia for day), a choice of two scores (organ or the eclectic Silent Orchestra), and a fascinating collection of production images and commentary by Lokke Heiss. A quick search turned up countless reviews and commentaries, and these two, by Jerry Saravia and the Silents are Golden web site respectively, are worth perusing.

Last, to finish off the holiday evening, I received a little treat in my email.

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