Mansfield Park (Sylvestra Le Touzel)

(Amazon UK link)

I have liked Jane Austen’s novels since my teenage years. But I have to acknowledge that, in places, they can be a bit slow-moving. So although in general I prefer books to their film adaptations, I have very much enjoyed some of the film versions of Austen’s books.

Except for ‘Mansfield Park’. I’m not even going to link to my review of the bizarre version we saw back in 2008, with Billie Piper extraordinarily badly cast as the gentle, strait-laced Fanny Price. 

So I was delighted to learn that there was also a BBC version, in several episodes (rather like the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice which was so well done, and so popular). It was made in 1983 as a mini-series. We were given it years ago, but had not actually watched it, thinking - at first - that we would need a full afternoon to see such a long adaptation.

It made more sense, of course, to see just one episode at a time, as would have been the case with the TV version. And although my husband had never read ‘Mansfield Park’, and couldn’t remember the story from the other version, he appreciated this almost as much as I did. With six episodes, this version is able to be very true to the book. I haven’t read it for some time, but when I checked particular scenes after watching them, I saw that the dialogue and action was close to the original.

Fanny Price is played sensitively by Sylvestra Le Touzel. She sometimes seems a bit flat, but Fanny is a poor relation. She is given a home by her wealthier uncle and aunt, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at their home in Mansfield Park. They don’t exactly mistreat her - this is no Jane Eyre story - but see her as inferior, and expect her to do a lot of menial work. She’s quiet and retiring, and happy to do anything, so she becomes quite invaluable to her frail invalid aunt (Angela Pleasance).

I found Lady Bertram rather irritating, but think that’s how she’s supposed to be. And she’s a great deal kinder than her sister-in-law, the widowed Mrs Norris, who idolises the two Bertram girls, Maria and Julia, and treats Fanny as little more than a servant. Mrs Norris is one of Austen’s ironical creations, and she’s played extremely well in this adaptation by Anna Massey.

I very much liked Nicholas Farrell's portrayal of Edmund Bertram, Fanny's favourite cousin. He is kind, and generous in his time spent with her. He helps with her education, discusses philosophical issues with her, and it's hardly surprising that she starts to fall in love with him...

A six-part adaptation is necessarily fairly slow-moving, but we didn’t lose interest. The main part of the story - in my mind - happens when the young people decide, in Sir Thomas’s absence, to stage a somewhat risque play. They take over more and more of the house to do so. That doesn’t happen until the fourth episode, by which time the characters and their situations are well established.

There’s a great deal of satirical humour in the situations, often at the expense of some of the less likeable people. The scenery is good, the dialogue faithful to Austen’s original, and the pace exactly right. Even knowing how it would end I found myself quite tense in the later episodes.

The ending, although it ties up several plot-lines and leaves everyone satisfactorily situated, feels a bit abrupt. But then it all takes place in a single chapter in the book, with a lot of reflection and inner dialogue which wouldn’t work in a film.

All in all, we thought it a very good adaptation. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys Austen’s works and would like to see a version of Mansfield Park that sticks as close to the original story as is possible with a film.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

September (Jacqueline Bisset)

(Amazon UK link)

For last night’s weekly DVD, my husband decided on ‘September’, the made-for-TV film based on Rosamunde Pilcher’s novel of the same name. We first watched the film back in 2006 and I recalled that it was a reasonably faithful adaptation of the book. My husband did not remember it at all, until he saw the opening and rather morbid shots of a body being removed from a lake…

I’m glad I re-read the book fairly recently, as ‘September’ has quite a large cast of characters, and several interleaved subplots. The main focus of the book is a planned party - a huge one with marquees and Scottish country dancing and a disco. But the storylines involve people who are invited rather than the party-givers themselves.

Vi (Virginia McKenna) is, to my mind, the linchpin of the story. She is in her late seventies, but lively and active in the community. Her son Edmund (Michael York) is quite stubborn. He also works extremely hard and has made a lot of money in his business. He has a daughter, Alexa (Emily Hamilton), from his first marriage, who lives in London. Edmund also has a young son, Henry (Thomas Szekeres), by his second wife Virginia (Mariel Hemingway). Virginia is younger than Edmund, and from the United States, and they have very different ideas about raising children.

Then there are Archie (Edward Fox) and Isobel (Jenny Agutter), impoverished gentry who take in American visitors to supplement their income. Archie was injured in military service and lost a leg; he suffers from nightmares and terrible self-esteem. A recurring theme of the film is the way that Scots tend to button up their emotions and struggle on. There’s a mystery surrounding Archie’s sister Pandora, who ran away twenty years earlier, and this is gradually revealed during the film.

I thought Archie and Isobel very believable with excellent on-screen chemistry. I was less entranced with Edmund and Virginia. Both play their parts well, but it was hard to see any chemistry between them. And while … who played Henry did so extremely well, he isn’t the sensitive, highly intelligent Henry of the novels. I liked Alexa, but was a tad confused that her boyfriend’s name has been changed from Noel to Neil, and didn’t find him particularly realistic.

One of the most underrated but powerful people in the movie is Lottie (Angela Pleasence), sister of Edie (Anna Cropper) who works for Vi. Lottie has some kind of mental condition, but it’s not alzheimer’s; she is not at all forgetful. Instead she is the antithesis of the buttoned-up Scots. She watches everyone and everything, often stealing around gardens after dark, or listening at doors, and then reports on what she considers to be immoral or ‘wicked’ ways. She has a lot of strange mannerisms and Henry is, justifiably, rather scared of her. And it’s Lottie’s ‘chinwags’ with different people that brings some hidden truths to light.

Then there’s Pandora (Jacqueline Bisset), breezing into the movie in time for the party, shocking and/or delighting everyone. She is outspoken and generous, yet also unpredictable and self-centred. The novel is inevitably cut significantly, and in the film we don't meet Pandora until this point. Her back-story is somewhat changed as well, perhaps to keep it simpler and more dramatic.

There’s not a great deal of plot as such, despite so many subplots. This is a film (like the book) of relationships and character development. The ending is bittersweet, and I thought extremely well done. I was a little shocked to realise that the film was nearly three hours long; it was long past my bedtime when it finished, yet I had been gripped, caught up in the lives of the people in the story.

There’s some lovely scenery, though I gather the film was shot in Ireland rather than Scotland. The rating is PG which reflects the lack of any strong language, violence or scenes of intimacy. But the beginning and end scenes are somewhat traumatic. I don’t feel that this film would be appropriate for children under the age of about 12; in addition to the loch-dredging, there are several references to off-stage bedroom scenes, or images showing the morning after, and there’s a fair amount of mild bad language.

Overall I enjoyed this film very much, and would recommend it to anyone who likes Rosamunde Pilcher’s novels, or this kind of poignant character-based drama.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Barchester Chronicles (Donald Pleasence, Janet Maw, Alan Rickman, Nigel Hawthorne)

(Amazon UK link)

Some friends recommended the BBC drama series 'The Barchester Chronicles' highly. It was based on the Barchester novels by Anthony Trollope, but I could never quite get into his writing. So I was rather dubious. But our friends lent us the DVDs, and we decided to watch them over a couple of weeks.

The BBC is almost always good at period drama, and this is no exception. It's slightly galling to admit that a screen adaptation of the six Barchester Chronicles by Anthony Trollope was a great deal more appealing than the books - but there it is. I can only say that about a handful of films or TV series based on books. 

Once we had started watching, we felt that it was very well done indeed. The story - complex in print, easier in movie form - is of intrigue and jealousies amongst the clergyman of a fictional city. And there's a bit of love interest along the way. We did a double-take at seeing the late Nigel Hawthorne playing a somewhat smarmy clergyman. He is so well-known as 'Humphrey' in 'Yes, Minister' that it was hard to see him as anyone else!

The main character is the excellent and almost-too-good-to-be-true Mr Harding (nicely done by Donald Pleasence). But in the latter episodes we all agreed that the villainous Mr Slope rather stole the show, played brilliantly by Alan Rickman. We wondered if this was the inspiration that gave him, later on, the part of Snape in the Harry Potter movies.

Unsurprisingly, some of the episodes were a little long-winded in places and rather slow-moving. But basically we thought 'The Barchester Chronicles' was very enjoyable indeed. Recommended if you like this kind of period drama series. 

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews