Earliest Version & Glorious Version

The earliest adaptation I could find was a British production done in 1938, starring Curigwen Lewis as Elizabeth Bennet and Andrew Osburn as Darcy.   Not surprising considering the cast, there's not a lot of information available on it.

"Pride & Prejudice" 1940 Bruce Lester, Maureen O'Sullivan (Jane Bennet), Greer Garson from IMDB.com, http://imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1149/ Mptv/1149/8037-3_Pride.jpg?path= gallery&path_key=0032943

But two years later came a glorious Hollywood version directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, two huge stars of the time.  It's on the New York Times List of Top 1000 films, won an Academy Award for Best Set Design, and is beloved by many.  The screenplay was written by Aldous Huxley (with Jane Murfin), author of Brave New World and Crome Yellow.  He captured the fun of Austen's novel, but in the taste of the time (it was, of course, the period of World War II in England), he removed Austen's biting wit.                                                                          

There are some "flaws" in the film when viewed with our contemporary standards.  Most noticeable upon viewing is that the costuming was all wrong--women were in lovely almost Victorian gowns, but for the most part costuming was generic "Hollywood old".  And then Greer Garson, a wonderfully talented actor who went on to win the 1942 Academy Award for her title performance in Mrs. Miniver and was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, was 36 when she played the 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet.  There's a difference between a woman of 36 and a girl of 20, and it shows in her performance.  She seems wiser and more knowing than the Elizabeth of the book.

Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet and Laurence Olivier as Darcy from Crazy4cinema.com, http://crazy4cinema.com/Review/ FilmsP/f_pride_prejudice.html

But overall, this is a lovely adaptation of the novel.  It's the light romantic fun side of the novel, and the performances are top-notch all around.  Laurence Olivier is a perfect Darcy, age notwithstanding Greer Garson is a sparkling Elizabeth, and Mary Boland is a perfectly dizzy Mrs. Bennet.  Edna May Oliver, playing on type, makes a wonderful Lady Catherine De Bourgh.  When I have used it in class, students have almost universally enjoyed it.  And for good reason.  Although there were later adaptations of the novel, this one was the standard until the BBC version in 1995.

The final proposal scene. From Crazy4cinema.com, http://crazy4cinema.com/Review/ FilmsP/f_pride_prejudice.html

BBC Mini-Series

The BBC mini-series, directed by Simon Langton, has been called "the best BBC mini-series," high praise indeed for a company famous for its quality work.  Starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, it has gone on to be part of an "in-joke" in Helen Fielding's novel Bridget Jones's Diary.  That novel, of course, is a reworking of Pride and Prejudice with Bridget Jones being the Elizabeth Bennet character and Mark Darcy being the Darcy character.  In the Fielding novel, Bridget is enamored of Colin Firth and his role as Darcy.  She reruns the tape over the scene of him emerging from a lake in a wet shirt over and over again.  When it came time to cast the Bridget Jones film, who else could play Mark Darcy but Colin Firth?

In-joke aside, this is an excellent adaptation, but because it was originally a television mini-series, it runs to 5 ½ hours, so there is much more time to include materials.  The 1940 film version is only 118 minutes long.  That's a huge difference!

Handling the letter problem! Source: Bev's Bookshelf. http://www.bevsbookshelf.com/ pptheme.html

Producer Sue Birtwistle had read Pride and Prejudice "at least one hundred and fifty times" from the age of fifteen when she decided to pursue a film adaptation: "I am still finding things in [the novel]. I admire Austen so much more now that I see there is not a word wasted [in her novels]."  ("Behind the Scenes")

There is also considerable attention to period detail.  The costumes and settings are quite authentic, so that gives the film considerable value in a classroom when one is trying to show students what things would have looked like in Austen's time.

"One of the principal locations for "Pride and Prejudice" was Lacock, in Wiltshire, England. In order to transform the town into a Regency period village, set designers paid special attention to detail and had to ask residents and storeowners for permission to change the paint, doors, windows, and doorknobs of their homes and shops.

The Bennet Family in the 1995 production. Source: Bev's Bookshelf. http://www.bevsbookshelf.com/ pptheme.html

"On her first Regency film, costume designer Dinah Collin sought to create dresses that were authentic. With a camera and sketchbook in hand, Collin searched costume shops and museums from Bath to Bradford, from Winchester to Worthing, and from Manchester to Rome in pursuit of Regency style examples. Collin also read everything she could about the period." ("Behind the Scenes")

The acting was well done as well.  Jennifer Ehle (pronounced EE-le) won a BAFTA for her performance (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and she does an excellent job of bringing Elizabeth Bennet to life.  (An interesting trivia bit, Ehle is the daughter of English actress Rosemary Harris, known to young film-goers as Peter Parker's Aunt Mae in the two recent Spiderman films.)

As I've mentioned above, Colin Firth's performance has become iconic, but wet shirt aside, he, too, does a fine job and really shows the struggle between Darcy's inclinations and his pride. He was nominated for a BAFTA for his performance.

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth as Elizabeth and Darcy. Source: Bev's Bookshelf. http://www.bevsbookshelf.com/pptheme.html

Another standout in the cast is Julia Sawalha as Lydia Bennet.  Though her volume and pitch are annoying and grating after five hours of viewing, her performance shows us Lydia's shallowness and ignorance quite well.

Other versions include a 1952 mini-series, a 1967 TV version, a very popular 1980 miniseries (with a script by Fay Weldon, another English writer of biting satire), and Andrew Black's little-seen modern update 2003 feature film in which Elizabeth Bennet is a hard-working college student!

Bollywood Version

In 2004 we also got the Bollywood version, Bride and Prejudice directed by Bend it Like Beckham's Gurinda Chadha.  In this version there's an Elizabeth Bennet character, Lalita Bakshi, who falls in love with Will Darcy.  The mixed-marriage here isn't based on social class but on Indian vs English.  The film got mixed reviews, but it was a clever way of updating the material and it played with the current English cinema's interest in Bollywood (this is the name for the Indian film industry, a huge, but until recently, domestic venture.  Bollywood productions are famous for their chastity--India is a largely religious country--music, dance, color and high drama and romance).

Finally, as I write this, another production of Pride and Prejudice is in post-production.  The cast sounds wonderful.  Here's something I found in The San Francisco Bay Guardian's article on Pride and Prejudice adaptations:

'Pride and Prejudice' (due fall 2005)

Interpretation: faithful to Austen

Key players: Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Bennet), Dame Judy Dench (Lady Catherine De Bourgh), Brenda Blethyn (Mrs. Bennet), Donald Sutherland (Mr. Bennet)

Darcy: Matthew MacFadyen, a Brit known to U.S. audiences for appearing on the A&E series MI-5.

Are we excessively diverted? Sight unseen, there's no telling. The casting of the older generation is airtight, but the unproven Knightley misses (King Arthur) as often as she scores (Bend It Like Beckham)."

TOP

Earliest Version & Glorious Version

The earliest adaptation I could find was a British production done in 1938, starring Curigwen Lewis as Elizabeth Bennet and Andrew Osburn as Darcy.   Not surprising considering the cast, there's not a lot of information available on it.

"Pride & Prejudice" 1940 Bruce Lester, Maureen O'Sullivan (Jane Bennet), Greer Garson from IMDB.com, http://imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1149/ Mptv/1149/8037-3_Pride.jpg?path= gallery&path_key=0032943

But two years later came a glorious Hollywood version directed by Robert Z. Leonard and starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, two huge stars of the time.  It's on the New York Times List of Top 1000 films, won an Academy Award for Best Set Design, and is beloved by many.  The screenplay was written by Aldous Huxley (with Jane Murfin), author of Brave New World and Crome Yellow.  He captured the fun of Austen's novel, but in the taste of the time (it was, of course, the period of World War II in England), he removed Austen's biting wit.                                                                          

There are some "flaws" in the film when viewed with our contemporary standards.  Most noticeable upon viewing is that the costuming was all wrong--women were in lovely almost Victorian gowns, but for the most part costuming was generic "Hollywood old".  And then Greer Garson, a wonderfully talented actor who went on to win the 1942 Academy Award for her title performance in Mrs. Miniver and was nominated for an Academy Award seven times, was 36 when she played the 20-year-old Elizabeth Bennet.  There's a difference between a woman of 36 and a girl of 20, and it shows in her performance.  She seems wiser and more knowing than the Elizabeth of the book.

Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet and Laurence Olivier as Darcy from Crazy4cinema.com, http://crazy4cinema.com/Review/ FilmsP/f_pride_prejudice.html

But overall, this is a lovely adaptation of the novel.  It's the light romantic fun side of the novel, and the performances are top-notch all around.  Laurence Olivier is a perfect Darcy, age notwithstanding Greer Garson is a sparkling Elizabeth, and Mary Boland is a perfectly dizzy Mrs. Bennet.  Edna May Oliver, playing on type, makes a wonderful Lady Catherine De Bourgh.  When I have used it in class, students have almost universally enjoyed it.  And for good reason.  Although there were later adaptations of the novel, this one was the standard until the BBC version in 1995.

The final proposal scene. From Crazy4cinema.com, http://crazy4cinema.com/Review/ FilmsP/f_pride_prejudice.html

BBC Mini-Series

The BBC mini-series, directed by Simon Langton, has been called "the best BBC mini-series," high praise indeed for a company famous for its quality work.  Starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, it has gone on to be part of an "in-joke" in Helen Fielding's novel Bridget Jones's Diary.  That novel, of course, is a reworking of Pride and Prejudice with Bridget Jones being the Elizabeth Bennet character and Mark Darcy being the Darcy character.  In the Fielding novel, Bridget is enamored of Colin Firth and his role as Darcy.  She reruns the tape over the scene of him emerging from a lake in a wet shirt over and over again.  When it came time to cast the Bridget Jones film, who else could play Mark Darcy but Colin Firth?

In-joke aside, this is an excellent adaptation, but because it was originally a television mini-series, it runs to 5 ½ hours, so there is much more time to include materials.  The 1940 film version is only 118 minutes long.  That's a huge difference!

Handling the letter problem! Source: Bev's Bookshelf. http://www.bevsbookshelf.com/ pptheme.html

Producer Sue Birtwistle had read Pride and Prejudice "at least one hundred and fifty times" from the age of fifteen when she decided to pursue a film adaptation: "I am still finding things in [the novel]. I admire Austen so much more now that I see there is not a word wasted [in her novels]."  ("Behind the Scenes")

There is also considerable attention to period detail.  The costumes and settings are quite authentic, so that gives the film considerable value in a classroom when one is trying to show students what things would have looked like in Austen's time.

"One of the principal locations for "Pride and Prejudice" was Lacock, in Wiltshire, England. In order to transform the town into a Regency period village, set designers paid special attention to detail and had to ask residents and storeowners for permission to change the paint, doors, windows, and doorknobs of their homes and shops.

The Bennet Family in the 1995 production. Source: Bev's Bookshelf. http://www.bevsbookshelf.com/ pptheme.html

"On her first Regency film, costume designer Dinah Collin sought to create dresses that were authentic. With a camera and sketchbook in hand, Collin searched costume shops and museums from Bath to Bradford, from Winchester to Worthing, and from Manchester to Rome in pursuit of Regency style examples. Collin also read everything she could about the period." ("Behind the Scenes")

The acting was well done as well.  Jennifer Ehle (pronounced EE-le) won a BAFTA for her performance (the British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and she does an excellent job of bringing Elizabeth Bennet to life.  (An interesting trivia bit, Ehle is the daughter of English actress Rosemary Harris, known to young film-goers as Peter Parker's Aunt Mae in the two recent Spiderman films.)

As I've mentioned above, Colin Firth's performance has become iconic, but wet shirt aside, he, too, does a fine job and really shows the struggle between Darcy's inclinations and his pride. He was nominated for a BAFTA for his performance.

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth as Elizabeth and Darcy. Source: Bev's Bookshelf. http://www.bevsbookshelf.com/pptheme.html

Another standout in the cast is Julia Sawalha as Lydia Bennet.  Though her volume and pitch are annoying and grating after five hours of viewing, her performance shows us Lydia's shallowness and ignorance quite well.

Other versions include a 1952 mini-series, a 1967 TV version, a very popular 1980 miniseries (with a script by Fay Weldon, another English writer of biting satire), and Andrew Black's little-seen modern update 2003 feature film in which Elizabeth Bennet is a hard-working college student!

Bollywood Version

In 2004 we also got the Bollywood version, Bride and Prejudice directed by Bend it Like Beckham's Gurinda Chadha.  In this version there's an Elizabeth Bennet character, Lalita Bakshi, who falls in love with Will Darcy.  The mixed-marriage here isn't based on social class but on Indian vs English.  The film got mixed reviews, but it was a clever way of updating the material and it played with the current English cinema's interest in Bollywood (this is the name for the Indian film industry, a huge, but until recently, domestic venture.  Bollywood productions are famous for their chastity--India is a largely religious country--music, dance, color and high drama and romance).

Finally, as I write this, another production of Pride and Prejudice is in post-production.  The cast sounds wonderful.  Here's something I found in The San Francisco Bay Guardian's article on Pride and Prejudice adaptations:

'Pride and Prejudice' (due fall 2005)

Interpretation: faithful to Austen

Key players: Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Bennet), Dame Judy Dench (Lady Catherine De Bourgh), Brenda Blethyn (Mrs. Bennet), Donald Sutherland (Mr. Bennet)

Darcy: Matthew MacFadyen, a Brit known to U.S. audiences for appearing on the A&E series MI-5.

Are we excessively diverted? Sight unseen, there's no telling. The casting of the older generation is airtight, but the unproven Knightley misses (King Arthur) as often as she scores (Bend It Like Beckham)."

TOP