An excellent site to catch upcoming movie trailers is the Apple Quicktime Trailers page. Browsing there today I found the trailer for the upcoming version of Pride and Prejudice starring Keira “Try Wearing a Corset” Knightly, Donald Sutherland, and Dame Judi Dench.
Now the last name on that makes me sit up and pay attention. You might be thinking, “Now, Neil, be honest. Are your sure it isn’t the first name on that list that does that?” Actually, no. I have come to an understanding, largely as a result of this trailer perhaps, that I am not a huge Ms. Knightly fan. No cardiac flutters or sighing. Nor, I hasten to add, do I have cardiac flutters and sighs in response to Dame Dench. But even if do not end up liking a particular movie she is in, her acting and mere presence are always splendid.
Even the presence of Dame Dench, though, is not likely to go far in erasing the Prejudice I feel toward this new movie. I realize that Austen will forever be updated, but what could improve on the 1995 miniseries by BBC. I leave it to the opposite sex to flutter and sigh over Colin Firth’s Darcy, but, speaking as a man, “He’s the man!” My brother Virgil’s and my favorite part is when Darcy comes home, brooding and despondent over being rejected by Elizabeth, and stops by the lake, strips down to his pants and shirt and plunges into the lake. Brilliant. Then he goes into his home, only to find Elizabeth unexpectedly present. And then he is all courtesy. Hopeful. Earnestly eager to connect with her. Genuinely gracious. Completely secure in the surrondings of his home.
And prior to this scene we see Elizabeth, played by Jennifer Ehle, lose the last vestiges of her Prejudice, as she sees Darcy’s beautiful grounds, not simply for the wealth they represent, but for the sheer asthetic marvel they are, the perfect marriage artifice and nature. Then the character of Mr. Darcy is further revealed as she talks to his housekeeper. And, as she does throughout the movie, Ms. Ehle portrays Elizabeth inner thoughts so splendidly through her eyes. And what a pair of eyes, full of mischief, fire, and delight.


And so, I suspect I will end up having a certain bit of Pride at being a BBC P&P groupie. A pride which I happen to think only proper.