the jane austen season, reviewed

1.) Pride and Prejudice (1995). Really hard to top. I mean, I own it on video but made time to watch it on PBS anyway. That's quality, there.
2.) Miss Austen Regrets. Beautifully done. Sad without degenerating into romantic tragedy (which Austen would've ridiculed) and much more accurate than Becoming Jane.
3.) Sense and Sensibility. My favorite of the new film adaptations. Nothing against the Ang Lee version, which is great, but the casting wasn't the most accurate reflection of the novel. Minor nitpick: Scenes where the Dashwoods meet the Steeles a little too fast-paced.
4.) Northanger Abbey. Really cute - I loved Catherine's daydreams. The only one of the new renditions where the shorter length worked.
5.) Persuasion. Waaaayyy too short. And the best scene of the entire novel - where Captain Wentworth writes the climactic letter to Anne under her very nose - was cut/altered! Outrage! Didn't love Sally Hawkins as Anne - not nearly self-possessed enough. Bright spot: Rupert Penry-Jones as Wentworth.
6.) Emma (1996). It's really sad when my favorite film adaptation of Emma is Clueless. But I don't really like this one with Kate Beckinsale any more than the Gwyneth Paltrow one - the former is at least fairly reflective of the novel, but Jeremy Northam is much to be preferred as Mr. Knightley.
7). Mansfield Park. This is a tough novel to adapt for film, in part because Fanny Price tends to be the least satisfying heroine both from a modern, votes-for-women standpoint and from a typical romance plotline standpoint. Like the 1999 movie (where her character was merged with Austen's, for heaven's sake), this adaptation gets it wrong. Like Persuasion, it's not long enough. And what is up with everyone's hair?