When a teenager Jane Austen wrote Sense and Sensibility (1811) was aware that the purpose of the text - usually their entire literary output - was counseling women of her time on the most convenient get a good husband. However, its real merit was to combine the rigidities of social desirability (which is common in an era when most marriages were arranged) with the inner aspiration to choose the wanted man, giving the (false) impression that the election was conducted freely and without conditions of any kind. Short and clear: the desire to incorporate women's intimate family duty, unquestionable and unavoidable by definition. So Jane Austen is not a rebel: at no point suggests that family interests and economic convenience are below personal affection, the heroines of her books always manage to find the defining moments through which prove their worth, character, sensitivity and consistency, even in the most adverse circumstances. Pedagogy and the desire to make women better suited to the rigidities of their time is the real obsession of this woman, who knows firsthand the life that was intended as second class citizens they were. His books are invaluable evidence about the daily life of women in England in the early nineteenth century: no rights, no instruction just outside the household chores and a smattering of art that would make them marriageable (to read, sing, embroidery , play an instrument), a pattern of behavior in and out (modesty, prudence, submission, the ritual of the visits, the mundane conversation, parties) and the lowest exhaust valves (confidence in the bedroom, where furtive letters unleash the passion, imagination and feelings). Stories dear and near to give the measure of the yawning gap between reality and female desire, not only in regard to marriage, but between thought and action .
addition, Austen is a consummate storyteller : a simple and direct style must be added its ability to introduce plot twists to keep the tension on the relationship without leaving the main everyday use or improbable. Mention only two: the unexpected visit without a gentleman to ask the hand of a daughter (a scene that undoubtedly was part of the sensual imagery of the girls at the time) and use the servants - functionally invisible characters within the argument - just to give some unexpected news (a march, a wedding, a change of attitude). In Austen's novels appear many resources then adopted the romantic comedy with little modifications (including film) . It is surprising how little has changed gender in that area: the main interest - two hundred years later - remains to know if she will marry the man, rich, kind, sensitive and handsome (in the order in literature, just upside down in the cinema).
But if film adaptations of Austen are strictly consistent with these criteria would be unacceptable to the public present, since the female characters act and speak in a way that has nothing to do with the original literary . Here more than ever satisfied that what we see and interpret the historical film with the eyes of this. Whoever takes the trouble to compare books to movies to see that what underlies the entanglement screenplay is the story, while all that relates to behavior and forms of expression are clearly modernized. What novel are the desires to get a good husband who pleases family, the release of another mouth to feed and not completely drown out inner feelings of women in film are stories about women looking to marry for love with men who apply regardless of their status, education or position . But undoubtedly, the most unreal, the more clearly refers to Austen romance with more cakes today's cinema, is that single women act as if the only criterion was the sincerity of their feelings of love (as if they were not influenced by social desirability). In film, the pedagogical objective - today we would say socializing - vary with regard to literature on screen it is important to choose the right man and marry for love, while Austen's books is to show situations in which marriageable girls could meet and the right way and behave discreetly. And to make things easier for pedagogy, Austen uses the serialized drama : they must overcome Test (with capitals) which is to expect a decent gentleman will propose marriage without losing his composure and led to scandals and / or gossip . Firmness in principles, maintained even in the most adverse circumstances, is finally compensated by the love of the wanted man, coincidentally, is the most suitable from the point of view. Austen goes on to say that if a woman acts with kindness and good faith, the knight of your dreams appear at home the day most unexpected and ask her in front of his entire family, even potential rivals to . Neither objective nor as a narrative literary obsession is very far from the rescue last minute offers contemporary cinema.
Emma Thompson in 1995 had built a reputation as an actress , particularly through its involvement in In father's name that year. Moreover, it was in those years a fruitful artistic tandem with her husband, actor and director Kenneth Branagh (Dead Again both staged four years before jumping both at the global celebrity, a curious child very entertaining thriller.) She was, as it were, in full swing. With Sense and Sensibility stepped forward, showing also that it was an excellent writer. His adaptation of Austen's brilliant text : cut the abundant list of characters in the book to reduce it to the strictly functional argument, and reserves for her the title role, able to transmit exactly the kind of feelings which pretends to a movie like it to the public today. not use a romantic comedy, but the claim of those women who do not surrender completely situations effects, even at the enormous work that was supposed sexist and patriarchal society of the nineteenth century . Only one license is allowed out of place: to his character's mouth a sentence about the injustices of the law to women (can not inherit, or do business), words that no woman of the era and its situation would have never spoken.
The film is charming and delicate effectively not only in the opposite character portrait of Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet), but the male characters (Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman and Greg Wise), scenes via subtly revealing their reasons for acting as do, but also its darker areas. Although beyond the effectiveness of the most directly involved in the main argument is the ability director - Ang Lee, a perfect choice to enhance the merits of the script - to make hover subtle feelings, difficult verbalize or passing through dialogue : the moment when Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) finds Elinor in ecstasy listening to a musical piece "who was the favorite of her father" , and it is for me the best piece of soundtrack of Patrick Doyle. The final accuracy of the poverty that the family is doomed Elinor after being evicted by his brother, the lucidity with which the older sister lives this process against the indifference of her sister Marianne and her mother. The strength that shows the same Elinor when all their hopes, their world is coming down to know that your man is engaged to a woman he despises and yet makes her confidant. entire short film is full of pictures, just a few seconds' duration, tenderness off all pixels.
But it is in the final scene of the realization of the secret of Elinor, saved for so long, in which Emma Thompson I think that reaches to represent something of an eternal feminine (one of so many there is): the mother and three daughters are at home doing their boring work, just knowing a Ferrars servant who has passed through the village with his wife. Suddenly appears the gentleman unexpected visitor. Stir, nerves, sad occurrence. All are ready to receive him kindly in spite of the disappointment that has led to Elinor. There is a dialogue in which we know to be revealed the mistake, but such delay correction as a business so as exasperating. Finally, when they find out they broke off their engagement Ferrars camera shows Elinor's reaction. Emma Thompson is tremendous at that time, it is impossible not to surrender to his talent as an actress : the onset of his confusion, his desire to show joy, hope, but what is the duty of self-imposed restraint and temperance. To be alone with Ferrars she knows - and the viewer as well - that's a beautiful thing will happen. It seems impossible to fit greatest tenderness, but then we have the posture and gesture with which Elinor hears Ferrars declaration of love: the left arm resting on the chair, the body partially turned toward him, face up just enough to reveal a smile through the tears ... finally explode in a hiccups - I recommend seeing the original sound - which is impossible to remain indifferent. This whole scene, the same Emma Thompson, referring to the place where every woman has lived at least once in their life, if only for five minutes or less : when the man who confesses his love loves exactly the and the words so she hopes. The myth, legend, dream, film facts .
There are many sensible and sensitive films, but very few able to portray the tenderness in the right perspective , without being ridiculous, exaggerated or unrealistic. Some titles that manage to keep the tone are The Green Ray of Rohmer, a delicate portrait of lonely in the eighties still believed in love at first sight, smart and educated (particularly in its protagonist and the last scene) ; or Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala , an intense film that requires a great effort from the viewer.
this is not enough, it is necessary to go down to the scene to find similar moments , in fact some of my favorite moments: the scene of the train on water Spirited Away , delicate and strangely beautiful; the final scene of Searchers , the impossible family Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Tim Burton able to make credible situations and dialogues seen countless times; or scene prior to the departure of Ramon (Javier Bardem) in Offshore when they pretend to offer anything significant to his nephew Javi (Tamar Novas) but it is aware of it ... until the moment he started the ambulance that takes him from the family home ( "What I've understood!" ).
Of course, leave it to the end my favorite: seventh episode of The Jewel crown (Daughters of the Regiment ) . The naive prude Sarah Layton (Geraldine James), resigned after shame and timidity by the crude and arrogant Captain Purvis (David Leland) deflower on top has to listen - just as she intended to leave the room with the last remnants of dignity that has been able to collect - how it manages to sum up his life in a simple sentence, as certain as hurtful: "For God's sake, Sarah Layton, do you know the joy!" . Sarah has become chilled to hear these words: You want to deny, rebut, give a lesson to Captain Purvis, but acknowledges it in his heart that has not that no lie. Then he begins to mourn, but not support - for the first time explicitly and to another human being (an unknown as well) - who has wasted his life because of his moral prudish and outdated, but because he had to be an ignorant fool who would remove his blindfold. No fictional character has inspired me so sorry. No life has been so cruelly and without appeal reduced.
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