It is always a pleasure to read John Simpson from Hastings literate reviews and I echo his sentiments.Mansfield Park was published in 1814 being set in 1806.It came after Pride & Prejudice but before Emma.Many of the user comments below bemoan the fact that the film departs from the novel.This is certainly not necessarily a bad thing if the producer can give us a better version; e.g.the ending of "Portrait of Jennie (1948).Personally I have not read the novel but saw this tv film about a year ago before it was repeated recently.I therefore have to accept the director shows latitude with the facts of the written word but we don't know what agenda from the producers she was working from.Was she told to "sex it up" with the copulation scene?Was she told to mention contraversial subjects such as rape and slavery to satisfy modern prurient tastes?
I was intrigued whether I would feel differently, having seen it before and therefore have the benefit of familiarity with its content.I must confess I was left with a rather hollow feeling at its end.This film gives the impression it is based on one of Austen's darker novels what with the allusions to slavery and the early stirrings of womens' emancipation but we know from our literate colleagues Austen did not mention these, only perhaps on her unwritten and subconcious agenda.I was quite impressed with the art work of scenes on the slave driven Antiguan plantation as they effectivly captured the main emotion of fear.Did Austen really write the joke about "... after all this is 1806", as if it were the swinging sixties? Slavery was abolished in Britain from 1833, so we have to assume this was an accepted but socially unspoken topic, contraversial when Mansfield Park was written
The principal players headed by Frances O'Connor as Fanny Price gave measured, adequate performances but I never experienced the high emotions experienced from Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the celebrated 1995 tv film of P&P.One of the highlights of an Austen outing is to hear wonderful piano-forte but I sorely missed an exposition of this by any of the ladies present.Personally, Carl Davies' original Mozartian piano theme he composed for the aforementioned P&P will take a lot of beating.Jane Austen collected her "Opinions of Mansfield Park" from family and friends just after its publication.This was long before public opinion polls or indeed Imdb user comments!! I rated it 6/10.
I was intrigued whether I would feel differently, having seen it before and therefore have the benefit of familiarity with its content.I must confess I was left with a rather hollow feeling at its end.This film gives the impression it is based on one of Austen's darker novels what with the allusions to slavery and the early stirrings of womens' emancipation but we know from our literate colleagues Austen did not mention these, only perhaps on her unwritten and subconcious agenda.I was quite impressed with the art work of scenes on the slave driven Antiguan plantation as they effectivly captured the main emotion of fear.Did Austen really write the joke about "... after all this is 1806", as if it were the swinging sixties? Slavery was abolished in Britain from 1833, so we have to assume this was an accepted but socially unspoken topic, contraversial when Mansfield Park was written
The principal players headed by Frances O'Connor as Fanny Price gave measured, adequate performances but I never experienced the high emotions experienced from Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the celebrated 1995 tv film of P&P.One of the highlights of an Austen outing is to hear wonderful piano-forte but I sorely missed an exposition of this by any of the ladies present.Personally, Carl Davies' original Mozartian piano theme he composed for the aforementioned P&P will take a lot of beating.Jane Austen collected her "Opinions of Mansfield Park" from family and friends just after its publication.This was long before public opinion polls or indeed Imdb user comments!! I rated it 6/10.