Jane Austen turns over in her grave

On Wednesday, my English class went on a field trip to see the new Pride and Prejudice (bringing back memories of our TASP trip to the movie theater en masse!).

*WARNING: Rant coming up.*

There were some nice moments, but as expected, it fell miserably short of the 5-hour Colin Firth version. In general, it focuses too much on emotion and not enough on dialogue. Sweeping, panoramic landscape shots, close-ups of tears running down Keira Knightley's cheek, and an overly loud and emotive soundtrack may lead to good production values, but they distract from Austen's focus on characters and dialogue. Jane was played nicely, but Darcy was too bland and Elizabeth was too emotive (I know I used "emotive" in the last sentence, but I need it here too!). Also, the dialogue was dumbed down thoroughly, and all the humor that remained was so blatant and over-emphasized that all of the zest of Austen's writing was lost. This cast/director/filming technique might have been effective for a more earnest novel, say Jane Eyre, but it killed all of Austen's irony. Sigh.

My top 5 songs of the past 2, 3 weeks (a la High Fidelity):

1. "Tornado Warning" - Erik Moll
Moll is a pretty obscure folk/swing/country/etc. guitarist (from Austin, I think). This song reminds me of Woody Guthrie's stuff; pretty simple, but a catchy melody and an upbeat, folksy feel.

2. "Heartlight" - Kenny Loggins
A nice, minor-key pop song. Discovered in my exploration of my dad's early-'80s CD collection.

3. "Mrs. Robinson" - Simon and Garfunkel
Hey hey hey!

4. "The Entertainer" - Billy Joel
Great cynically self-critical lyrics. I think I mentioned to someone during TASP that I dislike Billy Joel. Since then, I've abandoned my elitist attitude and I admit that I really do like his stuff. Although I still profess distaste for Elton John . . .

5. "Mood Indigo" - the Duke Ellington Orchestra
Smooth, languid, relaxing in a wistful sort of way. Listen to it after 5 PM for optimal appreciation.

Sam