IMO this film version of Emma is one of the best.
Anyone agree or disagree?
Although I will admit, it's not of high quality (sets, etc), but the acting was good and it was very faithful to Jane Austen's novel.
ANIMAL LOVERS UNITE
I've so far seen the first 4 episodes. I like this version, especially the actor who plays Mr Knightley, though he seems a bit older than I imagine Mr Knightley from the book. My only complaint is that Emma isn't attractive enough for the part. I actually found the actress who played Jane Fairfax more attractive. Even the actress who played Harriet Smith seemed more attractive to me than the actress who played Emma.
shareYes, I agree that Jane Fairfax was more attractive in this version. But what did you think of her piano playing? Yeesh! I can't believe they didn't hire a "true proficient" to record the music for these scenes. Jane's playing was so amateurish and really, not in character. She is supposed to be very accomplished.
And despite not being as attractive as we would hope, I believe Dorin Godwin does capture Emma Woodhouse's character very well. This is the way I feel Austen meant for us to see her. She is much more natural than the 2 subsequent portrayals of Emma W.
Regarding Harriet Smith:
If I had to hear her say "Oh! Miss Woodhouse!" one more time, I might have done great harm to my tv set! :-P
Thanks for answering!!
If I recall Jane Austen says that Emma is handsome. I guess though to me, it really doesn't matter much, I thought the actress who played her was great in the role, just like I think that Paltrow and Beckinsale did great jobs as well, all in my opinion of course.
ANIMAL LOVERS UNITE
Have you seen the british ITV version of Emma, it's fantastic much better than the others and much more true to the novel. Definate must for fans
"she is tolerable I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me"
I prefer this version much better to the over-hyped Paltrow version. I didn't know Kate Beckinsale played Emma. This one was very faithful to the book and I liked the performances. Some of the BBC 1970's adaptations of the Austen's novels can be quite lackluster, but this one the actors gave very good performances. I wanted to yell at Harriet Smith and say 'get a backbone'. She played this annoying woman excellently. While I agree about this Emma not being so good-looking, she captured Emma's haughty but well-intentioned manners to a tee. I did think the actor who played Mr. Knightly looked far older than thirty-seven year old character he was portraying. He did a well enough job but there was no chemistry between those two as far as lovers, but maybe their relationship was more based on friendship than passion.
This version was wonderful!! I thought the entire cast excellent although I must admit tiring of Mr. Woodhouse's perpetually neurotic whining. It's easier to take in book form than on video. It was kind of intriguing to see Harriet Smith played as something of a long-ago version of a "dumb blonde", I thought the actress quite good at playing this simple-minded little soul. Emma was wonderful here - I don't think Emma is meant to be a great beauty by Austen otherwise she wouldn't be a "matchmaker", she herself would be surrounded by beaus if she were beautiful. When a woman is called "handsome" it generally means she is very well-groomed, sharp, and has an interesting, distinctive face and a keen personality, not quite the same thing as being beautiful.
I really liked the interacting between Emma and Mr. Knightly. He may have been older than 37 but keep in mind I'm sure a 37-year-old in that era would have been far more mature and aged than a more contemporary man of that age.
Just curious, in what way is the Paltrow version over-hyped? By whom? I'm really serious, I read this frequently in IMDB and don't know what people are referring to. I don't remember the GP version of Emma coming out in the theaters, so it probably wasn't hyped as a blockbuster. I don't remember reading much about it. So I didn't see any hype before I bought it.
Maybe just you read soem reviews that raved about it, and since you didn't like it as much these reviews came across to you as being "over-hyped." But when I read someones rave about a movie I don't care for, I attribute it to free speech and difference of opinion. Surely you aren't talking about the advertisements on the package and in previews. For sure Miss Woodhouse, all of those are "hypes" (advertisements) intended to get people to buy the product.
my god its full of stars
This version has really grown on me over the years. I love it!
shareTotally disagree. At this time, I've watched parts 1-5 with only pt. 6 to go. So far, I've also watched the 1995 versions of Emma (with GP and KB).
I've watched other British mini-series like Upstairs, Downstairs done in the 1970s and 1980s, so the production values on this one didn't matter. I liked Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma, but Doran Godwin's Emma was the closest to what I imagined the character to be. John Carson was too old to play Mr. Knightley and, at times when he's lecturing Emma, it seemed like he was more of a father figure than a potential husband. As for Mr. Woodhouse, his constant complaints about the weather were eccentric in the shorter movie versions-here, they became tedious to watch. Debbie Bowen was the closest to the book version of Harriet physically, but her 'dumb blonde' act lasted too long. Fiona Walker's Mrs. Elton was (c)rude and obnoxious. I felt Walker got into the same trap as Alison Steadman/Mrs. Bennet and David Bamber/Mr. Collins did in the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice: they crossed the line from their faithful portrayals (to the book) to creating a cariacature of their characters. And what was the person(s) who cast the characters of Isabella and John Knightley thinking? They were not only miscast but also unpleasant to watch. Robert East's Frank Churchill was OK to watch, but Ania Marson's Jane Fairfax was probably the most unpleasant of the three versions of the character. Generally, give me the GP version of this book any day-even if it wasn't as faithful to the book as the 1972 version was.
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I finally watched it for the first time, this week on DVD (I purchased the whole Austen BBC set). I have owned the GP and KB versions for a long time now and love them both for different reasons (but also find many annoyances in the KB version).
Overall, this (1972) version was very very good. But I have many complaints.
Doran Godwin was so cold and robotic!!!!! And NOT attractive, except for a few brief scenes. Overall she seemed too old to be Emma. To quote someone who described her on Amazon.com (very hilariously), she was like a preying mantis who you thought was going to pounce and bite heads off most of the time! LOLOL she just had NO warmth whatsosever! And NOOOOOO chemistry with Mr. Knightley! She was just very cold and spoke like an insect might speak.
Mr. Knightley was slightly too old, showed no special love toward Emma except during the nursery scene.
I think they went a bit overboard with Mr. Woodhouse sometimes but overall he was enjoyable.
Why wasn't Mr. Elton at Box Hill?
Why was Harriet with Emma when Emma met Mrs. Elton for the first time?
Why did Jane sing & play like an amateur during the party?
I also thought Miss Taylor/Mrs. Weston was too old an unattractive. But her acting was fine.
That's about all I can think of right now....
Agree about Jane and Mrs Weston, but Harriet was with Emma the first time they called on Mr & Mrs Elton in the book. Everyone had seen her at church, but was expected to visit her in person to get to know her. Harriet went with Emma on this visit. Emma thought it would be better for Harriet to get the ordeal over and done with quickly. Like ripping off a sticking plaster.
Love Augusta in this version, even though the actress seems older than I imagined Mrs Elton to be. I couldn't stand Harriet in this version, so drippy!
I lost my jobshare
What? Why?... Not the Phantom Menace?
I thought that the clothes and women's hairstyles were perfection. I could not tell which decade produced this, and to me, that defines good costuming.
The men's hairstyles were fairly "large" and full and Mr. Knightly had longish sideburns. So, that was a tip off that this was a 1970's production.
I thought the sets were beautiful and perfect as well.
What I found was that the sound was uneven--that was the one thing that seemed less than stellar in the production.
I wasn't keen on the actress playing Emma at first, but she grew on me and I found her believable after two episodes.