.: StrangeBlog :.

Here’s a Sonam Kapoor interview from IndianExpress.com about Ayesha.  Nothing earthshattering or new, but Kapoor does claim that the film will be “India’s first chick-flick.”

Also, a fun announcement from Laurel Ann at Austenprose is forthcoming. 

So, my Emma 2009/2010 DVD arrived today via Amazon, and I’ve perused the special features.  As far as I know, this BBC DVD version from Amazon is the same as the DVD that ShopPBS.org will ship next month.

Disc 1 includes featurettes on the Emma filming locations and costumes, bringing you short interviews with crew and cast about the visual side of the production.

Design board for the Squerryes Court dining room.

The “Locations” piece primarily covers Squerryes Court as Hartfield and Loseley Park as Donwell Abbey, describing the crew’s intent to use space as a metaphor for the various characters’ existences and as an indicator of each character’s social station.  Emma, for example, inhabits an elegant home with an easy, unobstructed floorplan which represents her personality and life experience:

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”

Donwell Abbey, by contrast, is more venerable in size, style, and age, which very much suits the character and social status of Mr. Knightley:

“The house was larger than Hartfield, and totally unlike it, covering a good deal of ground, rambling and irregular, with many comfortable, and one or two handsome rooms. It was just what it ought to be, and it looked what it was; and Emma felt an increasing respect for it, as the residence of a family of such true gentility, untainted in blood and understanding.”

The featurette also briefly covers decor choices and the tricks involved in shooting winter scenes in June(!).  While the snowscape longshots at Squerryes Court were indeed filmed during winter, the Knightleys’ rear garden snowball fight was shot on a 27-degree C day!  This recalls the snow scenes from the 1995/96 Pride and Prejudice adaptation, which were filmed in July of 1994, if I’m remembering correctly.

Snow in June at Squerryes Court!

The costume featurette was of particular interest to me.  There were several conversations with costume designer Rosalind Ebbutt, who shares various elements of the design process.  Ebbutt brainstormed ideas via collages of period images, fabric swatches, and color samples for each character.  Frank Churchill’s even included a photo or two of Mick Jagger, whom Ebbutt felt captured the dashing worldliness of the character.  In addition to remarks from the designer, we also hear from the actors.  Romola Garai, Louise Dylan, Blake Ritson, Tamsin Greig, Rupert Evans, Laura Pyper, and Jonny Lee Miller all comment on the collaborative design process, how fashion reveals character status, personality and transformation, and the nuts and bolts of wearing period fashion.

Harriet and Emma: Twins!

Tamsin Greig, for example, describes Regency underpinnings (chemises, custom corsets made specifically for each actress, and in some cases, a “bustle” pad).  Romola Garai shows her little chatelaine watch as an example of a costume accessory that denotes Emma’s status as “lady of the house.”  Louise Dylan describes how Harriet Smith’s wardrobe begins to mimic Emma’s as the older girl’s influence grows.  And Jonny Lee Miller discusses Mr. Knightley’s practical yet elegant wardrobe as an outward manifestation of the character’s personality.  “I can see myself gambling in this,” he jokes, indicating his beautiful brocade waistcoat and velvet tailcoat.

Disc 2 contains the music featurette and an interview with Sir Michael Gambon (Mr. Woodhouse), filmed on location at Squerryes Court.

The Music piece includes interviews with composer Samuel Sim, Director Jim O’Hanlon, and Producer George Ormond, and generally overviews the process of scoring a television series.  Director O’Hanlon describes Sim’s Emma soundtrack as having “one foot in the period and one foot in today,” allowing the film to sound historically-appropriate while maintaining a freshness accessible to modern ears. Sim and O’Hanlon also discuss how Emma’s main theme, or motive, is reiterated over the course of the miniseries to accentuate onscreen moods and actions.

Samuel Sim and Jim O'Hanlon "spot" musical cues.

In addition, we learn a little about the planning or “sketching” period, during which the composer creates the main theme and ideas for the various musical cues that will be required in the finished miniseries.  We also get to glimpse a “spotting” session with the composer, director, and producer, which involves watching the film, matching up extant music cues with the footage, and coming up with plans for additional cues not yet written.  The featurette concludes with a recording session at the legendary Abbey Road Studio of Beatles fame.  This is totally off-topic, but it’s worth noting that the score for the upcoming “World of Color” show at Disney’s California Adventure was recorded just a few weeks ago at Abbey Road.

I haven’t yet watched the DVD version of the miniseries itself, but I understand that it DOES include various short scenes that aired on the BBC but not on PBS.

In all, I think the bonus features were worth the DVD purchase price (I paid around $23, via Amazon).  The packaging is a beautiful, book-style box – gatefold, I guess you could say? – with photos of Garai on the cover and on the discs themselves.  There’s a panorama of the Box Hill picnic on the inside.

Related information:

• Buy the DVD
• DVD reviews
• More about the various Emma filming locations
• More about Samuel Sim and the Emma soundtrack (including purchase information)
• Costume trivia from IMDB

Well, I’m home from a lovely visit to Orange County and Los Angeles.  Yes, we went to Disneyland.  Yes, we stopped by Kiyonna.  Yes, I bought something.  One dress.  ONLY ONE. Really.

Anyway, here’s the latest scoop on Emma, which wrapped last night on Masterpiece Classic:

• If you were one of the #emma_pbs Twitter winners from last week, make sure you follow me/respond to my direct message so I can get your mailing info to the good folks at PBS.org and so you can get your awesome Jane Austen action figure.    Remember, I’m @magicskyway.
• Vic’s thoughts on Emma 2009/2010.
• Laurel Ann has posted some final thoughts on this latest Emma miniseries at Austenprose.
• The 2009/2010 Emma DVD is now shipping.  I can’t wait until it arrives!  TV.com’s Emma DVD review is fairly extensive.  Here’s another review of the DVD edition, from BlogCritics.  Remember, the DVD version includes unique special features and a few “deleted scenes” that aired on the BBC but not on PBS.
• Eventually, I’ll post a fashion review and screencaps from the third hour of the miniseries.

Though described by Jane Austen as “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like” (James Edward Austen-Leigh’s Memoir of Jane Austen, p. 158), Emma has delighted millions of readers throughout the years. Emma the novel also has its share of fans, though like its eponymous heroine, it has its detractors, too.

Novelist Sir Walter Scott, at Emma publisher John Murray’s suggestion, provided a major, early, and positive critical opinion of the novel in his October, 1815 Quarterly Review piece. In correspondence, Murray asked Scott if he felt Emma lacked “incident and romance,” to which Scott responded in his piece with qualified agreement. Certainly, Emma is not an eighteenth century “romance,” as it lacks the kind of story and excitement that is dependent on fantastic heroics and uncommon occurences. However, according to Scott, Jane Austen manages the difficult task of creating natural, recognizable personalities and circumstances that are at once familiar to an average audience and yet so well-crafted as to maintain the reader’s excitement and interest:

“We…bestow no mean compliment upon the author of Emma, when we say that, keeping close to common incidents, and to such characters as occupy the ordinary walks of life, she has produced sketches of such spirit and originality, that we never miss the excitation which depends upon a narrative of uncommon events, arising from the consideration of minds, manners and sentiments, greatly above our own. In this class she stands almost alone…”

Maria Edgeworth – a favorite novelist of Austen’s and one with whom Scott compared her favorably – was perhaps less impressed by Emma, essentially declaring it plotless:

“There is no story in it, except that Miss Emma found that the man whom she designed for Harriet’s lover was an admirer of her own—& he was affronted at being refused by Emma & Harriet wore the willow—and smooth, thin water-gruel is according to Emma’s father’s opinion a very good thing & it is very difficult to make a cook understand what you mean by smooth, thin water-gruel.”

I don’t know how Jane Austen took Edgeworth’s comments, but she seemed satisfied with Scott’s (anonymous) review.  She wrote of it to John Murray in April, 1816:

“I return to you the Quarterly Reveiw with many Thanks. The Authoress of Emma has no reason I think to complain of her treatment in it – except in the total omission of Mansfield Par. – I cannot but be sorry that so clever a Man as the Reviewer of Emma, should consider it as unworthy of being noticed.”

Further, Austen frequently clarified that she was happy to continue creating “pictures of domestic Life in Country Villages,” leaving the high adventure to others.  Responding to suggestions from the Prince Regent’s personal librarian, James Stanier Clarke, she stated, “I could no more write a Romance than an Epic Poem. – I could not sit seriously down to write a serious Romance under any other motive than to save my Life…”

Austen’s own family, friends, and acquaintances were at times less than enthusiastic in their descriptions of Emma, but their reviews were generally – and in some cases very – favorable.  Even some of the least favorable reviews reflect the basis of Scott’s praise above; one reader claimed Emma was “too natural to be interesting.”  So, in essence, Austen was too good at fashioning her slices of life. 

Below is Jane Austen’s own aggregation of various opinions of Emma and its characters.  Personally, I can’t see how anyone could prefer Mansfield Park to Emma, but here it is…

• Captⁿ. Austen. [1] – liked it extremely, observing that though there might be more Wit in P & P – & an higher Morality in MP – yet altogether, on account of it’s peculiar air of Nature throughout, he preferred it to either.
• M^rs F. A. [2] – liked & admired it very much indeed, but must still prefer P & P.
• M^rs J. Bridges – preferred it to all the others.
• Miss Sharp [3]- better than M P. – but not so well as P. & P. – pleased with the Heroine for her Originality, delighted
  with M^rK – & called M^rsElton beyond praise. – dissatisfied with Jane Fairfax.
• Cassandra – better than P. & P. – but not so well as M. P. -
• Fanny K. [4] – not so well as either P. & P. or M P. – could not bear Emma herself. – M^r Knightley delightful. – Should like J. F. – if she knew more of her. -
• M^r & M^rs J. A. [5] – did not like it so well as either of the 3 others. Language different from the others; not so easily read. -
• Edward [6] – preferred it to M P. - only. – M^r K. liked by every body.
• Miss Bigg – not equal to either P & P. or M P. – objected to the sameness of the subject (Match-making) all through.
  - Too much of M^r Elton & H. Smith. Language superior to the others. -
• My Mother – thought it more entertaining than M. P. – but not so interesting as P. & P. – No characters in it equal
  to L^y Catherine & M^r Collins. -
• Miss Lloyd [7] – thought it as clever as either of the others, but did not receive so much pleasure from it as from P. & P – & M P. -
• M^rs & Miss Craven – liked it very much, but not so much as the others. -
• Fanny Cage – liked it very much indeed & classed it between P & P. – & M P. -
• M^r Sherer – did not think it equal to either M P – (which he liked the best of all) or P & P. – displeased with my pictures of Clergymen. -
• Miss Bigg – on reading it a second time, liked Miss Bates much better than at first, & expressed herself as liking
  all the people of Highbury in general, except Harriet Smith – but c^d not help still thinking her too silly in her Loves.
• The family at Upton Gray – all very much amused with it. – Miss Bates a great favourite with M^rs Beaufoy.
• M^r & M^rs Leigh Perrot – saw many beauties in it, but c^d not think it equal to P. & P. – Darcy & Eliz^th had spoilt them for anything else. – M^r K. however, an excellent Character; Emma better luck than a Matchmaker often has. – Pitied Jane Fairfax – thought Frank Churchill better treated than he deserved. -
• Countess Craven – admired it very much, but did not think it equal to P & P. – which she ranked as the very first
  of it’s [sic] sort. -
• M^rs Guiton – thought it too natural to be interesting.
• M^rs Digweed – did not like it so well as the others, in fact if she had not known the Author, could hardly have got through it. -
• Miss Terry – admired it very much, particularly M^rs Elton.
• Henry Sanford – very much pleased with it – delighted with Miss Bates, but thought M^rs Elton the best-drawn Character in the Book. – Mansfield Park however, still his favourite.
• M^r Haden - quite delighted with it. Admired the Character of Emma. -
• Miss Isabella Herries – did not like it – objected to my exposing the sex in the character of the Heroine – convinced
  that I had meant M^rs & Miss Bates for some acquaintance of theirs – People whom I never heard of before. -
• Miss Harriet Moore – admired it very much, but M. P. still her favourite of all. -
• Countess Morley [8] – delighted with it. -
• M^r Cockerelle – liked it so little, that Fanny w^d not send me his opinion. -
• M^rs Dickson – did not much like it – thought it very inferior to P. & P. – Liked it the less, from there being a Mr. and M^rs Dixon in it. -
• M^rs Brandreth – thought the 3^d vol: superior to anythin [sic] I had ever written – quite beautiful! -
• M^r B. Lefroy – thought that if there had been more Incident, it would be equal to any of the others. – The Characters quite as well drawn & supported as in any, & from being more everyday ones, the more entertaining. – Did not like the Heroine so well as any of the others. Miss Bates excellent, but rather too much of her. M^r & M^rs Elton
  admirable & John Knightley a sensible Man. -
• M^rs B. Lefroy – rank’d Emma as a composition with S & S. – not so Brilliant as P. & P – nor so equal as M P. – Preferred Emma herself to all the heroines. – The Characters like all the others admirably well drawn & supported – perhaps rather less strongly marked than some, but only the more natural for that reason. – M^rKnightley M^rsElton & Miss Bates her favourites. – Thought one or two of the conversations too long. -
• M^rs Lefroy – preferred it to M P – but like M P. the least of all.
• M^r Fowle – read only the first & last Chapters, because he had heard it was not interesting. -
• M^rs Lutley Sclater – liked it very much, better than M P – & thought I had “brought it all about very cleverly in the last volume.” -
• M^rs C. Cage wrote thus to Fanny – “A great many thanks for the loan of Emma, which I am
  delighted with. I like it better than any. Every character is thouroughly kept up. I must enjoy reading again with Charles. Miss Bates is incomprable, but I was nearly killed with those precious treasures! They are Unique, & really with more fun than I can express. I am at Highbury all day, & I can’t help feeling I have just got into a new set of acquaintance. No one writes such good sense. & so very comfortable.”
• M^rs Wroughton – did not like it so well as P. & P. – Thought the Authoress wrong, in such times as these, to draw such Clergymen as M^r Collins and M^r Elton.
• Sir J. Langham – thought it much inferior to the others. -
• M^r Jeffery (of the Edinburgh Review) was kept up by it three nights.
• Miss Murden – certainly inferior to all the others. -
• Capt. C. Austen [9] wrote – “Emma arrived in time to a moment. I am delighted with her, more so I think than even with my favourite Pride and Prejudice, & have read it three times in the Passage.”
• M^rs D. Dundas – thought it very clever, but did not like it so well as the others.

_______________________

1. Francis William; his brother Charles is below.
2. Francis’ wife
3. Knight
4. Anne Sharp was a close friend of Jane Austen’s and a possible inspiration for the “governess” characters in Emma, Anne Taylor and Jane Fairfax; she was a recipient of one of twelve presentation copies of the novel
5. James Austen
6. James Edward
7. Martha
8. Recipient of a presentation copy of the novel
9. Charles John

_______________________

Related reading:

• Joan Ray’s Scott’s “tenderest, noblest and best” in his Review of Emma
• Laurel Ann’s fabulous Deconstructing Miss Emma Woodhouse
• Laurel Ann on Maria Edgeworth and Austen
• Laurel Ann on Austen’s friendship with Anne Sharp
• Letters regarding the publication of Emma
• Adapted from my Opinions of Emma, From the Period page

Since the first Emma Twitter party was such a success, PBS.org is presenting another for Part Two!  There will be an “east coast” party beginning this Sunday, January 31, at 9pm ET and a “west coast” party to follow at 9pm PT at Twitter hashtag #emma_pbs.

You can use the official PBS Emma TwitGrid (it’s a new one!) to help you navigate all posts to the #emma_pbs hashtag.  Check the PBS.org Emma Twitter page for details and updates.   In the works:  another quiz with Laurel Ann and me, more prizes, and special discounts for party participants at ShopPBS!

In other news, Vic explains how to make Mrs. Weston’s wedding cake (as seen in the most recent Emma adaptation).  The key tool?  A Nordic Ware Cathedral Bundt Pan!  Also, don’t miss her thoughts on Emma 2009/2010 as reviewed by print media.

Catch author and #emma_pbs Twitter Party co-host Laurie Viera Rigler’s Emma review, posted at the PBS Remotely Connected blog.

And, in Persuasions Online, Laurie Kaplan discusses negative critical responses to the latest Emma in Adapting Emma for the Twenty-first Century: An Emma No One Will Like.

Also, Style Court discusses decor in the various Emma adaptations and Austen Only covers Mr. Knightley’s Strawberries.