Anna Karenina is Coming to Select Theatres November 16!

• Based on the novel, Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

• Starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Ruth Wilson, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Olivia Williams, Emily Watson

• Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice, Hanna)

• Written by Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare In Love)

Keira Knightley Discusses Pride and Prejudice

posted on YouTube by ebennet

WTH? A Game Of Sardines?

According to the director Joe Wright's commentary (available under Special Features on this DVD edition - Pride & Prejudice), he had the actresses who make up the Bennett family visit the Bennett house location, in Kent, before the crew arrived. They played a game of Sardines to get them acquainted with the house and each other before the actual movie filming began. The first time it was mentioned I thought that he said that he had them eat sardines to bond. WTH? You can see footage of them playing Sardines in one of the other Special Features. It seems to have worked as Keira mentions the closeness of the cast in the interview below.

I had never heard of the game. It looked kinda like Hide and Seek to me so I decided to look it up.  Check out  eHow's "How to Play the Sardine Variation of Hide & Seek" by Michael Elkins, eHow Contributor for instructions on how to play. Clearly I missed out as a child.


Did you play Sardines as a child?

 posted on YouTube by KelsiKnightley

Keira Knightley's Smug Elizabeth Bennet

I liked Keira's observation that each actress who portrays Elizabeth Bennet will bring something different to the role because the actress pulls her own emotions into the character. I think that Keira's portrayal added a certain smugness (and rejection of authority) that I had not seen in other movies.

Keira had an odd sort of action going on with her face (especially her chin and mouth) that added to the smugness ... almost like a snarl at times. It made me laugh - although I am sure that it was not meant to be comical.

I know many people found this version of Elizabeth annoying and unfaithful to the book. However, I thought that the smugness added height to Elizabeth's fall as she realized that she had drawn the wrong conclusions due to both pride and prejudice.

What do you think about Keira's version of Elizabeth Bennet?

 posted on YouTube by KelsiKnightley

GBU: Pride and Prejudice - 2005 Movie

"My goodness, did you see her hem? Six inches deep in mud. She looked positively medieval." - Caroline Bingley

The Good:

• The chemistry between Elizabeth and Darby. My favorite scene of the movie was when Darby made his first proposal (see my post "You call that a marriage proposal?"). Electric (probably too electric when compared to the book).
• Mr. Collins. "It's been many years since I had such an exemplary vegetable." I really liked the way that Tom Hollander played Collins (check out fan site Thomagination). His portrayal was different from other performances that I have seen (especially the crazy eyes).
• The cinematography. Lovely. Just lovely.

The Bad:
Many people were upset about all of the changes to settings, behavior, dialogue, etc. in this adaptation. To get the movie down to 2 hours+ (much shorter than others), Joe Wright (director) had to take some liberties. I considered this version to be a very loose youthful adaptation so I was not greatly bothered by the changes except for the pigs walking through the house, Lady Catherine de Bourgh showing up after hours, and Mr. Bingley being portrayed as a bumbling idiot. This is definitely not the version to watch instead of reading the book ... not that you or I would do that.

The Ugly:
I thought that Judi Dench looked absolutely FABULOUS. Her hair made me want to reach for a bottle of Aquanet. She is by far my favorite Lady Catherine de Bourgh. I wished that her part was bigger. What was up with the lighting on her face during the confrontation scene with Lizzie (about her alleged engagement to Darby)? I mean, it added to the harshness of the scene. But did they have to do her like that?

What are your good, bad, and ugly for the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice?

How do you rate the movie?