Мой первый журнал SUNRISE November № 1 2018 | Page 54

FILM REVIEW A Look Without Prejudice perfect for the role. In fact, there were “attempts” to make screen versions of Austen's novel in 1938, 1952, 1968, 1980 and 1995, but only the 2005 version, according to the critics, conveyed the atmosphere most accurately that had been felt by the author herself, and a great contribution to it was made by Keira Knightley who often compared herself to the main heroine and confessed that she had dreamed to play that role for a long time. Perhaps many people will think now that there is nothing to be expected from the film except romanticism and maybe some tearful drama, but you are greatly mistaken. This is what film criticism has been created for, to make people either open or close their eyes to elementary things. I'd like to open the people's eyes to this film even wider as it really deserves it. The action of the novel takes place in 1797, it is the year when Jane Austen wrote the first variant of her work, which was initially titled First Impressions, and that's the book that Elizabeth is reading in the beginning of the film. The amount spent on the production of the movie was about 28 million dollars, and it collected approximately 121 million dollars. The film can really be praised for the excellent music and splendid costumes that convey the realities of that era very accurately. It was shot entirely in Great Britain, with real historical manors taken as the base, and no additional motion picture architecture used. For example, the role of Longbourne, the Bennets' ancestral manor, was played by a 17th century manor, Groombridge, surrounded with green meadows and with a view of a valley and vineyards. Frankly speaking, as I was looking at all those picturesque places I had a great desire to immerse into the atmosphere of that era, maybe even to play a game of exchanging glances with Mr. Darcy once… Who knows? It seems to me that any young girl who has watched this film will surely want to become Elizabeth at least for a pair of short moments, and to dream how her own Darcy would give her a huge library of the world's rarest books, where one of them would be probably about their own love… But why do I keep calling him Mr. Darcy all the time? I'd bet you anything, many of you didn't have even a slightest idea of this mysterious character's name, or did you? For those who haven't yet read the book but will probably read it in a short while, it will be a totally unexpected thing, the same as it was once for me though, that his name was Fitzwilliam Darcy! Indeed, such plot turns can happen in literature too… The whole point was that the director and script writers didn't want to use Mr. Darcy's first name in the script just because another character of the novel, Mr. Wickham, had the 53 SUNRISE same first name. His first name isn't mentioned in the film at all, he is presented as s o m e k i n d o f a n a m e l e s s h e r o, b u t nevertheless, to avoid this confusion, the script writers took an unanimous decision to exclude both of these names from the previously planned script. I think this made perfect sense and was quite necessary because many people had not read the novel by the time when the film was released, and some people had no idea that it existed at all. As I'm getting to the end of this very interesting story that I don't want to end, I'd like to note that Austen's world pulls like a magnet, as if fearing to lose the last reader, the last spectator… There's no doubt about it, this movie was an inspiration for me! First of all, it let me understand that pride is sometimes much weaker than love, and love can be more secretive than pride itself. We shouldn't also forget another word, which sounds as “prejudice”. I'll give my readers a short explanation about the meaning of this word and the role it plays in the entire movie. Elizabeth uses pride as her best trait, in other words, as her self-esteem and self-respect, which don't let her come down lower than the established principles and ideals, while Darcy prefers prejudice. Prejudice is a sort of biased negative opinion of someone. In fact, there were attempts for some time to compare these two interesting words, many people said that they had been used to add a trace of sadness to the novel, but luckily this opinion wasn't shared by everyone! As the entire plot is unravelling we can see the struggle of these two traits, but ultimately both of them turn out to be forceless when love emerges in the hearts. Unfortunately, my dear readers, it would have been time for me to finish, but fortunately, my work allows me to recapitulate all that I have written above. This film isn't right only for those people who love the classics, it is suitable and right for every and all of us. Perhaps this phrase will sound banal, but I believe I must pronounce it. With all the warmth of my heart and soul, I declare that without this film I'd have lost the hope at all for the real and delicate feeling of love, which maybe comes to some people at a later time. I feel that I want to believe the characters, and thanks to the actors' brilliant performance, the lines I have read come to life in new colors of poetry and feelings. What Austen makes us understand with this wonderful story is that Pride and Prejudice are the base of all bases, and the film was constructed only thanks to them. No words, no film, no play—perhaps this is what Jane Austen herself would say. At such an inspiring note, I'm saying goodbye and will look forward to seeing you again in the next issue. November 2018 №1