At pivot central point of From Prada to Nada we have antagonist-flirting scene of Bruno (Brandon) with Mary (Marianne), reminiscent of Darcy and Elizabeth sparring
Dear friends and readers,
It is resolved, my problem solved. I will finish my book, A Place of Refuge, for now without a subtitle, but its center will be the 6 Sense and Sensibility films made thus far. The title must change as the argument will be about a subdivision of the Austen genre of film.
I’ve read the Prologue and Chapters 1-3 (S&Ss 1971, 1981, 1995) of my Part 2 and they are very good; I see where I can cut a lot (notes) and focus more tightly, clearly too. If they are too detailed, sobeit. I’ve thought of a way of cutting and shaping a Chapter 5 (2008 JA’s S&S by Davies, Pivcevic and Alexander).
How to re-shape Chapter 5: must begin with same low-key description of film that began Chs 2-3; the matter now at front should be part of two comparative analyses. To keep chapter doable must say Davies work so extensive I will concentrate just on the Austen genre and those films that influenced him: 2008 S&S develops out of 1995 P&P with intervention of 95 S&S and 2005 P&P (Wright’s). The intertextuality business take for granted or bring up as you go. Center of first half how the plot-design totally re-shaped.
I am typing out my preliminary notes for Chapter 6 (2011 From Prada to Nada, Garcia, Pritzker, Ellzey, Gilbert; Torres & Alfaro) for which I’ve just purchased the screenplay.
Now for argument across whole book. You are treating a subdivision of these films or a theme within them; that the dramatic romance tradition is the one that brings out where it’s worth while reading Austen. They represent the thoughts that emerged in the later revisions. The first chapter would explain how to read a film, how genres of films relate to novels. Make case for books as heavily revised problematic books. Peel off hagiography; neither model adequate but dramatic familial romance & serial treatment gets us closer. Look at multiple serial adaptations of non-serial fiction. Choice of arc of narrative, of narrator? Where do they break? How long? Whose POV? The 1972 Emma is 6 parts; the 2009 Emma is 4 – what does that do the arc of the narrative?
Conclusion that the films belong in subfamilies according to eponymous source. Each one done in this way would yield its meaning as we see them dealing with set of problems. Epistolary nature of the books (filmic epistolarity in 1983 & 1999 MPs, or narrators of 1993 Ruby in Paradise, 2009 Lost in Austen); distaste for conventional heterosexual sex & indifference to usual novel endings (Endings imposed, talk scenes); abject point of view (most subversive element in films, Miss Austen Regrets; danger they are used to re-bind women, as in Aisha).
I have to wait to see if my Trollope proposal is accepted, but that will only delay not stop me from going forward with this once again
Sylvia
I will not give up my idea for a novel, Elizabeth’s Story, but given the appalling and vocal fan audience (I experienced yet another of these strange dialogues today, this time over the much raped abused Morwenna who I was told was “shocked” into health somehow or other and then lived happily ever in marriage), I’d have somehow to write the story and then appeal to an editor or the estate of Graham. Perhaps these obsessive insistence on not seeing the sexual catastrophes of the books comes from their having been successfully marketed to the swash-buckling imbecilic-romance subdivision of the marketplac?.
[...] return to my chapters towards a book on Austen films, working title: A Place of Refuge, you can expect many more blogs on Austen and film adaptations [...]