Becoming Jane DVD Release: Becoming Likeable

Becoming Jane, the 2007 biopic on the early adult life of English authoress Jane Austen, (that was popular with the general public, but irritating to Janeites), will be released today for sale in the US.
Ok, call me an incurable romantic, but if you close one eye, and turn off the voice in your head that questions the producers promoting the script as a true story with taglines such as, “Jane Austen’s greatest love story was her own”, then I really liked this film!

Here is the plot lowdown. Anne Hathaway stars as the young, spirited Jane Austen compelled to write, but expected by her family and society to marry. When she meets the brash and arrogant young lawyer Tom Lefroy, played by James McAvoy, she is at first repelled by his proud and dismissive manner. (Sound familiar?) First impressions can be deceiving for both parties until romantic sparks fly, and they must accept the love that they are bound by duty to resist. Family, fate and finances are against their plan to marry. They must part inspired by their experience together, to achieve success in their professional lives, and reflect upon a love that could not be.
To insure that you enjoy the movie, be sure to let go of any ill will that you may be harboring against the producers for expanding the known flirtation into a secret love affair. In addition, with a little bit of mind bending, you will be able to accept Becoming Jane as being based on true events in her life, that an American actress could play our favorite author quite well, that Regency ladies did not really need to wear bonnets, gloves and shawls outside in the cold English countryside, and that Tom Lefroy was Jane Austen’s inspiration for the character of Mr. Darcy, and the reason why she wrote everything to begin with!
Otherwise, I loved the striking beauty of the English countryside (filmed in Ireland), the accuracy and detail of the costuming (sans bonnets), and to be taken away in spirit to Regency England for 120 minutes of bliss. Get your DVD before another Janeite talks you out of it. Mine is on its way!

Posted by Laurel Ann, Austenprose

Review of The Jane Austen Book Club Movie

Austen blog posted a review of the movie The Jane Austen Book Club on their site. They love it!

To learn more about Robin Swicord, the director and screen writer, click here for

• An NPR audio interview with Robin
• My interviews with Robin, Part I & Part 2
• And any and all information about the movie on Austen.blog

Robin Swicord: An Interview With The Screenwriter and Director of The Jane Austen Book Club, Part 1

Elegant Readers,

I've had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Robin Swicord, the director and screenwriter of the upcoming movie, The Jane Austen Book Club. Here, then, are her answers to my questions:

Ms. Place: Jane Austen is probably more popular today than ever before. Did directing the movie (and writing the script) change your perception of her? How and why?

Robin: For about ten years I had been immersed in all things Austen, in preparation for writing a comedy about a family of Jane Austen scholars – so I had already given a lot of thought to Jane Austen’s novels. So writing and directing TJABC didn’t change my perception so much as give me an opportunity to share with others my affection for her work and her wonderful characters.

Ms. Place: What are some of the more obvious parallels between the plot of this movie and the novels Jane Austen wrote?

Robin: Jocelyn is a matchmaker like Emma. Allegra is impulsive and unwise in love, like Marianne in Sense & Sensibility. Sylvia is the quiet foundation of her family, waiting and loving and trying not to hope – like Fanny Price in Mansfield Park. Like Anne Elliot in Persuasion, Prudie alienates the man she loves, and then is given a second chance to repair the relationship. Bernadette, like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride & Prejudice, finds humor in the foibles of others, and like Elizabeth, she worries about other people’s happiness. The lone man in the group, Grigg, embodies all of Austen’s worthy men in this very modern aspect – at first meeting, Grigg is misunderstood by the women of the club, and as in all of Austen’s novels, it takes a while for the woman he wants to see his good qualities and his readiness to love.


Ms. Place: If by some miracle Jane Austen could advise the members of the Jane Austen Book Club, what do you think she would tell them? In particular Jocelyn and Sylvia?
Robin: I can’t presume to speak in Austen’s voice (nor am I clever enough) but I’d imagine that Miss Austen might write Sylvia an email to spare her the embarrassment of receiving what might be unwelcome advice. Miss Austen would suggest that Jocelyn fix her own life before she tries to fix Sylvia’s. Austen would point out to Sylvia that it is a truth universally acknowledged that when your husband dumps your for a woman at the office, family and friends become even more important. And Miss Austen would say nothing at all to Prudie regarding her infatuation with Trey -- but instead she’d write to her sister Cassandra that a newly married young woman of her acquaintance is rumored to have behaved shockingly in a parked car with a young man who is not her husband.

I will post Part II of this interview over the weekend! To learn more about Robin, read her bio at Expert Spotlight :

While in New York, she wrote "Last Days at the Dixie Girl Cafe," for some fellow graduates of her alma mater who were setting up a theatre company. The play received good notices and eventually moved to off-Broadway. Swicord wrote the scripts for "Shag", which starred Bridget Fonda, and "You Ruined My Life", which was shown as a movie-of-the-week on CBS. She wrote and directed the recent film version of Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women" starring Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon. Swicord and her husband, Nicholas Kazan, wrote the screenplay for "Matilda" based on the novel by Roald Dahl. Other screen credits include screenwriter and producer of "Practical Magic" and "The Perez Family" and director and screenwriter of "Red Coat".

The only bit of trivia I'd like to add to this sterling resume is that Robin's father-in-law is the late Elia Kazan, director of On the Waterfront and A Streetcar Named Desire. Click here for Part Two of the interview. Click on the following links to learn more about the movie and Robin.

• About Robin Swicord

• Apple Trailers: Jane Austen Book Club

• For clips, book reviews, and first impressions about the movie, click on Austen blog.
  

More on Becoming Jane: Quotes From The Reviews

Once you admit that the Jane Austen depicted onscreen bears scant relation to any person named Jane Austen, living or dead, the film fulfills its purpose. I had never before considered her as a cricketer, for instance, and I am fairly sure that she never sought to elope, but I enjoyed both inventions—the one bucolic and triumphant, the other sodden and frustrated, and presumably meant as a precursor to Lydia’s running away with Wickham in “Pride and Prejudice.”

Lover Beware, Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, August 13, 2007

Becoming Jane is based on a chapter in Jon Spence's 2003 critical biography, Becoming Jane Austen. In the book, Spence does identify Tom Lefroy as the love of Austen's life and her relationship with him as the origin of her genius. But he never suggests that there was an aborted elopement (much less subsequent reading sessions with any of Lefroy's children). And he is careful, as the filmmakers are not, to clarify that in speculating about Austen's romantic experience he is reading between the lines of the family records and of the three rather opaque Austen letters that are his principal sources.

Deidre Lynch, See Jane Elope

I am listing only those reviews that reflect my take on the movie:

• Jane Isn't Quite Austen, But It is Quite Becoming

• See Jane Elope

Illustration by Lara Tomlin, New Yorker

Becoming Jane

This weekend I am going to see Becoming Jane, which has finally come to our city. In my small Janeite group people are skeptical about the film. "What are the chances that Hollywood's take on her life will be accurate?" asked one. "I don't see how they can make an entire movie about a minor youthful romance," said another. "I didn't like that last (2005) interpretation of Pride and Prejudice," remarked a third, "so I don't hold out much hope that this movie will be any better."

"Anne Hathaway?"" I asked, my artist's sensibilities slightly ruffled and offended at this mismatch of visual cues. Seeing Anne's dramatic, gorgeous features disguised as Jane Austen, and watching her romp about the country side like a frisky young filly and making moon eyes at the actor playing Tom Lefroy in previews, well, it all seems anachronistic to me. In fact, to my eyes, watching Anne as Jane is like watching a parrot disguising itself as a thrush. Both birds are beautiful in entirely different ways.

I like my Jane Austen just as she is, thank you, no more and no less. In fact, I rather like the quiet, mysterious side of her and I don't need to see her life glammed up by Hollywood types whose main mission in creating a film is the bottom line. So I will see this movie with some trepidation.

Nevertheless, I'll try to see Becoming Jane with open eyes, since so many people are reporting that they like it and because it has garnered a number of good reviews, but something deep inside tells me to remember as I watch, "It's only a movie." As for my review of Becoming Jane, don't expect to see it soon. I intend to see the film twice and will take my time digesting what I have seen before writing my opinion.


Links to Becoming Jane

Did you intend to jump onto the Becoming Jane bandwagon, only to have stumbled across my quiet site? Here are some important links:

• Austen Blog: My touchstone Jane Austen site. Find a compilation of information about Jane Austen and Becoming Jane, and links to the other juggernaut Jane Austen sites.

• Becoming Jane Fansite: An unabashed fan site of the film that contains an enormous amount of information about the movie and actors, and speculations about Jane's romance with Tom.

• Following Austen: A site maintained by Lori Smith, author of A Walk With Jane Austen. Lori posted her take on Jane and Tom Lefroy's romance, The Truth About Jane Austen and Tom Lefroy, which was written well before the movie made its debut.

• Becoming Jane Austen icons: for those who just can't get enough images of the movie.

• My first post on Becoming Jane

Masterpiece Theatre Presents the Complete Jane Austen

Click here to enter the PBS site and see a preview of the shows coming in 2008.