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Mansfield Park | Year: 1999 Classification: Themenwelten - Arthaus-DVDs Actors/Actresses: - Embeth Davidtz - Jonny Lee Miller Takes a risk and wins I have recently become a Jane Austen fanatic, reading everything of hers I could get my hands on - which includes her letters and juvenelia. As an Austen devotee, I get frustrated with film adaptations of her novels. The more slavishly accurate to the book they are, the angrier I get that some of my favorite bits are left out. This is why "Mansfield Park" by Patricia Rozema is one of my favorite Austen adaptations. It combines all of her works and her life with the story "Mansfield Park" and interprets the themes written by a master of subtlety and sly wit so that they can be better understood by today's viewer without dumbing it down. She infuses the main character, Fanny Price (marvelously and charmingly played by Frances O'Conner), with the wit of the authoress herself. Fanny is one daughter of a large, poor family sent to live with her wealthy relatives, who consider her as "not their equal" except for her cousin Edmund, with whom she falls in love. He shows every sign of holding her in equal regard until the siblings Crawford (Mary and Henry - beautifully done by the brilliant Embeth Davidtz and Alessandro Nivola) arrive and throw everything off balance. But that's just the surface story. The fortune of Fanny's cousins has been bought with the blood of slaves - a storyline that was merely hinted at in the novel. The place of women in late 18th/early 19th century Britian is clearly presented, as Fanny is shown as a sexual object to Henry, Sir Thomas, (her uncle, in another marvelous performance by Harold Pinter) her father, and even Mary. When Fanny refuses to marry Henry, she is unforgivingly shipped back to her mother and father in disgusting poverty in Portsmouth. Fanny's mother encourages her to marry the rake Henry, since she married for love and lives now in destitute misery. Fanny is luckier than the woman she was crafted after - Austen never married, although she did accept a man's proposal and then turn him down the next morning (a fact Rozema worked into the film). Another clever part of the film is the dual role of Lindsay Duncan, who plays both Lady Bertram and Fanny's mother. She is barely recognizable as Fanny's mother - and it is a sly way of showing just how important marrying for money was. Patricia Rozema, who also wrote the script, clearly has a great regard for Austen and did a lot of research before crafting this daring interpretation. If you listen to the commentary, she explains a lot of her choices for what she did, and she did none of it to cash in on the recent Austen adaptation craze. She loves her actors and her subject, and it's a real pleasure to listen to her talk about the film she made. "Mansfield Park" is an accurate portrayal of the woman who wrote it. For those who think the film is too obviously feminist or risque, perhaps they should do as much research on the author as Rozema did. Austen's juvenelia especially shows that her humor was broad - she makes fun of everything - marriage, drunken A brilliant adaptation I don't quite understand why this movie got skewered by people who claim to love Jane Austen so much. Austen was a master at satire and subtlety, so don't be shocked that the slavery plotline isn't obvious in the book. It is my conviction that few of Austen's characters are free from her own ridicule. The Fanny in the book was upright and moral (so is the one in the film) but she was also dull. The movie's Fanny has spirit and more human qualities where I felt the literary character was lacking. I know this is more a review of the adaptation of the movie, but so many reviews seem to be addressing that topic that I feel the need to defend this - one of the best movies I've seen in a while - wonderful adaptation of Austen. I wonder that people are so disgusted with the sketches Fanny finds in Tom's sickroom. Slavery was a disgusting and shocking thing, and I think any softened version of it would be doing an injustice to history, trying to turn a blind eye to human cruelty. The movie is smart and displays every person for what they really are, as they were portrayed in the book. If you go back and reread, try and look between the lines. Anyway, excellent movie. I must, in indignant fury with some of these reviews, defend the movie with a quote from Roger Ebert, who says, "anyone who thinks (Mansfield Park) not faithful to Austen doesn't know the author but only her plots." If you have the guts for a truly well done, sophisticated, smart film, that does not pander to the masses, enjoy. I'm sure you will. Emotion in Neon, Austen style I just saw Mansfield Park on DVD (which is average in terms of DVDs. Not extensive at all, but does really well with what it gives you). I think it's becoming my favorite Jane Austen movie, even over the beloved Sense and Sensibility and Pride And the best thing is how you FEEL these characters, the tension and heartache etc. is so palpable, more than most period films, probably because this strips away a very fine layer of "preciousness" and lets the characters really breath and be realistic people, in fact there are points where the film tries to show us some of the grittier realities of the time, but all this done without ever losing the FAMILIAR historical context and setting. Now, some films go hog wild in the other direction, which can also be alienating if not done correctly because it makes it feel too much like we are watching a modern people in old clothes and that doesn't do justice to the people of the period. We have to understand them at their own level, but often the expanse of time can cause a communication gap, if you will. In this film, the vividness of the inner world of these characters is what counters the "period" setting of the film. It's a perfect balance. We are always firmly within the era, the historical setting, but completely taken with these characters and their feelings and the sparks in the air, we are all on a level where we can relate to each other clearly. This is thanks to fine, emotionally lucid acting from the cast (Frances O'Connor, gasp! I bow down to thee m'lady) an amazing writing and directing job by Patricia Rozema, and I have to say the brilliant, brilliant cinematography by Michael Coulter. Wow. And I have to rave about the gorgeous score which I didn't actually realize how great it was until the end credits. The only problems I think there are in this is that it could have done to have been longer in order to flesh out some parts and to just use the great vehicle they created to carry the story eve Buy Mansfield Park at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Mansfield Park Search with the Priority Search Engine on Mansfield Park This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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