OMG! NO!!!!

[scottishlass]

Okay, so I decided to watch Pride & Prejudice ... not the wonderful BBC series but the abomination of the same with Keira Knightley.

Apart from totally slaughtering the literary source of the book and thus belittling all the characters, there is another abomination ...
The costumes!!! OMG!! the costumes ... they are sooo NOT authentic. I saw Princess seams on a Regency gown ... OMG! No no no!!!!!!


*whimpers and slinks off into a corner to heal her bleeding eyes*

ETA: There is more ...
Miss Bingley goes to a houseball in her chemise (ROTFLMAO)
Lizzy's ballgown looks more like the tea gown of Rose in Titanic. NO NO NO SO WRONG!!!

And then the conventions ... no girl runs around in her shift and a flimsy pelisse in the early morning meeting a guy in his breeches and open necked shirt. ARGH!!! Any good re-enactor of that period (heck, ANY period prior 1920's) would feel abused by this.

Comments

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh, what a good point! I guess you will know much better where the differences lie, but even for a complete "know nothing about costumes" like me this is very noticeable.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Yes, I totally agree. Watching the movie it was like watching all those badly researched Hollywood costume movies of the early 1930's to 1950's. They mixed fashion from about 30 years, late Georgian to late Regency/early Victorian with a bit of Edwardian/Teens thrown in.

[rika-66.livejournal.com]

I'm not a specialist in costumes, so I just believe you... but IMHO, all in all it was a very bad adaptation of the novel I love so much. Also, I think that miss Knightley is a bad actress.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was very apparent in this movie that she is a bad actress.

And let me tell you, the dresses were bad ... really bad.

[rika-66.livejournal.com]

This is quite a strange approach for me. This movie had a good budget, why couldn't they invite high quality specialist in costumes?

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Oh they had, normally, the costume designer is very meticulous. But just like so recently with *historic* stories, the producing team wanted to spruce it up a bit and make it hipper.
A Knight’s Tale was such a movie where they spruced up the female fashion with modern stuff and so on. The recent series *The Tudors*, *The Other Boleyn Girl* etc. all had historically incorrect costumes. So okay, most ppl think that costumes are uncomfortable, esp. if you have to wear a corsett or stays for filming, but that isn't so. You just have to adjust in the way you sit and walk and you are okay. Wearing a corset or stays affects how you move, you stand up straighter, you get a feel of the costume in general with the right underthings and then the costume also looks right, even if it is machine sewn instead of handsewn :) But mixing styles or trying to make something look like a certain style by faking it big time? *shudders* A no go, especially when you have a historic movie with extras who are re-enactors. There were several movies (Patriot, Saving Private Ryan) where the extras loked like the genuine thing while the main actors looked like fakes :) You could also see it in P&P with Keira Knightley. The extras all wore historically correct Regency fashions ... you can see it in the ball scenes, all those females strolling or just standing giving the ball substance, look genuine in their simple yet elegant Regency style costumes while the main actresses all look like circus acrobats with their different styles.

[rika-66.livejournal.com]

For me this sounds very strange. Historic movies should be historically correct (IMHO). These "spicy" details only create a disbelief in me, as a spectator.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Rika, we are not part of the target demographic anymore. We want historically correct but historic movies nowadays are believed to flop if the younger generation cannot find inspiration in fashion from it. Hence all those Gothic Lolita cos-players who swamp the dress-diaries all over the net with posting their get ups and thinking they are posting something historically correct :s

[rika-66.livejournal.com]

Keh... In my younger days I liked "Lethal Weapon" movies... and there Gibson's character used to say something like : "I'm already too old for all this sh**t"! :D :D

[dramagirl001.livejournal.com]

Never mind about bad dresses and acting. Just stop bloody making and re-making the same bloody story over and over again! How many sodding times do we have to see this??

[back2real.livejournal.com]

ahah! THIS I completely agree with! I can see NO point whatsoever in so many adaptations. And two hours is not enough time to do this novel justice.

That said, and admitting I know NOTHING of fashion or clothing design, there were aspects to this one I did like. I liked the fact that the Bennett house was kind of dilapidated. It gave me more a feeling of how desperate they are, financially. I thought this Mrs. Bennett was far more sympathetic than any other version I've seen. I could relate to her concern that she HAD to get her daughters married, otherwise they would die. For once she wasn't just comic relief.

There were also things about Mr Darcy I liked as well. This one had his strong faults, yes, but you also could feel his shyness and discomfort in a room full of strangers and understand why he was aloof.

But ya, Kiera Knightly, some of the changes in the dialogue.. sigh...

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

LOL true ... esp. after the wonderful BBC series. And even that is not perfect but comes near it.

[wishkey.livejournal.com]

no girl runs around in her shift and a flimsy pelisse in the early morning meeting a guy in his breeches and open necked shirt.

That would be like meeting a guy at Starbucks for coffee before work in stockings, garter belt and bra, and him in silk boxer shorts with hearts all over them, and flip-flops.

[koellegirl.livejournal.com]

When the movie came out, I had to watch it, because I just watch and read anything from Jane Austen and I do actually like some of the actors.
I could forgive the lack of correct costumes and the incorrect interpretation of scenes or behaviour - if, the makers had set out to do a complete modern or timeless (as in not fitting into any timeframe) or totally free adaptation of P&P.
But this.... was like a bad dream. To take such a famous piece of literature and than mangle it... and they even nominated Kira for an Oscar. It is absolutly beyond me.
There is an adaptation of the movie from the 40s with Olivier and Greer Grayson(? sp.). It is pretty much as incorrect as the new one, but at least the actors where great and it is done with a lot of love. I prefer to watch that anytime to the c...p, they have done now.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

I don't know all that costume stuff but I liked PP the movie anyhow :D I thought the book was okay but was not attached to any of the characters in any way. Lizzy in the serial is more plausible than the one in the movie, though ^^