P&P 85, Brigadoon, beautiful days
Aug. 18th, 2008 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newmoonstarWatched the 1985 version of Pride and Prejudice the other day, which was quite good. The actress who played Elizabeth was very likeable, and I thought the portrayal of Mr. Darcy was very refreshing. He was really monstrously haughty and obnoxious, so that you could actually understand why Elizabeth would automatically dislike him and assume the worst of him, unlike most other versions of P&P, where Mr. Darcy is obviously the most attractive gentleman in the whole thing, all handsome and brooding and moony fawn eyes so that you might as well have stamped, 'misunderstood romantic hero destined to get the girl' on his forehead. In this version, you wouldn't necessarily know that Elizabeth was going to end up with Darcy if you didn't know the story already, which I found to be a very interesting approach. It comes as a genuine shock at the end, when he starts being actually polite and smiling and whatnot, so that you're experiencing Elizabeth's point of view with her rather than just watching the motions being gone through, as I find myself getting bored doing these days, having seen so many versions of P&P so many times over the years. All the other actors were quite good too, and I appreciated that some acknowlegment was made about Mr. Bennett's failings as a father, rather than take the simplistic approach of portraying him as the blameless hen-pecked husband. All in all, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this version. Finding a new take on material that's been re-hashed so many times is no mean feat. :)
Listening to the Brigadoon original cast recording, I find that "Come to Me, Bend to Me' grows on me more and more. It's so sweet and lilting, and quite as pretty as 'Music of the Night'. But apart from that one little refrain, the songs are actually very different, and there's room for both in my opinion. :) I'm falling in love with the whole thing in fact, discovering all the lovely songs that were left out of the movie, presumably because Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse couldn't sing. There's no other reason to leave out such brilliant stuff. I used to love the movie as a kid, but it's so inadequate once you hear this brilliant Broadway recording.
I love days like today. The weather is not too hot or cold, the city looks beautiful in the sunlight, there are rabbits frolicking adorably on my lawn, and the fireflies are coming out. It's heavenly.
Listening to the Brigadoon original cast recording, I find that "Come to Me, Bend to Me' grows on me more and more. It's so sweet and lilting, and quite as pretty as 'Music of the Night'. But apart from that one little refrain, the songs are actually very different, and there's room for both in my opinion. :) I'm falling in love with the whole thing in fact, discovering all the lovely songs that were left out of the movie, presumably because Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse couldn't sing. There's no other reason to leave out such brilliant stuff. I used to love the movie as a kid, but it's so inadequate once you hear this brilliant Broadway recording.
I love days like today. The weather is not too hot or cold, the city looks beautiful in the sunlight, there are rabbits frolicking adorably on my lawn, and the fireflies are coming out. It's heavenly.
