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Pride & Prejudice

Keira Knightley

Oscar week continues with Pride & Prejudice, nominated for four awards: Art Direction, Costume Design, Original Score, and a nomination for Keira Knightley for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

When I saw a trailer for this film, my sister began ardently denouncing it, exclaiming that Keira Knightley was too beautiful to play Elizabeth: "Mr. Darcy said 'she is not handsome enough to tempt me' when he saw her!" I tried to quiet her with "no one wants to watch a movie about ugly people", but that didn't help. It also didn't help that poor Matthew MacFadyen, who plays Mr. Darcy, isn't Colin Firth, who is evidently the "gold standard" of Mr. Darcys. I was about to quote Mark Twain's assessment of Jane Austen's writing ("... any library is a good library that does not contain a volume by Jane Austen-even if it contains no other book."), but I thought better of it.

I better just move on to the DVD details before I start angering more Jane Austen fans, who can be as intimidating and dangerous as the Van Buren Boys.

The DVD details:


  • Commentary by director Joe Wright.
  • "A Bennet Family Portrait" - A look at each of five Bennet sisters and their parents.
  • "Jane Austen, Ahead of Her Time" - A featurette on the author.
  • "Behind the Scenes at the Ball" - A behind-the-scenes look at this new version of the classic.
  • "HBO First Look: Pride & Prejudice, A Classic in the Making" - Another behind-the-scenes look, this one originally aired on HBO.

Like Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line, Knightley may be too gorgeous to win the Oscar for best actress. Although the academy may give her credit for playing a role that is supposed to be homely. The filmmakers did try to make her unappealing (i.e. giving her a slightly disheveled hairdo), but her attractiveness shines through. Reportedly attempts were made to apply a fake nose, but her dazzling beauty rejected it (like a body can reject a transplanted kidney) and the prosthetic shot across the set injuring the Gaffer. You may relax, all you Austen groupies, no chance Knightley could ever play Jane Austen in a movie of her life. --Matt Callahan



Photo: © 2005 Focus Features

Posted by on March 1, 2006 5:52 PM
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A Van Buren Boys reference -- BRILLIANT!

-- Posted by: mac at March 3, 2006 6:09 PM

um, not to outdo your ubernerdedness, but there are no existing portraits of Miss Jane's face, only an attributed one of her but she is facing away from us. AND i believe my initial complaint was over the inaccuracy of the words and not Ms. Knightley's uncontainable beauty. Please, if i am going to supply the majority of your text at least quote me correctly!!

-- Posted by: k-$$$ at March 3, 2006 8:31 PM

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