2006-10-26 22:22:40no name
小說與電影，Sense and Sensibility
SENSE AND SENSIBILITY tells the story of two families joined by a common father, Henry Dashwood (Tom Wilkinson). At the start of the story, the father dies and by law and by custom he passes his huge estate onto his eldest son, John (James Fleet), but admonishes him to take care of his sister, Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones). John’s evil wife Fanny (Harriet Walter) soon convinces him that the Dashwoods, having no estate to take care of, can get along fine on the 500 pounds per annum from the will and need no help from them.
Mrs. Dashwood’s family consists of two daughters of marrying age, Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet) and one about nine (Emile Francois). The Dashwoods stay briefly at the family estate while Fanny counts the silver. During this interlude, Fanny’s younger brother, Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), stops by for a visit. He is a modest man of minimal emotions. He proclaims that, ”All I want, all I’ve ever wanted is the quiet of a private life, but my mother wants me distinguished.”
Eventually, Edward falls in love with Elinor, but Marianne is not impressed, declaring, ”Can love really be satisfied with such polite affections? To love is to burn.” Fanny can not stand the idea of her brother falling in love with poor relatives and gets the Dashwoods out of her house and Edward off to London. The Dashwoods rent a mere ”cottage” owned by their cousin, a boisterous, rich, but fairly crude gentleman (Robert Hardy).
At the cottage, they met two mysterious men, the war hero Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) and the handsome young John Willoughby (Greg Wise), who both fall instantly in love with Marianne. They are jealous of each other, and John claims that ”Brandon is the sort of man everyone speaks well of, but nobody talks to.” To further complicate matters, Lucy Steele (Imogen Stubbs) drops by to confess her love for Edward. A soap opera of the highest caliber.
Many wonderful scenes abound. The best is a sad scene of Marianne in blowing cold and gray rain while dramatic music plays. Many small scenes were wonderful too. One of my favorites was the one where Marianne and John Willoughby challenge each other in a sort of love duet to recite Shakespeare’s sonnets by heart.
The best piece of acting is by Kate Winslet from HEAVENLY CREATURES. She is a stunning actress who shows more emotion that everyone else in the movie combined. I hope to see her in many more films. The brilliant Emma Thompson gives a perfectly acceptable performance, but one of the least impressive of her career. Hugh Grant plays Hugh Grant and sticks to a single awkward expression.
Emile Francois and Gemma Jones have small parts but do a lot with them. Imogen Stubbs, best in the great, but largely unknown movie A SUMMER STORY, gives a fetching performance. Alan Rickman and Greg Wise play excellent mysterious roles. Only James Fleet and Harriet Walter seem miscast. As villains, they are never believable and
In Jane Austen’s time ”sensibility” was almost the opposite of today’s meaning of ”sense.” The word meant following emotions rather than logic. Austen’s novel is of two sisters who have very parallel sorts of stories, but one of whom approaches life with sense and the other with sensibility. In the story Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones) and her three daughters find themselves reduced from having a comfortable existence to being homeless when Mrs. Dashwood’s ex-husband dies. The widow discovers her home has been left to her step-son, John Dashwood and his wife, the aptly-named Fanny. John was left with the responsibility to take care of the women, but Fanny talks him out of the expensive duty. The family of four women eventually are invited by a cousin to move into a Devonshire cottage much smaller than their previous living arrangements and the daughters’ prospects for finding good husbands are much diminished. Marianne, the middle daughter (played by Kate Winslet of HEAVENLY CREATURES), a women of great sensibility (in the Austen meaning) but little sense, is attracted to the handsome John Willoughby (Greg Wise), who seems to love her. The eldest daughter Elinor (Emma Thompson), a woman of strong sense but little emotional sensibility, is attracted to Fanny Dashwood’s brother, the pleasant but oh-so-diffident Edward Ferres (Hugh Grant). But their plans will go awry when each man is called away unexpectedly to London.
I cannot claim to be much of a fan of Jane Austen and her stories of what seem often to me to be overwrought accounts of love and manners. But Ang Lee tells this story so well and with such warmth and wit that he overcomes the weaknesses in the plot. He manages to make Austen’s characters far more interesting than what they do. And it is the minor characters who have the most interest. Yes, there is some depth to Elinor Dashwood as the logical spinster in the role Thompson wrote for herself; Thompson is always very good with body language. Also Winslet is good but not really memorable as the flighty, romantic sister. But the minor characters are the most engaging. Gemma Jones has a great air of sad dignity as Mrs. Dashwood. Elizabeth Spriggs, a freight train of a woman, is a popular busy-body. Much too rarely seen outside of British TV comedy is the rubber-faced Hugh Laurie who could read the phone book and make it funny. Here he has a small role, but a funny one. Alan Rickman is usually good actor and here as the patient, disappointed suitor he matches the sad dignity of Gemma Jones. Hugh Grant plays almost the same likable foul-up that he played in FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL. The look of the film and especially the costumes give a real period feel, though at least the print I saw seemed to be faded and the film stock inconsistent from scene to scene.
Sense and Sensibility: (Patrick Doyle) Looking back at the early to mid-1990’s, the age seemed ripe for Jane Austen dramas. The big costume period-piece flair for dramatics was experiencing a renaissance at the time, not restricted only to the adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Sense and Sensibility. With Hollywood stuck in eighteenth-century England for much of the decade, it’s no surprise that Sense and Sensibility was such a success with both critics and awards nominators. The film does have merit; it was a surprisingly good adaptation of the Austen story by lead actress Emma Thompson herself, and the supporting cast led by Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman (in a charmingly rare gentleman’s performance) counterbalanced the on-cue bumbling of Hugh Grant. For detractors of the kind of ridiculous structure of society resurrected in these Austen tales, Sense and Sensibility is an insipid bore, with the sort of mindbogglingly trivial romance of the era that indeed nearly ruins the larger, overarching themes of the maturing process that the film also displays. Just as the genre sends people (men, of course) running away in terror, the music for these old England dramas suffers from much of the same kind of reputation. When you think of Merchant Ivory Productions, director Ang Lee, composer Richard Robbins, or even Patrick Doyle in these circumstances, the genre presents itself as a natural sedative for people who couldn’t care less for the romantic and social commentaries of Jane Austen. The music for these period pieces was equally recognized in the 1990’s, from Elmer Bernstein’s The Age of Innocence to Robbins’ pair of nominations later in the decade for Howard’s End and The Remains of the Day. Doyle, while known better for his Shakespearean efforts, entered this scene with Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Sense and Sensibility.
To write off the score for Sense and Sensibility as an exercise in pure fluff wouldn’t be an injustice for many listeners (and perhaps even some Doyle collectors), but the composer accomplishes all that he needed to do. The score is performed by a simplified orchestral ensemble at tentative, but nevertheless beautiful levels of attentiveness to character. The romance and interminable conversations in the film beg this kind of basic string, woodwind, and piano writing, and while the charm shines through in the end, Doyle is careful to present his music with just enough solemn pace of restraint to serve the hardships of the women in the film. Thus, Sense and Sensibility isn’t really a upbeat venture, teasing you with typical flourishes of Doyle’s always-swirling strings while never truly engaging you until the final cue. It could be said that the quality of the music increases as the score goes forward, but that’s because Doyle is manipulating the tone of his music to match the maturity process of the women in the story. The two operatic performances by Jane Eaglen (making her large-scale debut at about that time) are poems set to two Doyle songs, and the differences in tone between those two bookending songs tells you everything you need to know about the changes in the score. The opening song, extending several cues into the score, allows Doyle to prance on the light touch of the piano and woodwinds, and the best of the playful elements are developed into the first signs of serious contemplation in the piano and string cue ”My Father’s Favorite,” the highlight of the score. The ”Steam Engine” and ”Willoughby” travel cues strike a more wild waltz-like rhythm that sustain interest in middle sections. Later in the score, the orchestrations become a little more lush, and Doyle’s tempos slow to allow the strings to perform theme variations of simplicity in the broad style of John Barry. The mood is very consistent in Sense and Sensibility, and Doyle’s score is equally respectful and warm throughout. The final cue, ”Throw the Coins” is the only full ensemble piece, with victorious cymbal crashes and rounded accompaniment for the final pronouncement of the title theme as the pairings in the film are realized. Overall, Doyle’s Sense and Sensibility can be either sickeningly boring or charmingly inviting, depending on your opinion of low key period classicism. As a composition, it remains one of Doyle’s better achievements.
Mrs. Dashwood’s family consists of two daughters of marrying age, Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet) and one about nine (Emile Francois). The Dashwoods stay briefly at the family estate while Fanny counts the silver. During this interlude, Fanny’s younger brother, Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), stops by for a visit. He is a modest man of minimal emotions. He proclaims that, ”All I want, all I’ve ever wanted is the quiet of a private life, but my mother wants me distinguished.”
Eventually, Edward falls in love with Elinor, but Marianne is not impressed, declaring, ”Can love really be satisfied with such polite affections? To love is to burn.” Fanny can not stand the idea of her brother falling in love with poor relatives and gets the Dashwoods out of her house and Edward off to London. The Dashwoods rent a mere ”cottage” owned by their cousin, a boisterous, rich, but fairly crude gentleman (Robert Hardy).
At the cottage, they met two mysterious men, the war hero Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) and the handsome young John Willoughby (Greg Wise), who both fall instantly in love with Marianne. They are jealous of each other, and John claims that ”Brandon is the sort of man everyone speaks well of, but nobody talks to.” To further complicate matters, Lucy Steele (Imogen Stubbs) drops by to confess her love for Edward. A soap opera of the highest caliber.
Many wonderful scenes abound. The best is a sad scene of Marianne in blowing cold and gray rain while dramatic music plays. Many small scenes were wonderful too. One of my favorites was the one where Marianne and John Willoughby challenge each other in a sort of love duet to recite Shakespeare’s sonnets by heart.
The best piece of acting is by Kate Winslet from HEAVENLY CREATURES. She is a stunning actress who shows more emotion that everyone else in the movie combined. I hope to see her in many more films. The brilliant Emma Thompson gives a perfectly acceptable performance, but one of the least impressive of her career. Hugh Grant plays Hugh Grant and sticks to a single awkward expression.
Emile Francois and Gemma Jones have small parts but do a lot with them. Imogen Stubbs, best in the great, but largely unknown movie A SUMMER STORY, gives a fetching performance. Alan Rickman and Greg Wise play excellent mysterious roles. Only James Fleet and Harriet Walter seem miscast. As villains, they are never believable and
In Jane Austen’s time ”sensibility” was almost the opposite of today’s meaning of ”sense.” The word meant following emotions rather than logic. Austen’s novel is of two sisters who have very parallel sorts of stories, but one of whom approaches life with sense and the other with sensibility. In the story Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones) and her three daughters find themselves reduced from having a comfortable existence to being homeless when Mrs. Dashwood’s ex-husband dies. The widow discovers her home has been left to her step-son, John Dashwood and his wife, the aptly-named Fanny. John was left with the responsibility to take care of the women, but Fanny talks him out of the expensive duty. The family of four women eventually are invited by a cousin to move into a Devonshire cottage much smaller than their previous living arrangements and the daughters’ prospects for finding good husbands are much diminished. Marianne, the middle daughter (played by Kate Winslet of HEAVENLY CREATURES), a women of great sensibility (in the Austen meaning) but little sense, is attracted to the handsome John Willoughby (Greg Wise), who seems to love her. The eldest daughter Elinor (Emma Thompson), a woman of strong sense but little emotional sensibility, is attracted to Fanny Dashwood’s brother, the pleasant but oh-so-diffident Edward Ferres (Hugh Grant). But their plans will go awry when each man is called away unexpectedly to London.
I cannot claim to be much of a fan of Jane Austen and her stories of what seem often to me to be overwrought accounts of love and manners. But Ang Lee tells this story so well and with such warmth and wit that he overcomes the weaknesses in the plot. He manages to make Austen’s characters far more interesting than what they do. And it is the minor characters who have the most interest. Yes, there is some depth to Elinor Dashwood as the logical spinster in the role Thompson wrote for herself; Thompson is always very good with body language. Also Winslet is good but not really memorable as the flighty, romantic sister. But the minor characters are the most engaging. Gemma Jones has a great air of sad dignity as Mrs. Dashwood. Elizabeth Spriggs, a freight train of a woman, is a popular busy-body. Much too rarely seen outside of British TV comedy is the rubber-faced Hugh Laurie who could read the phone book and make it funny. Here he has a small role, but a funny one. Alan Rickman is usually good actor and here as the patient, disappointed suitor he matches the sad dignity of Gemma Jones. Hugh Grant plays almost the same likable foul-up that he played in FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL. The look of the film and especially the costumes give a real period feel, though at least the print I saw seemed to be faded and the film stock inconsistent from scene to scene.
Sense and Sensibility: (Patrick Doyle) Looking back at the early to mid-1990’s, the age seemed ripe for Jane Austen dramas. The big costume period-piece flair for dramatics was experiencing a renaissance at the time, not restricted only to the adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Sense and Sensibility. With Hollywood stuck in eighteenth-century England for much of the decade, it’s no surprise that Sense and Sensibility was such a success with both critics and awards nominators. The film does have merit; it was a surprisingly good adaptation of the Austen story by lead actress Emma Thompson herself, and the supporting cast led by Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman (in a charmingly rare gentleman’s performance) counterbalanced the on-cue bumbling of Hugh Grant. For detractors of the kind of ridiculous structure of society resurrected in these Austen tales, Sense and Sensibility is an insipid bore, with the sort of mindbogglingly trivial romance of the era that indeed nearly ruins the larger, overarching themes of the maturing process that the film also displays. Just as the genre sends people (men, of course) running away in terror, the music for these old England dramas suffers from much of the same kind of reputation. When you think of Merchant Ivory Productions, director Ang Lee, composer Richard Robbins, or even Patrick Doyle in these circumstances, the genre presents itself as a natural sedative for people who couldn’t care less for the romantic and social commentaries of Jane Austen. The music for these period pieces was equally recognized in the 1990’s, from Elmer Bernstein’s The Age of Innocence to Robbins’ pair of nominations later in the decade for Howard’s End and The Remains of the Day. Doyle, while known better for his Shakespearean efforts, entered this scene with Golden Globe and Oscar nominations for Sense and Sensibility.
To write off the score for Sense and Sensibility as an exercise in pure fluff wouldn’t be an injustice for many listeners (and perhaps even some Doyle collectors), but the composer accomplishes all that he needed to do. The score is performed by a simplified orchestral ensemble at tentative, but nevertheless beautiful levels of attentiveness to character. The romance and interminable conversations in the film beg this kind of basic string, woodwind, and piano writing, and while the charm shines through in the end, Doyle is careful to present his music with just enough solemn pace of restraint to serve the hardships of the women in the film. Thus, Sense and Sensibility isn’t really a upbeat venture, teasing you with typical flourishes of Doyle’s always-swirling strings while never truly engaging you until the final cue. It could be said that the quality of the music increases as the score goes forward, but that’s because Doyle is manipulating the tone of his music to match the maturity process of the women in the story. The two operatic performances by Jane Eaglen (making her large-scale debut at about that time) are poems set to two Doyle songs, and the differences in tone between those two bookending songs tells you everything you need to know about the changes in the score. The opening song, extending several cues into the score, allows Doyle to prance on the light touch of the piano and woodwinds, and the best of the playful elements are developed into the first signs of serious contemplation in the piano and string cue ”My Father’s Favorite,” the highlight of the score. The ”Steam Engine” and ”Willoughby” travel cues strike a more wild waltz-like rhythm that sustain interest in middle sections. Later in the score, the orchestrations become a little more lush, and Doyle’s tempos slow to allow the strings to perform theme variations of simplicity in the broad style of John Barry. The mood is very consistent in Sense and Sensibility, and Doyle’s score is equally respectful and warm throughout. The final cue, ”Throw the Coins” is the only full ensemble piece, with victorious cymbal crashes and rounded accompaniment for the final pronouncement of the title theme as the pairings in the film are realized. Overall, Doyle’s Sense and Sensibility can be either sickeningly boring or charmingly inviting, depending on your opinion of low key period classicism. As a composition, it remains one of Doyle’s better achievements.