Monday, September 01, 2008

Becoming Jane

I caught "Becoming Jane" the recent movie about Jane Austen, and thought it was OK. I'm not a big fan of Austen's work, finding it too smirky and not deeply emotional enough for my tastes - which is why I'm all about the Brontes. And really, Austen's life was not actually very exciting.

However, all the men running around in Regency dress added a whole extra level of enjoyment to the movie, and James McAvoy is Hotty McHotstein throughout.

Another blogger, Lauren of Ladamania has an excellent post about the hotness of Regency clothing, complete with photo comparisons of actors in modern dress and period costume - no better case can be made for the raw power of clothing to increase a man's sexual allure than this. And I'm glad she included Ioan Gruffudd in the mix - I was absolutely enthralled by him in "Amazing Grace" in those hotty outfits.

Although Lauren seems to be unaware that the "puffy" clothing and long hair she rightly adores is in fact specifically Regency period.

Unfortunately I could find no photos from the the best part of "Becoming Jane" - when the young men skinny dip.

What I want to know is why nobody has made a movie about the life of Charlotte Bronte and her family, which is infinitely more interesting than Austen's life. I really should get to work on that screenplay.

Interesting article in the NYTimes about "Becoming Jane", including this:
And however much society has changed, Austen's heroines — unlike the Brontës' — deal with the believable, timeless obstacles of class, money and misunderstanding, which make her works adaptable to any era. As Ms. Huff said: “Everyone thinks she's Elizabeth Bennet; not everyone thinks she’s Jane Eyre. Everyone knows a young woman trying to decide if the guy she's attracted to is Mr. Right. Not everyone meets a Mr. Right who has a mad wife in the attic."
Although like so many others, Huff seems not to have read much of the work of the Brontes - Charlotte and Ann both dealt quite a bit with class, money and "misunderstanding" (whatever "misunderstanding" means.)