'Pride and Prejudice' The Making of. . .

Pride and Prejudice is one of the most popular novels in the English language but how do you turn a classic book into classic television for this production of Pride and Prejudice the overall aim was to be as true as possible to the spirit of Jane Austen's original book Andrew Davis and I went to a screening of another Jane Austen it was about 1986 and we sat together on the back row and watched it and it was it was very good very quirky but afterwards I I remember turning to Andrew and saying what I would really love to do is a version of Pride and Prejudice which is my favorite book and do it in the way that really reflects the book when I read the book with a view to adapting it the first thing that that came across was what tremendous speed and energy the book had it really goes like a train there's something happening on every page and there's enormous energy both in the characters and in the action people talk about nothing much happening in Jane Austen this book is absolutely full of events full of people dashing about full of people falling in love breaking their hearts eloping with each other trying to seduce each other and methought I wanted to convey some of this energy in the adaptation I wanted to to get that into the very opening scene so instead of taking a scene with Elizabeth I decided to take the scene in which Bingley and Darcy get their first sight of Netherfield war which would involve them galloping across countryside and convey that sense of energy right in the opening shop pretty enough I grant you it's nothing to Pemberley I know but I must settle somewhere hello your approval you'll find the society something savage country manners I think they're charming and you better take it thank you bye shall I sell clothes of the Italian directly to me Pride and Prejudice is a very very popular book and I wanted to make a piece of popular television the producer sue Burke Leslie oversees the entire production people are quite often confused about what a producer does they can't understand the difference between a producer and director it's a question I get asked quite a lot that is essentially what I would do as producer is I would Commission a project work on the scripts find a home for it and then see it through every stage I think this is in so many ways absolutely perfectly it is two hours older than we have Simon Langdon a direct and I would cast it together and work with the production designer on the concept of it how the production's going to look go to look at locations together and and do all that staged running up to the actual filming of it finding the right locations is fundamental to the entire design process but is designed for a period drama more difficult there isn't intrinsically a lot of difference between doing period and contemporary is still working on the same problems you just have more limited resources with a period drama you obviously have to do much more research and you've got more difficult more difficulty in spelling out the characters because you have less tools to play with than you would on a contemporary and you also have to be very careful as to every shot we start with reading about the social life if you start from understanding the situation their political situation in the country at the time how people live and what their incomes were then everything else grows from that that lady I suppose is your mother yes she is mama this is Lady Catherine de Bourg and that I suppose is one of your sisters yes mam she is my youngest girl but one my youngest of all is Lately married you have a very small Park here and this must be a most inconvenient sitting room for the evening in summer why the windows are full west indeed they are your ladyship but we never sit in here after dinner we have Miss Bennet there seemed to be a Prettyish kind of little wilderness on one side of your lawn I should be glad to take a turn in it if you would favour me with your company Jane Austen has like everybody she's got her own specific area that she's particularly concerned with and the what we're trying to do is to recreate her vision and so we would start from her books and and the the importance that she places on certain things there's no point in deviating from that it's important to get every piece of furniture exactly right for the filming right well let's try it three of us have to sit in a line and this one I had hoped to condole with your poor father and your mother our father is still in London sir and our mother is not yet well enough to leave her room I think the locations have to be found exactly right but but they convey such a lot of information the the kind of cozy domesticity the the natural scale of the Bennet household and then you see Netherfield and realize that there are much richer people in the story and then finally you see the absolute splendor as a Pemberley and realized that that Elizabeth has been proposed to by a man who owns most of Toby share and the park which is so big that you can't even see the house I think we've seen woods and grows enough to satisfy your enthusiasm policy I confess I had no idea Pemberley was such a great estate we reach the house itself before dark do be patient wait ouch I think one would be willing to put up with a good deal to be mistress of Pemberley the mistress of Pemberley will have to put up with a good deal from what I hear she's not likely to be anyone we know I don't think I've ever seen a place so happily situated I like it very well indeed Pemberley really has to be the most beautiful place it's not particularly ostentatious it's showing great taste you've got to show history it has to show a lineage that goes back it's supposed to really be the epitome of all that is good about the aristocracy at that time Rosings is the opposite Rosings is probably more flamboyant large but over-the-top this is Sir this is a character we don't like so much Hunsford has to be a small modest parsonage but with pretensions to grandeur and a certain amount of fussiness about it to reflect mr. Collins Longbourn the Bennett's house is really just a comfortable family house with no particular pretensions to anything so we key the characters to that we try and find the houses that go with it the gardens that go with it the carriage is the furniture the decorations that all add to that that image in terms of the design for somewhere like maraton we can choose our level of reality and we can choose the level that is directly relevant to the book and to the piece that we're doing so on this occasion we'll concentrate more on the jolly aspects handsome soldiers and the socializing and the shops we won't be dwelling on poverty we won't be dwelling on any of these sort of real solid hard-edged aspects of rural life because it's not an area that jane austen was particularly interested in we we see Meryton really through the eyes of her characters costumes are also influenced by how each character comes across in the book it'd be quite safe here mr. Darcy do you think miss bingley would never have been seen in a print dress she would always worn silk or very fine embroidered muslin we also gave Miss Bingley very very big feathers although Ana Chancellor is over six foot in order to emphasize her haughtiness and her high social standing because she just wanted to look as you know posh and the snobby as possible to get a real sense of the characters I read the book on the script to have a you know detailed knowledge of how they develop throughout the book so I can start to understand how they would dress well casting it's a truism say casting is important it's probably the most important thing or aspect of the whole production process particularly for a book that is so well known because unlike other novels which have been adapted and successfully done Pride and Prejudice is I think I'm right in saying is one off if not the most widely read classical novel in English language if we've got Allison and Ben mr. mrs. Bennett yeah seriously if you like this even more enhanced responsibility and a part of the casting process to get those people absolutely right I mean we're very very keen to have David remember as mr. Collins now when we first auditioned David Bamber for mr. Collins and I thought he was the ideal person for this job and he absolutely proved it when he came in to audition because he performed the proposal soon and he did it completely seriously which is the only way it works my reasons for marrying are first but I think it'll right thing for every clergyman to set the example I'm Annina Spanish secondly but I'm convinced it will add very greatly to my happiness and thirdly which dance I should mention for us that it is the particular recommendation of my known patroness Lady Catherine de Bourg mr. Collins she said you must marry Jose probably she said choose a gentle woman for my sake and for your Ellen let her be an active useful sort of person not brought up too high and find such a woman as soon as you can bring her to Hunsford and I in approaching of character what I've what I am attempting to do as opposed to what I am achieving is to show a contrast between the pre-proposal Collins when he first arrives in our in the case of this adaptation which is episode 2 and the post proposal which is really when you see him in Rosings Park and a hunts a parsonage observe that closer to cousin Elizabeth what do you say to that is it not the very essence of practicality and convenience Lady Catherine de Bourg was kind enough to suggest that these shows be fitted exactly as you see them her shelves in the closet happy thought indeed I think that in the Rosings scenes I think is to show more of a servile rather dark and sardonic and unpleasant character Allison Steadman ease and extraordinary chests and I've always thought that and we thought that I've admired her intensely for film she's done and this is admittedly it's like risk she's probably set herself is a completely new avenue for her talents when we did go to the read-through star three it was always a very nerve-wracking day I think was something like a hundred people there and she has Shermer starts the dialogue off she she attacked it like a bolting chariot it was most extraordinary no we died with four and twenty families as an actress I am constantly on the lookout for fun roles things that are going to be interesting and give me plenty of scope to be creative yes she called yesterday with Sir William what an agreeable man is that is my idea of good breeding and those who fancy themselves very important and never open their mouths quite mistake them matter when I was off at this part I hadn't read the book so I first of all read the book and then read the scripts and of course as soon as I read it I could hear the voice of mrs. Bennet she just comes off the page so beautifully written the character is all there it's all there's like a box of chocolates you know you do it's just ready to dive into and and I just couldn't couldn't resist you must come and make Lizzy marry mr. Collins for she vows she will not have him and if you do not make haste mr. Collins will change his mind he will not have her I'm not sure of understanding you yeah of what I'm talking Lizzy declares she bought not her mr. Collins and mr. Klein begins to say he will not have this what am I to do on the occasion seems a hopeless business speak to Lizzy about it yourself tell her you insist upon him let her come in I particularly wanted colin firth to to play darcy and some people thought it was an odd an odd choice and i think colin himself thought it was an odd choice and he in fact said no at the beginning and i absolutely had to insist that he think again and do it for him to take the part and he said he came to a stage where he realized that if anybody else played the part he'd be immensely jealous because the part had taken over him he's an amazing actor physically himself he doesn't actually look like darcy but i think you'd agree or i hope most people would agree that he actually looks incredibly like darcy when he's playing darcy this scene gives the impression that colin firth as darcy gets soaked in the lake at Pemberley in actual fact this isn't quite true the scene is put together using lots of different shots which sometimes require several takes from different angles so the film crew doesn't want Colin to get wet too quickly he does dive but not into the lake it's on to this blue manifest meanwhile his stunt double is about to jump in the lake all under the watchful eye of these professional divers here to take care of everyone's safety Colin did get to swim underwater but this sequence was filmed on a different day using a special water tank even if they don't always do their own stunts actors and period dramas like Pride and Prejudice may be required to demonstrate other tackles like dancing dances were immensely important at this time they gave an opportunity for young men and women to meet and to court if you like so they were always eagerly awaited I started by rereading the book and marking all the points where dance is mentioned and dances are mentioned and dancers are mentioned and also I marked all the places where they bow and their curtsy in their reverence and they come and they go and they show their sort of social manners how they behaved at that point in time these English country dances that you see in Pride and Prejudice were danced in the country houses and in the court and mr. beverages Margot is a supreme example of that and it has this harmony which almost reflects the architecture of the time the furniture of the time the landscape gardening at the time there is a reflection in their relationship I remember hearing you once say that you hardly ever forgave the resentment once created was implacable you are very careful are you not allowing a resentment to be created there's almost an intellectual fight between them at the same time as that's going on something totally harmonious happening between them physically I never allow yourself to be blinded by prejudice headlong may I ask to what these questions tend here look at the illustration of your character I'm trying to make it out and what self success I do not get on a tour such different accounts of you as to puzzle me exceedingly you should feel when you look at the dance these are two people who are going to at some point really get on extremely well editing is the third aspect of the whole production process you have pre-production you have the actual production itself and then you have post-production which is almost entirely editing it's the editing process and how it you put it together you can change the whole focus of a scene simply by staying on one shot one second longer than another the beauty of the love between Darcy and an Elizabeth that it is held back almost of the last moment and and it's the timing of the shots between the two of them too long in either way would have made it subconscious but it's not it is just the right time I think as far as music concerned actually what you do in a sense is provide a fourth dimension something which is not said or seen in terms of the visual action but something more abstract which is thought and and hinted at now you can ruin it by making it too strong too obvious but you can help it by just in some mysterious way keep it going in a romantic sense please allow me thank you if you will thank me let it be for yourself alone your family owes me nothing much as I respect them I believe I thought any of you you're too generous to trifle with me if your feelings and what they wear last April tell me so advance my affections and wishes are unchanged but one word from you will silence me on this subject forever my feelings my feelings are ashamed to remember what I said then my feelings are so different now quite the opposite oh it's a lovely book it's classic love story even the fellas on the unit who don't really normally like much period drama they they've already tanned they think it's wonderful they couldn't put it down so I've had a few of the prop men saying oh it's great we all hope that we've done justice to this fantastic book of Jane Austen's this fantastic story I mean we've all gone to a lot of trouble not only from the acting Department every department the design of their costumes and think the wigs if necessary and the makeup were not allowed to wear any makeup and masks are and things which is in quite a shock to some of us not to be able to put a flick of mascara on but we've tried to stick absolutely and make it as real and authentic as possible I've read it now hundreds of times but every single time I wait to see if Elizabeth and Darcy are going to get together I still suspend my disbelief until until that moment and I long for them for it to work out so it is the best romance

Channel: Musafiri Olivier

Views: 612,744

Rating: 4.8623548 out of 5

Keywords: Pride and Prejudice, Making of, BBC, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Elizabeth Bennet, Mr Darcy, Sue Birtwistle, Simon Langton, American A&E Network, BBC One, Benjamin Whitrow a, Alison Steadman, BAFTA Television Award f, 24 September 1995, Adrian Lukis, Sara Feilden, Andrew Davies, Gerry Scott, Jane Gibson

Id: Ef3TSkQxBIM

Length: 26min 36sec (1596 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 09 2014