March 29 movie: Pride and Prejudice. This is the 1970's BBC miniseries starring Elizabeth Garvie. I watched the first half. It has much to recommend it, for instance I think this is the best portrayal of Mrs. Bennet. She's a bit less of a caricature here, a bit less unsympathetic. You get the sense that she really is trying to do right by her daughters, and it's just a shame that she's too frivolous and foolish to actually help them. And the portrayal of Charlotte is interesting. From a modern perspective, Charlotte's choice to marry Mr. Collins is horrifying. But even though Elizabeth criticizes Charlotte in the text, I think that at the time Charlotte's point of view was considered more realistic and more sensible. That comes across in this miniseries, and does not in any other dramatization I've seen.
By a nose I still prefer the 1995 Jennifer Ehle version. Mostly because of Ehle's performance. So much of this story is about Elizabeth's internal conflict, and Ehle's very expressive face and body language communicated volumes. Not intended as a criticism of Garvie. The directing choice in the older miniseries was for voiced-over thoughts, which I don't particularly like unless it's done sparingly and very well. (Think Dune for an example of how bad this can be.)
Oh, and there's one more reason I will always prefer the 1995 version: the look.
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