Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Andrew Davies at the AGM

One of the highlights of the JASNA Annual General Meeting in Fort Worth was listening to Andrew Davies talk about his screenplays, the most famous of which is the 1995 A&E adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. This production was also Davies’s favorite, and he talked about how he did not want to open the drama with the usual “It is a truth universally acknowledged…” Instead, he showed Bingley and Darcy riding full out with Elizabeth admiring them from a hilltop perch. He also talked about Colin Firth’s tortured portrayal of Darcy composing his letter to Elizabeth in which he explained his motives for making his obnoxious proposal. At the start of the scene, Darcy is wearing about three layers of clothes. By the end, he’s nearly down to his underwear.

With the theme of the AGM being the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense and Sensibility, Davies talked about the 2008 S&S production with Hattie Morahan and Dan Stevens. Like most readers of S&S, Davies understood that Austen’s first published novels has lots of problems, including how to get readers/viewers to like our hero, Edward Ferrars. There’s not much to admire in his behavior, and although his presence is “felt” throughout the story, we actually see very little of him. The screenwriter’s task was to make Edward “likeable” as Emma Thompson had done in her S&S screenplay with the sword-fighting scene between Edward and Margaret. Davies also used Margaret as a way to achieve his end in the scene where Edward (Dan Stevens) takes Margaret for a ride on his horse.

After softening Edward up, the producers thought that Ferrars wasn’t “butch” enough for a modern audience, and so Davies wrote the log-chopping scene (something he had always wanted to do) with Edward wielding an axe in the rain while Elinor Dashwood admires his obvious masculine skills and very wet shirt.

Davies was an absolutely delightful speaker, but his funniest comments were reserved for Emma. More on that in the next post.

10 comments:

  1. As you know Mary I adore Andrew Davies. I hope he keeps writing screenplays well into his 90s!

    Love his P&P, very much like his S&S, I'm just OK on his Emma but I think that has to do with the direction and casting (hard to beat Romola Garai and Jonny Lee Miller). I am extremely fond of his Northanger Abbey. Odd that no one wanted him to do Persuasion isn't it? And since Mansfield Park has never been done well he would be the one to adapt that wouldn't he?

    And he has done so much for Dickens, he should get a lifetime achievement award. Speaking of which, isn't he due for a knighthood????

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  2. I haven't seen that version of S&S yet, but it's on my Amazon wish list. I'm not sure about this log-chopping scene. Maybe it's just the angle, but that guy looks tiny! LOL

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  3. Hi Jenny! I wish he would do Persuasion. Didn't care for the one with Hawkins/Penry-Jones. Anne was supposed to be plain, but not that plain!

    Hi Jennifer! It is the camera angle. It's not a good picture of the scene, but it's the only one I could find. I still like Emma Thompson's S&S the best, and much prefer Kate Winslet to Charity Wakefield.

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  4. The scene with Edward chopping wood is very well done -- with a snide reference to the Darcy wet shirt, I thought. I hope Andrews does win an award for all his wonderful adaptations, even though I don't like the opening of S&S.

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  5. Monica, Davies talked about the opening at the AGM. They actually toned it down. He said that he believes the actress playing Eliza resembled Hattie Morahan (Elinor) too much, and he thinks it might have thrown the audience off. My take was that S&S was not fun to work on. All the speakers at the AGM agreed that S&S is a story with problems.

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  6. I agree with you about Persuasion! I liked most of the actors but the recent adaptation left a lot to be desired.

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  7. Thanks Mary for posting this. Everything became such a blur, than if I didn't take notes I couldn't remember exactly what was said. I didn't take notes during Andrew Davies lecture. You brought it all back for me. I'll have to print this out and put it with the rest of my mementos.

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  8. Andrew must have a thing for his heroes being in a wet shirt. ;) His take on S&S sounds interesting, Mary. I will have to watch this movie sometime.

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  9. Okay - talk more about Darcy almost down to his underwear. What was the motivation for it (much loved!)

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  10. Angie, Davies discussed the "hair and shoulders" shots which were basically closeups of heaving breasts. He wanted to afford the same thrill to the female audience.

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