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Last edited by RintoulFan; 03-17-2013 at 02:35 PM.
There is only one Darcy.
Are there many I do not know of?
Ok how about you?who is your favourite Darcy if there is another one?
it may never try
but when it does it sigh
it is just that
good
it fly
Oh, come one there are only two real Darcys! Well, OK, maybe 3.
Auten's, Firth (sorry man) and Eliot Cowan. If you haven't seen him, please watch Lost in Austen. All the others are just... meh
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
What about Laurence Olivier? Or Matthew MacFadyen?
I know this isn't popular, but I liked Matthew MacFadyen as Darcy. I loved Colin Firth as Darcy, too. Of course, I just love Colin Firth, anyway.
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka
Only one Darcy for me and that is Colin Firth. **swoon**
Mathew McFadyen seemed shy rather than arrogant, and Keira Knightly was too pretty, I felt.
Exit, pursued by a bear.
Oh he's very cute! And I quite liked the film, but he just didn't seem like Darcy to me.
Exit, pursued by a bear.
He did seem like Darcy to me. They can't be carbon copies of the book, that's just not going to happen. Apparently both he and Kiera Knightley were about the actual ages of the characters in the book, which I liked. I like Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, but they were a little older. It's hard to fake both the impulsiveness and hardheadedness of youth.
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka
I have nothing against MacFayden (he looked good in Little Dorrit), but despite the ages I thought his face is too introverted to be mistaken for proud. With his long and pretty open face, he just doesn't look hard enough to be a Darcy. Darcy looks the confident and naturally aloof person in the corner, where he is in fact a bit shy. MacFayden, to me, looked the shy and gentle man in the corner who doesn't dare to speak to anyone.
I thought Ehle was actually about 21, but Firth was 35 at the time. Reasonably unknown.
Although I don't think we should compare a 21-year-old now with one back then. Your life was about a fifth to a third of the way through, if you didn't account for 20% of deaths in childbirth and other accidents.
Similarly, Darcy when he is 28 and a mere 6 years older than his friend Bingley, there is a great big difference in stature. Not only because Bingley only has 5,000 and Darcy double, but also because Darcy has bene his own man for a bit longer. I don't think 35 was too far off for a modern man, actually. 30 is when men more or less start to grow up.
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
Now, I love Jane Austen, I really do, but I've never quite understood why Darcy gets so much more attention than her other romantic heroes? Everyone always goes goo-goo eyed over Darcy in a way they simply do not with Captain Wentworth or Mr Knightly.
"I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche
Yes particularly Wentworth is worth more attention. The silent suffering that finally gushes out of him is better than anything Darcy ever came up with.
Knightley is kind of cute. He is particularly funny in that seventies BBC adaptation. At the point he is about to propose, but thinks Emma is attached . The actor has played him as a kind of second father for Emma and he is on pretty intimate terms with her until he is faced with the fact he loves her. He just can't say it and she doesn't want to listen. It's pretty cute, all the emotions in his face: the despair, the flutter, the doubt on the man's face in that little summer house. Although I like Davies' Knightley better (he is not so obviously old compared to Emma, and he is still able to get worked up in a kind of childish way, particularly during his rant about Churchil, flinging his hat about in sheer frustration ), that seventies version is particularly well acted in that part.
But isn't that always the way? People get obcessed with one hero of an author and forget about the other brilliant characters. Maybe it's just Firth's appeal, though, that keeps Darcy in the public mind. Wentworth and Knightley have not had that fortune (although they were acted by very good actors maybe even superior when it comes to the fomer).
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
I'd like to put in a word for JJ Feild as Henry Tilney in the ITV adaptation of 'Northanger Abbey'. He was very appealing. Of course, the script was by Andrew Davies, which did no harm. I think Tilney gets overlooked because it is a lighter novel.
As for any really old BBC adaptations of Jane Austen, they tend to be pretty ropey. Nothing much good 'til the nineties.
Can't remember the actor, but Tilney was definitely very very very charming and sparkly on paper. Reminded me a little of Frank Churchill, but more honest. Tilney splashes off the page with delight, almost. He's the typical man who walks into the room, changes the mood and attracts all the looks.
Indeed, it is a shame he is always left behind. Had Austen given him a more yearning quality, a bit doomed like Darcy, he would have gone down a treat.
As to those adaptations. It's true that the earl ones are ropey. They are invariably filmed in a studio (even the garden bits) and the lighting is sh*t. Candles blot the screen when the camera moves. The famous P&P adaptation from the nineties is then much better. But I still found that Emma adaptation quite nice. If only for its meticulous dramatisation. Together with Davies's, it was a very good interpretation. It was a bit sad that Davies did not have the time to make a more elaborate version of that novel.
The only thing that does grate in the beginning of the 70s Emma is the vast and obvious age difference between Knightley and Emma. Not that it is not realistic, but Davies's Knightley looked a bit younger (as we had moved on to the nineties where people didn't look old when they got to 45). Still I find that Mark Strong and that seventies Knightley (have forgotten his name now) can rival each other.
Have you ever watched it. Definitely do! It was on YouTube years ago. And don't get distracted by the eyebrows. Now that's a difference with the nineties that you can't beat: no botox. In the beginning you wonder what you see in that face of Emma mainly that bugs you. It is the eyebrows that move with every sentence and every expression. How we have got used to immobile brows...
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)