Thursday, August 04, 2005

Bride & Prejudice

Sometimes movies based on books are terrible; and sometimes they are brilliant.

Bride & Prejudice is brilliant. No, that's not a typo; yes, it's a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Why another film version of P&P, especially after the wonderful BBC version starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth? (The Darcy goes swimming scene....c'mon, I know that's what you were thinking.) Does the world really need yet another movie of an Austen book?

Yes, it does, especially when it is done as well as this. B&P reinvents P&P by taking the classic British story, setting it in the present day and moving it to India. Lizzie becomes Lalita; and Fitzwilliam Darcy is now William Darcy, a wealthy American visiting India. The clash between classes in Austen's work -- that isn't easily understood by modern readers -- is perfectly translated to a culture clash between Lalita and Darcy. And it's Bollywood influenced, with wonderful dance numbers, songs that I'm still humming, and vivid colors.

Despite the change to modern time and India, this is an amazingly faithful adaptation. How good is it? I watched it twice in two days before returning it to the library, and now am thinking about buying it on DVD. I have no knowledge of Bollywood films, please tell me what ones I should watch!

4 comments:

Kelly said...

Oh! I really want to see this one, Liz. Is it on DVD now? I love Bollywood music.

Kelly said...

Oops! Just read in your post that is IS on DVD.

Liz B said...

I'm very fortunate that my library has decided that DVDs are an important part of the collection. They are getting everything from popular movies to classics to foreign films to TV shows; the only problem is that DVDs take up all my holds list...and sometimes 6 come in on one day. I haven't been to Blockbusters in a year.

Anonymous said...

I just rented Bride & Prejudice and loved it! Of course, there was no Colin Firth, but Naveen Andrews is pretty nummy.

Mar