Miss Austen Regrets (BBC) [2008] [DVD]

This DVD about the creative life of Jane Austen is sensitive, whimsical and well researched. Using material from some of her letters to her sister and occasional quotes from her novels ( Jane Austen officionados will spot them), the makers have opened a window onto her character, wit and inspiration. This version of Jane Austen's life is much more authentic than other, "Hollywood" interpretations and brings together strong acting from some of our most respected English actors. Olivia Williams (Jane Fairfax, "Emma")brings energy and intelligence to her Jane Austen, the wonderful Hugh Bonneville sensitively portraying her "regret" and adding richness to the cast: Phyllida Law, Greta Scacchi and Imogen Poots. The film is beautifully shot with haunting accompanying music.

Any kind of dramatisation of Jane Austen's life is going to be a tough nut to crack. Enigmatic with almost no first hand descriptions of her or her personality and not even an official portrait so that no one knows for sure what she actually looked like (you think you do know, but the image you have of Austen in your mind is almost certainly the product of a victorian artist's imagination) Austen's uneventful life is not exactly the stuff that dramas are usually made of.

This production makes an admirable stab at the attempt however. Olivia Williams is well cast (just the right age, and good enough an actress to carry the role) of the later Jane in the last year and a half of her life (Williams may be be better known to Jane afficionados as playing the part of Jane Fairfax in ITV's dramatisation of "Emma" 10 years or so ago). She makes surely the performance of her life here. Simply wonderful.

I was impressed the script writer's obvious knowledge of the subject and the extensive use of quotes from Jane's letters, and even Cassandra's "She was the sun of my life, the gilder of every pleasure, the soother of every sorrow" quote from the letter written to Fanny immediately after Jane's death.

If you've read Austen's letters and the few eye witness accounts of her you'll be impressed with the faithfullness of the depiction of Jane. Olivia's Jane was witty with a well developed sense of humour, with also a cleverness that reminded me of the letters, and a "keen sense of humour... (that) oozed out of her, very much in Mr Bennet's style", as someone who knew her later recalled. On the whole I'd say it was about 80% accurate to what I'd imagined her to be like. Perhaps not quite clever enough, and not quite witty enough, to be entirely the Jane of the letters, but a pretty good representation nonetheless.

Jane mercilessly mocks the Prince Regent's chaplain the Revd James Stanier Clarke and dazzles everyone with her brilliance, and looses more than a few caustic barbs. Almost all of which is quoted almost verbatim from her letters and other writings. And this is were the film succeeds best of all: it does convey something of her brilliance and wit, as well her intimidating intellect.

In the film she hides behind a mask of her own indifference to affairs of the heart, but there are enough chinks in her armour especially with her interest in Mr Haden to suggest that she was as vunerable to a charming handsome rogue as any of her heroines and had he made a move... well, lets just say I don't think she would have remained unmoved. Which all makes for some wonderful fiction, but fiction and speculation it remains.

The most powerful, and fictional, scene in the film is where her mother confront her over her failure to accept Harris Bigg's offer of marriage which dramatises possibly the biggest conundrum in Austen's life: why did she accept an offer of marriage from Harris Wither? Sure, she rejected him because she didn't love him, that we can understand, but why did she accept him in the first place? In this dramatisation the reason is given that Cassandra couldn't bear to be parted from her sister and so persuaded her to change her mind. Now, I don't believe that that to be true in this instance, but it does dramatise an argument for Jane's never marrying: could she ever have bared to be parted from the single most important person in her entire life? (Her dalliance of 20 years earlier with Tom Lefroy is briefly mentioned, but the stating here that he meant nothing to her that he was "not the one", is something I also fundamentally disagree with. It also dramatises her somewhat distant relationship with her mother: distant emotionally, even if physically and probably uncomfortably, close.

After some unrealistic dramatisations of Austen's life recently recently I really wasn't expecting too much from this at all, but I was pleasantly surprised. From initially expecting something very dull and ordinary instead I found something very fine, powerful, moving and ultimately very sad. Just as any depiction of Jane's later life should be.

JANE AUSTEN REGRETS is the latest period drama offering from the BBC. As a fan of period drama, and some of Austen's novels, I thought this would be an interesting insight into the lady behind the words.

JANE AUSTEN REGRETS shows us Jane during a relatively small period in her life, as she is approaching 40 and is still unmarried. Jane's niece, Fanny Kinght, who is young, beautiful and eager to fall in love, cannot beleieve that Jane would be able to write novels such as "Pride and Predjudice" without having experienced love herself. And so Fanny seeks Jane's opinion in matters of the heart - perticularly whether she should accept a proposal from a certain Mr. Plumbtree if he ever makes the offer.
Yet, for some reason, Fanny's love affair and her deliberations seem to shake Jane. Usually safe behind her clever words and strong views about love and marriage, Jane seems to be hiding something - not only to her young niece but also to herself.
So, JANE AUSTEN REGRETS becomes a mini exploration of Austen's heart. The proposal she turned down; the man who she seems to love but has wasted the chance; and the cracks in her armour which suggest that she longs for a more intimate relationship with a man.

Olivia Williams does a fantastic job at playing Jane, bringing us a portrayal of her which makes her very life-like. Instead of playing her as a two dimensional character, Williams really brings her to life, showing that there were aspects to her personality which are not so likebale. But you also see why this is so. In this adaptation, Austen comes across as someone who is able to hide behind her clever words and her strong opinions on love and marriage, but who deep down wants to have the same kind of love that she is so able to create in her pieces of fiction.
The other actors/actresses also were fantastic. Jane's mum does a brilliant job towards the end of the series as she vents her own frustration towards her unmarried daugther, illustrating the pressures that would have been on her when she made her decision.

I found this adaptation to be very well acted and heart-felt. Although I have not seen the adaptation of Austen's earlier life, "Bedoming Jane", having seen this it has now made me more eager to do so.
I loved it - just like Austen's best works, there are moments of pure beauty as the subject of love and matters of the heart are discussed, showing just how rewarding or painful it can be.