Mansfield Park (1999)

…of the human heart. I read and reviewed “Mansfield Park” in 2016, and made a promise to myself that since I had acquired a taste for Jane Austen, I’d read one of her other novels in each of the subsequent years, a commitment I did not fulfill. Most of her novels have been made into movies and I decided to revisit my first Austin novel, via this movie, for a visual feast of the story, shorn of Austen’s “subordinate clauses.” I found the movie very well done, and largely faithful to the novel as I remember it, though numerous other reviewers seem to demur. The novel is the most autobiographical of Austen’s. Patricia Rozema directed the movie. It was released in 1999.The movie provides a visual image of greed, to the 4th power, that is so difficult for the novel to convey. Kirby Hall, in Northhamptonshire, in the very heart of England, is used as the setting for the estate of Mansfield Park. A vast country estate shot from numerous points of view. These do not reveal that parts of the current structure are roofless. The estate was first started in 1580, and has been as much a millstone as a status symbol for its various owners over the centuries. Who lives there? Who manages the relations? And yes, who does the maintenance, including the aforementioned roof? The movie makes clear, but places it deep in the background, that all this wealth is derived from slavery and immense cruelty, on a sugar plantation in Antigua. As Edmund, the second son of Sir Thomas Bertram states: “We all live off the profits of the slaves, Fanny, including you.” No black person is shown in the movie however.The primary focus of the movie and the novel involves two other forms of “slavery,” or, at least serious subordination to power. Austen faced them both: the subordination of women to men; and the class structure of English society- the subordination of the “lower classes” to their “betters.” Early on, Fanny Price, who grew up poor, in a family of many, whose mother chose love over position in society when she married, is shipped off to Mansfield Park to live with the mother’s sister, who arranged a “better” marriage for herself, as the wife of the parson at Mansfield. Fanny overhears Sir Thomas explaining to his two daughters that their cousin is “not your equal.”“Harden yourself to being worth looking at” is an admonition that second son Edmund give to Fanny, the evening of a ball held in her honor. For me, it is a wonderful moment. A woman with a great mind and considerable writing talent ALSO realizes that she has a body and a pretty face, and it is OK to let one’s hair down and just be earthy and provocative… well, within the framework of the strictures of English society (i.e., don’t be too public about it).I thought Francis O’Conner played Fanny Price perfectly. Embeth Davidtz and Alessandro Nivola play the less than admirable Crawfords, Mary and Henry. Shelia Gish played superbly as Fanny’s sourpuss (and class striving) aunt, Mrs. Norris.The year is 1806. I am still amazed that in both the novel and the movie there is never a hint that England is in a dire war with Napoleon and his allies. No global events seem to impact the social pecking order and arranged-marriage scheming of Mansfield Park.A great movie, filmed and acted well. 5-stars.

Enjoyed

This is one of the best romantic comedy/drama stories. I have watched it hundreds of times and still enjoy it every time like it's the first time. Some day I'll read the book, but for now I think the actors did such a good job and the way it was filmed is phenomenal. It's a little bit like Wes Anderson's style.

Mansfield Park is the least favorite of Jane Austen's novels for me. I always got the feeling that she was warring with her own impulses and instincts to come up with its proper, rather formal ending. It feels like an ugly duckling growing phase in her oeuvre, so now we come to this film of the book. Evidently they had the same problems so many of us did with Fanny Price's 'passivity ', so they tried to make her into a more shrewdly observant commentator like her creator was, which was an interesting approach. ( I had seen the BBC version by the way in which Fanny seemed like the little shocked mouse radiating potent disapproval on an entire household, psychically manipulating others or trying to in the name of prudent conduct.) By making Fanny more like Jane, they tried to make her more approachable, admirable, but a little of the subtleties of the family's interactions was lost - due to time demands in that format, which were inescapable in the novel and BBC version. I did not mind that approach, except that it made it even more excruciating when Henry Crawford ( Alessandro Nivola ) turns up, flirts shamelessly with the Bertram sisters, only to recognize something better or more compelling about Fanny Price and to court her instead. Mr. Nivola really brings that charming scoundrel to life, so much so that it is torture to watch Fanny accept and then reject him. You sympathize more for him and you suddenly see why he would act out the way he does after Fanny's treatment of him. In this casting, the performance itself on Mr. Nivola's part, and the choices of the filmmaker, this film shines a harsh light on what seemed like an unsatisfactory choice that Jane Austen made. The original ending seems like a clinical imposition and the film reminds one of the road not taken. The character of Edmund was wonderfully cast too, but still, and no one seems to have brought this up even in the book reviews, Edmund and Fanny are FIRST COUSINS. I mean...EWWW! (It makes one wish for a time machine, so one could go back and have a little chat about genetics and social taboos with Jane Austen.) If you loved the novel as it was, then you won't like this movie. If you found Henry Crawford beguiling in the novel, this movie will be a wonderful torment, until it becomes frustrating when Jane Austen's plot goes it's inevitable way.

Che dire? Adoro Jane Austen e il film è molto bello

Una versión más libre pero con buenas interpretaciones y buena química entre los protagonistas. Me gusta.

I know this is good as I saw it on Netflix and thought it worth keeping a copy (no longer on Netflix). However, the vendor was supposed to get this to me well over a week ago, so far it hasn't appeared - tardy indeed.

Mansfield Park, c'est d'abord un roman de Jane Austen assez austère, une étude toujours de la situation des femmes. Si ce DVD ne respecte pas tout à fait le déroulement du roman, la réalisation ne trahit pas l'esprit de Jane Austen, bien au contraire. En élaguant certaines descriptions concernant les colonies, l'esclavage, il recentre l'intérêt du film sur Fanny Price, une fille pauvre, placée par sa mère surchargée de travail.Fanny, la fille aînée d'une famille nombreuse dont les origines étaient aristocratiques, Fanny (merveilleuse Frances O'Connor) doit quitter son clan familial, elle est accueillie, froidement par les tantes aristocratiques et sera la pupille de Sir Thomas le mari de la tante nonchalante...Sir Thomas a deux fils et deux filles, qui sauront à leur manière accueillir Fanny tout en marquant leur supériorité sociale...Mais Edmund, gentil garçon s'y attache immédiatement....Tout irait pour le mieux si les exigences sociales laissaient aux amoureux la possibilité de se lier...mais on voit comme dans tous les romans austeniens le combat tragique que doit mener une fille pour se marier par amour...Des personnages peu scrupuleux, tels le frère et la soeur Crawford, jettent leurs dévolus sur les héros (Fanny et Edmun), et séparent les "amoureux" ...mais inévitablement Jane Austen qui fait prendre, au départ, à ses personnages respectables, de mauvais chemins, choisit finalement des solutions miracles pour les replacer sur les bonnes pistes, laissant les autres s'empêtrer dans leurs mauvais calculs...Cette édition (import US-zone 1) offre une VF, mais pas de VOST...L'édition (import anglais) offre uniquement des sous-titres anglais....(elle est jointe dans un coffret à Emma-Gwyneth Paltrow)

Nice movie