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Darcy Smiles a Lot Actually (even before Pemberley)
14 responses to “Darcy Smiles a Lot Actually (even before Pemberley)”
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This is the limitation of a visual art form like a movie or series – there’s the need to show character in images where an author can use words and get into someone’s head. I’m not the biggest fan of the 2005 movie (lovely piece of cinema, but spotty on authenticity), but they did capture some aspects of Darcy’s character that earlier versions chose not to look at, including some really lovely smiles.
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I do really love Darcy’s smile when he sees Georgiana at Pemberley in 2005. But yes, it’s hard to get as much across as a novel does. That’s why I always return to the book!
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Oh, very good point! I hadn’t noticed some of those smile moments–he does smile a lot!
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I hadn’t thought how much he smiles! I always go back to the book too! I love his comment on Lizzy’s fine eyes.Sigh!
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He loves their intelligent expression, which is swoon
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I never noticed how much he smiled! I go back to the book too! I love his comment about Lizxy’s eyes! Sigh.
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I love this post. And also, I’m thinking that chart is absolutely brilliant and can only be truly appreciated by an Austen reader!!
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I’m so glad you love it! I love that chart too, being a very data driven person myself.
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I’m kinda sorry now that I didn’t read the book first. An adaptation, particularly a first rate one, seeps into one’s consciousness. When I read THE MALTESE FALCON, for example, I can’t imagine anyone else but Humphrey Bogart as Spade, despite the description given in the book being quite different, because Bogart’s performance is so iconic.
Similarly, the stern 1995 Colin Firth Darcy is who I see in the early chapters of the book. Yet it’s clear that he’s a lot better-humored than the Firth performance suggests.
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That can certainly happen. I find myself avoiding the adaptations now because I don’t want to get confused.
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Jim Doherty mentioned the stern depiction that Colin Firth did of Darcy. It made me remember that the impression I had gotten was that Firth didn’t like playing that role. A later interview with one who had worked on the 1995 BBC production brought out that Firth orginally didn’t want to portray Fitzwilliam Darcy. Maybe that’s why I don’t like the 1995 version as much as the 2005.
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That’s interesting, I’ve never heard it before! I do think 1995 is a bit too stiff.
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As much as I love her noticing his smile in the portrait, I don’t find it as critical as you do to her realizing his feelings predate Rosings. In his proposal Darcy avowed what he had “long felt” and Elizabeth afterward reflects “that he should have been in love with her for so many months! so much in love as to wish to marry her…”
The tricky thing in visual media would be to portray Elizabeth’s realization. It could be done by her saying quitely to herself “he smiled at me like that” or with flashbacks to his smiles, but there’s always the balance of how much an adaptation uses those techniques and how much it leaves the viewer to discern from the actor’s expression.-
Some things are hard to adapt, this is a personal point of interest for me, but not everyone would find it as meaningful for sure.
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