Northanger Abbey Movie

"No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine." End quote. Cathy was not born pretty and would rather play games with her 9 brothers and sister than to play the piano or do her school work. By the time she was of fifteen years of age, her appearances began to mend. She started to read a vast amount of Gothic novels and was sometimes called almost pretty.

Engrossed in these novels she lets her imagination go wild when she is permitted to travel to Bath with The Allens an older couple from her village. Cathy was meant to be her friend's companion while her husband was playing cards at the parties they would attend. At one of these balls they met a handsome flirt named Henry Tilney and another man John Thorpe. Both are trying to get her attention. Mistaken for the heiress of her two friends, she is invited by one of her suitors father's to Northanger Abbey a Gothic like Castle.

Northanger Abbey has more secrets than it has walls.

Well, since you know what the novel is about I will jump into the movie. The movie was produced in 1986 by PBS, it was the last of the novels to be produced in the 1980s. In the mid 1990s they produced two more films and now have produced several more.

Good production value for how old it is and for how bad other made for TV movies were in that time, but PBS almost always has good production values. The Gothic fantasies through the eyes of Catherine Morland were confusing. The movie was dark, the lighting was a bit dark and the actors were really...ugly. One of the complaints that I've read online is that the dress for Catherine and Mrs. Allen were too fancy and that the women would never have been able to afford those dresses and bonnets, which I agree.

Like many Jane Austen films of the 1970s and 1980s the make-up department put way too much make-up on the actors. Unmarried woman would have never worn make-up unless acting in theater. This make-up contained lead and would been very bad to wear long term.

Despite wonderful backdrops the odd music choices that entirely miss the point that this book and movie was supposed to be a satire of Gothic Novels of the Regency Era. The music was 1980's in style, made with keyboards and other 1980s instruments. The chorus which consisted of lyrics "Lah da dah-Ooh", had no place in a Jane Austen movie. This song was the theme and was played all through the movie.

The writing was bad, the writer of the script added characters and took away key passages that bring the story along and might have made it less confusing to watch.

I must say, I'm sorry that I could not force myself to re-watch this film. I instead read several reviews, because all I remembered was it was confusing, ugly actors, weird, stupid, bad music and it was dark. This movie made me never want to read the book. This was in 1996 or 97 and I have only just started to read the novel, which is really good and entertaining. There is a strong amount of wit and humor that is toned down in her later work.

I love, love, love this movie. Everything that the other movie did wrong this movie did right. The music was correct to the period and theme was creepy and beautiful, which is what music for a satire for a Gothic novel should be.

Andrew Davies penned the screenplay for this gem. For those of you who do not know him, he is one of the very best adaptive film writers ever. He did the 1995 screenplay for Pride and Prejudice. Andrew Davies always stays true to the book and the characters while adding a layer of realism by taking things that were mentioned only in passing and bringing them to life on the big screen. In the 2008 version of Sense and Sensibility he showed the dual between Brandon and John W. This dual was won by Brandon and luckily for John W. he let him live.

The clothing and costumes were beautiful and weren't overly done for the social class of the women. The make-up was great, which for a film made for the Regency Era means, they have make-up on and look beautiful, but they don't look like they have any make-up on. The hair department did their jobs well. Cathy's hair was so pretty. The movie was wonderfully acted by Felicity Jones as Catherine Morland and by JJ Feild as Henry Tilney. The entire time I was watching the movie the first time I was driven crazy by JJ Feild, because he looks and sounds a little like Jude Law and I knew I had seen him somewhere before, but had no idea where. By the way he played the first Jack in Jack the the Beanstalk the Real Story. Another movie I like.

Lastly the directing was very good.

This is the movie that made me buy and start reading Nothanger Abbey, it's funny how one bad adaption can taint a book almost forever. I am sure I am not the only person who had avoided this wonderful novel because of one terrible movie. The only drawback to the book I bought from Amazon, is in English. British, English things are spelled colour and centre and I would like to buy an American version before I complete my reading. I am not a fine speller and would not like to start spelling things all British.

The British Nothanger Abbey is first in the Amazon store, because it has a wonderful bio and comes with The Watons, and Sandition.