Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Northanger Abbey movie

Northanger Abbey (1987)
BBC TV mini-series - 1 episode
my 1st viewing

Director: Giles Foster
Writer: Maggie Wadey
Based on book: by Jane Austen
Rating: 4

Katharine Schlesinger plays Catherine Morland
Peter Firth plays Henry Tilney

A blip:
The shortest movie and a fun one in this DVD collection. The background music was melodramatic, but fit the gothic feel to the story. However, when the fantasy goth theme played over the last scene, I was a bit confused for what was real or not. Having read the original I know the ending. But if I were a first timer to the story, it could be confusing.

A bloop:

I've put Ann Radcliffe's gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho on my tbr list. It surely must have been a doozy during those times. The fact that Jane Austen incorporated it in her novel gives it props.


Description from Wikipedia:
The Mysteries of Udolpho is a quintessential Gothic romance, replete with incidents of physical and psychological terror; remote, crumbling castles; seemingly supernatural events; a brooding, scheming villain; and a persecuted heroine.

Radcliffe also added extensive descriptions of exotic landscapes in the Pyrenees and Apennines. Set in 1584 in southern France and northern Italy, the novel focuses on the plight of Emily St. Aubert, a young French woman who is orphaned after the death of her father.

Emily suffers imprisonment in the castle Udolpho at the hands of Signor Montoni, an Italian brigand who has married her aunt and guardian Madame Cheron. Emily's romance with the dashing Valancourt is frustrated by Montoni and others. Emily also investigates the mysterious relationship between her father and the Marchioness de Villeroi, and its connection to the castle Udolpho.


~*~

* image source Udolpho comic1 and Udolpho comic2

* part of my Jane in June

* make sure to check out the main site for Book Rat's - Jane in June for all the reviews, interviews and giveaways galore!!!

 
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