BRIDE AND PREJUDICE BY GURINDER CHADHA

 Because it is the 200 anniversary of the publication of  Jane Austen’s novel  Pride & Prejudice and you will have read much about the novel on the internet. In April 2003 the BBC Big Read began to search for the “nation’s best-loved novel.” The reader could submit their nominations and famous personalities championed for the great novels by presenting them on BBC. The Lord of the Flies would obtain the most votes. Surprisingly, a classic came in position two, and it was Pride & Prejudice, which has often been adapted into film and television. One of the most popular was the mini TV series by the BBC with Colin Firth as the tenebrous Mr Darcy. This connection between the actor and the s character was exploited in another film which is a version of Austen’s classic, Bridget Jones’ Diary, in which Colin Firth starred again as another Mr Darcy, this time a contemporary one, but with multiple connections with the Austen’s arrogant character.

 

The novel has been turned into two interesting movies, one of the classic sort, directed by John Wright and realized in 2005, presenting the then rising star Keira Knightley. The other, the one we are going to show now, was released in 2004 and is a mesmerizing Bollywood adaptation, which promoted the taste for transculturation, starring Miss Universe, the Indian actress Aishwarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi (the Indian Elizabeth Bennet) and the equally handsome actor Martin Henderson  as the American Will Darcy. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha, the director of the successful film, Bend it Like Bechkam.. Austen’s social prejudice is read in terms  against Western imperialist prejudice against developing nations like India.  The film also criticizes how Indian culture (its food, clothing, dances, music, traditions) is marketed for Western consumption,  although Western. But most of all, The film is very funny and is full of dance and music, and captures very sell  the essence of Austen’s movie, translating it to our contemporary world of travel, email communication and internet dating. So enjoy!!     See an appetizar! Dance Scene

Did you like the film? Please publish your comments here!

LINCOLN (AND WHITMAN)

As I mentioned in my classes a couple of weeks ago one of the films running for the Oscars this year is Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, with Daniel Day Lewis starring as President Abraham Lincoln. Why would the director of such spectacultar films as E.T. , Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones: Riders of the Lost Ark have made such a dark, austere film as Lincoln?
I think it is because Lincoln is an American hero.  But, unlike other books and films about him, in Spielberg's movie  he is  a "normal hero," not a Superman. He is a man with his weaknesses and doubts, like most leaders are,like and all of us, no matter what position we occupy in life.

The film shows how Lincoln was not even sure what the consequences of abolishing slavery were; and in the film he admits that he does not know enought about black people , but his moral intuition told him that it was morally right and that he had to fight for it, no matter the personal and political costs. You also learn that this self-evident truth "that all men are created equal," proclaimed in The Gettysburg Address" was even worth having to bribe some members of the Democratic party in order to obtain the votes to pass the 13th Amendment.

The popularity of the film has also motivated National Geographic to produce a documentar ("Killing Lincoln")y about Lincoln's death -a scene which is, interestingly, omitted from the film.  L
See the links:

Lincoln trailer

Gettysburg Address YouTube video

Killing Lincolm

Walt Whitman wrote a poem dedicated to Lincoln's death titled “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”:

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d,

And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,

I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,

Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,

And thought of him I love.

 

You may read the entire poem here:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174748

NEW TOPICS:
Did anybody go and see the film "Lincoln"? And what were you reactions to "Leaves of Grass"?
Did you like it? Did you think it was a great bore?

Thank you to those of you who published your responses on Emerson's essays. "Self-Reliance" has clearlu become the favourite of the two. Now keep up with the next entries and do encourage other people to join our blogging community!