Emma – Adaptation 2020!

“I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like”. Jane Austen (about Emma)

While Ms. Austen has been insightful on many subjects of life, she got her audience wrong here. If she had not come up with Elinor Dashwood and Fanny Price, Emma would be my most favorite heroine among all she has created. My favorite book by Jane Austen (and the most read book in my personal library) is Sense and Sensibility. My second favorite is Mansfield Park and then comes Emma.

Jane Austen is a beloved writer whose books and the wisdom they pour, never get old! Lessons she is still teaching us- the human nature that never seems to change and it’s understanding still misunderstood year after year, generation after generation… One would think the transition from carriages to cars, from layered gowns to simpler garbs, china teacups to disposable cups would change the trueness of a human mind and heart- no sir! We are all the same humans we were years ago, with same characteristics, be it emotions, values, vices, love, hate, jealousy, or intentions.

Originally published in December 1815, Emma is a book quite apart from Austen’s rest of the works, different because the protagonist does not beg praise and likeness from readers; the reader falls in love with Emma slowly, as Emma herself does in the book. The stance of reader towards her may be comparable to what she has towards romance and the matters of her own heart, and it develops pretty much at the same pace. Austen seemed to have a pretty direct and bold writing method in this novel. She creates a relatively confident heroine who has tendency to exploit and control others, with a tinge of discourtesy, not specific to her other heroines.

As is the tradition of film industries, every few years, we see a new production of the classics. It was time for Emma to be redone. So in 2020, director Autumn de Wilde released the latest version to date with the famous Anya Taylor-Joy as the lead role. I watched the anticipated production soon after it was released. I loved it instantly and have enjoyed it few times since then. Brilliant movie! The dresses and outdoors were thoroughly enjoyable. The dances, music and the songs were perfect. The plot twists and deviations from the plot, cleverly contrived. Joy looks beautiful, Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy) fulfills the role perfectly, Mrs. Weston (Gemma Whelan) was most gentle, Harriet Smith (Mia Goth) true to her role and of course Mr. Knightly played by Johnny Flynn matched the “opposites attract” philosophy! The story surfaces as beautifully as it was conceived by Austen herself.

Some people say 1996 adaptation was better – yes, in some ways. Mainly because Paltrow’s disposition was truer to the perceived idea of an Austen’s heroine than Joy’s. But when one sees the character and circumstances given in the book, the portrayal of Emma in 2020 movie is much more realistic of that person: young, beautiful, comfortably rich, motherless, precocious and the only woman in the house, with a governess who dotes on her. As the opening lines of the novel themselves set the tone of her personality:

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.”

It is uncomfortable to see Austen’s girl as a discourteous one but this presentation of a manipulative, somewhat arrogant, jealous at times and actually quite rude, sits more well with her persona and later transformation of her character, assisted by her own learning and Mr. Knightly’s consequential intrusion.

While the story, cast, characters were beautifully conceived in the movie along with the beautiful outdoors, there was one thing that did not agree well with me. After watching the movie the second time, I was compelled to write about the production. Treading carefully, with lots of interjections, I say this: the latest Emma movie is not as timeless a classic as it has been in the book and previous adaptations. The reason being the indoor sets. I love original things, but I am not that adamant a purist that I would reject an artful combination of new and old style. But the aesthetics of the set and décor just did not lend the visuals specific to that era and setting for homes in a village. The originality is stripped off in freshly painted walls, “contrived” hodge-podge of vintage looking décor, overloaded feathery, flowery, Pinterest-like dessert tables, cakes and tablescapes. Almost everything looks artificial, the flawless décor, walls and doors in pastels fail to depict the appeal a small-town church efuses in and English small village. The little knick knack ribbon shop especially had a very made-up look of a shabby by design, rather than by era boutique, that resembled like one opened in an urban setting, themed upon that age but not belonging to that age. Everyone is raving about this beautiful set, and yes it is sumptuous, but is it original? Not in my opinion… It seemed like as if an event planner rather than a set designer was assigned the project to reproduce an era-inspired chic party or wedding. It definitely suited the current audience because the flair or vintage has gripped the world in more than a decade and including myself. However, I would have liked to experience a bit of shabbiness to the sets, a little worn out charm would have just completed the look!

This little personal disagreement with the aesthetics of the movie still did not waver me from watching it over and over again. I have it in my library and whenever I have half an hour or some time to myslef, I sit down with a cup of tea and turn the movie on. If you have not watched and you are someone who loves that era and Jane Austen, you would love it. Having said that…my most beautiful scene is the dance at the ball hosted by Mr. Weston, when Emma is starting to find out that she is (or has fallen) in love. Maybe it was the emotion, but when I thought about it later, I realized that the set presented more conformity to that era than any other scene in the movie – it had the most original ambience. It reminded me of scattered images of Austen’s book-based movies or any memories I can conjure up from her novels. And of course the many tea scenes!!

Austen’s books are my fond memories and will remain so forever…I am a loyal fan and will watch any movie produced in my lifetime. While we are at the subject: among her other memorable adaptations are Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet – both favorites!!), Mansfield Park and Lady Susan. But the best justice someone who could do to Jane Austen herself is Ann Hathaway in Becoming Jane!! The movie and her character both bring so much charm and joy – I like the movie which is not adapted after a book but after herself.

I do wish Julian Fellowes would undertake the project of filming Austen, Dickens, Bronte, Thackery or Tolstoy because no one can do period drama like he does, but he has clearly mentioned on many occasions that he would not consider a project like this – he does a community service by bringing different, difficult and unique subjects to life, and old, forgotten, not-in-the-limelight authors (Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope).

After I watched Emma, I was itching for something that gave me the satisfaction of the set that belonged to that period. I started Lady Susan which I haven’t watched in a long time. That is a joy in its own!