“We wanted to capture [Jane Austen’s] spirit of play,” screenwriter Alice Winslow explains of Persuasion’s meme-ready Gen Z speak. “It was a way of capturing her sensibility in a new way while also bringing modern audiences in a little more.”
In “Persuasion,” a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s final novel made for Netflix, protagonist Anne Elliot speaks directly to the camera, addressing the audience like an old friend. As she muses on her relationship with former flame Capt. Frederick Wentworth, Anne bemoans that they are now “worse than exes, we’re friends.” Austen, of course, didn’t write that in her 1817 novel, but the sentiment resonates with the sense of longing the English author evoked.
“The film is set pretty faithfully in the sumptuous Regency period, but the physical behaviors, attitudes and elements of the aesthetic also lean towards now,” Cracknell notes. “We have simplified some of the lines, and taken away some of the fuss of period trimmings, to make the characters and the worlds feel more alive and accessible.”The goal of these noticeable changes is to welcome a fresh batch of viewers into Austen’s world.
“We’re all big fans of the book and pretty reverent to it in the ways we could be,” Winslow adds. “We tried to make sure we were capturing the sensibility in all moments, even when some of the language changed.… I’m really hopeful that when people watch it, they’ll see how much love for the material is actually within the film.
“I felt like it was a way of giving Anne agency as a character because part of agency is being able to tell your own story [and] being in control of your narrative,” Winslow notes.
The screenwriters also modernized some of the descriptive cues in the script, occasionally referencing contemporary ideas or people. For Kellynch Hall, majestic home of the Elliot family, the script noted that a particular wall, as Winslow describes it, “looks like Justin Bieber’s Instagram account if it were 1812 and the Regency oil painting filter were on.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Persuasion makes a solid case for updating Jane Austen's classic worksCarrie Cracknell's skillful Netflix adaptation masterfully captures the subversive wit and charm of Austen’s strident heroine
Read more »
The Many Disastrous Ways Netflix’s Persuasion Changes Jane Austen’s Novel to Make It More “Millennial”The movie turns one of Regency literature’s most complex heroines into a Manic Pixie Dream Spinster.
Read more »
Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’ is having a moment. It’s about time.“Persuasion” — Jane Austen’s long-overlooked and underappreciated final novel about a regretful almost-spinster — is suddenly having a moment. It's about time.
Read more »
A Modernized ‘Persuasion’ Isn’t Very ConvincingDespite Dakota Johnson’s best efforts, ‘Persuasion’ is a flimsy spin on the classic novel.
Read more »