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Persuasion : Complete BBC Adaptation [1995]
from 2 Entertain Video
starring Amanda Root, Ciarán Hinds, Susan Fleetwood, Corin Redgrave, Fiona Shaw
directed by Roger Michell

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

After a slow beginning, in which the complex tangle of relationships is initially confusing, this BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's last novel, Persuasion, develops into an elegant romantic comedy. Austin combines a subtle dissection of the folly of class with a slow-burning, intensely passionate love story. Anne Elliot (Amanda Root) has loved Captain Wentworth (Ciaran Hinds) ever since she was persuaded to reject him years before. Now he has returned from the Napoleonic wars, but will love be allowed to blossom? Especially when Anne is surrounded by the selfish, petty-minded Mary, misguided by Lady Russell, and burdened by a father obsessed with fairness of countenance above all other considerations. Excepting a basic booklet, on-screen character biographies and a Dolby Digital soundtrack, there is nothing to distinguish this DVD from the video version. The picture is very good, but showing some grain, not exceptional, so unless you have a large television there is little advantage over tape. In any format, what makes this adaptation work is the sharp screenplay by Nick Dear and the naturalistic style of director Roger Mitchell (who joined the A-list with Notting Hill, 1999), together eliciting fine performances from the ensemble cast. Less flamboyant than Pride and Prejudice (1995), this is a civilised treat. --Gary S Dalkin

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

• Utterly Lovely
  Persuasion is my favourite book and this adaptation does it justice. The tone of the film matches the tone of the book: whistful. Anne is beautifully portrayed by Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds is wonderful as the charismatic Captain Wentworth. It's far subtler than the more recent ITV adaptation, and because of that all the more beautiful. Scenes in this film would melt the hardest of hearts, yet it is still funny. The perfect comfort film.

• Brilliant sensitive version
  I read the reviews and picked this version and have to add my voice to the others! This is brilliantly cast - with an Anne who looks like her bloom has gone, but you can watch her magically blossom as she becomes more hopeful of regaining her lost love! The acting is excellent, although Elizabeth and father are rather overblown, but the book clearly hints that they are. All in all they have taken the mood and meaning of the book and subtly used their cinematic skills to interpret it very effectively, so all... more info

• The best by far
  This is absolutely my favourite T.V. adaptation of a Jane Austin novel. It is a real treat to watch from beginning to end: the whole thing is so well cast that every scene and every character have a charm of their own.

• Comfort food for nostalgics that is well cast and crafted
  Persuasion (1818) is often thought of as Jane Austen's most 'romantic' novel. Yet Austen's philosophy of love and romance might be quite different to what we understand as romantic today. She repeatedly counselled against a flighty over-indulgence of emotions (e.g. the characters of Marianne in Sense and Sensibility and Lydia in Pride and Prejudice), blessing her heroines with the prudence of rational love and controlled romanticism. Austen astutely recognised that women in the Georgian period, forbidden by... more info

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