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Miss Austen Regrets (BBC) [2008]
from 2 Entertain Video
starring Olivia Williams, Greta Scacchi, Hugh Bonneville, Jack Huston

Features:

• Colour
• PAL

Editorial Review:

A BBC costume drama that focuses in on author Jane Austen as she heads towards her 40s, Miss Austen Regrets is a fine piece of television, grounded by a terrific performance from Olivia Williams (best remembered still for her supporting role in The Sixth Sense).

Miss Austen Regrets finds the title character at a point where her writing career has already proved to be a success. However, there’s the small matter of romance, which throws up a key paradox: given that Austen’s books deal with the matter so well, how has she failed to properly address it in her personal life?

It’s an interesting dynamic for a drama, and it works particularly well. Miss Austen Regrets finds her considering some of her past choices, and whether she’s made the right choices along the way. And buoyed by the aforementioned Williams and Imogene Poots as her young niece, it makes for highly enjoyable and rewarding television.

Miss Austen Regrets sits happily alongside the recent film Becoming Jane as an interesting and well-measured dig into the author’s life. And with good production values matched by a fine cast, it proves worthy not just as a fine drama, but the kind that’ll be enjoyed time after time. Recommended. --Jon Foster

Olivia Williams, Greta Scacchi and Hugh Bonneville lead an all-star cast in BBC One’s feature-length period drama Miss Austen Regrets.

Beautifully shot and graced with a splendid performance by Olivia Williams, this Jane Austen biopic focuses on a relatively narrow window in the author’s life, serving as something of a companion to Becoming Jane, the 2007 film about a young Austen starring Anne Hathaway.

This drama depicts a passionate and emotional chapter of Jane Austen’s romantic life, inspired by the great writer’s own novels, letters and diaries.

As Jane Austen approaches her 40s, her success as a writer is assured and her witty and sharply observed romantic novels are widely admired. To her niece, Fanny Knight – a young, pretty girl desperate to fall in love – Jane is a favourite aunt who offers the wisdom and knowledge to help her in her own search for a happy marriage.

Yet, when asked by Fanny to help her vet potential husbands, Jane's usual confident composure is threatened. Surely the woman so capable of writing love on the page must have experienced love herself, so why did she never marry?

Protected by her wit, Jane has presented a front as dazzling as many of her novels' young heroines, but as she reflects on her own romantic encounters and affairs, we are drawn into the passions, suitors and choices of her life – the cruel flirting, the proposals spurned and the love that seemed to arrive too late.

As she recalls missed opportunities, the doubts arise. Did she make the right choice for herself and her family? Could the great romantic expert have been mistaken? And, could her principles about love and marriage possibly have been ill-judged?

Starring:
Jane Austen - Olivia Williams
Fanny Austen-Knight - Imogene Poots
Cassandra - Greta Scacchi
Harris Bigg - Samuel Roukin
Rev. Brook Bridges - Hugh Bonneville
Charles Haden - Jack Huston

Written by Gwyneth Hughes. Directed by Jeremy Lovering. Produced by Anne Pivcevic and Jamie Laurenson.

A passionate and emotional story of Jane Austen’s romantic life, inspired by the great writer’s own novels, letters and diaries. As Jane Austen approaches her forties, her success as a writer is assured and her witty and sharply observed romantic novels are widely admired. To her niece, Fanny Knight – a young, pretty girl desperate to fall in love – Jane is a favourite aunt who offers the wisdom and knowledge to help her in her own search for a happy marriage. Yet, when asked by Fanny to help her vet potential husbands, Jane's usual confident composure is threatened. Surely the woman so capable of writing love on the page must have experienced love herself, so why did she never marry?
Protected by her wit, Jane has presented a front as dazzling as many of her novels' young heroines, but as she reflects on her own romantic encounters and affairs, we are drawn into the passions, suitors and choices of her life – the cruel flirting, the proposals spurned and the love that seemed to arrive too late. As she recalls missed opportunities, the doubts arise. Did she make the right choice for herself and her family? Could the great romantic expert have been mistaken? And, could her principles about love and marriage possibly have been ill-judged?

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• "Fanny, listen to your own heart now --"
  This production was a genuine surprise. As a biopic of the later years of Jane Austen's life as she approaches 40 and of her niece Fanny as she approaches marriage, it doesn't always stick to (what is assumed to be) the truth and allows itself a rather obvious dig at 'Becoming Jane'. Yet it is a much more intelligent work than that overblown and toe-curling biographical portrait. Refreshingly, it centres on the female relationships in Austen's life (although there is of course a lot of talking about men and... more info

• Too sick to marry?
  This excellent and entertaining film unfortunately misses out a lot of medical evidence that could explain why Jane chose not to marry. She was a late child, being 4 weeks overdue, and would have been frail and ill in the first weeks of life, her christening in church being delayed for almost 4 months. Postmaturity can lead to immune deficiency in later life and at the age of Jane developed chronic conjunctivitis which recurred throughout her life. In 1813 she began to suffer from neuralgia, an extremely... more info

• The closest to the real Jane and the best biopic... so far
  Any kind of dramatisation of Jane Austen's life is going to be a tough nut to crack. Enigmatic with almost no first hand descriptions of her or her personality and not even an official portrait so that no one knows for sure what she actually looked like (you think you do know, but the image you have of Austen in your mind is almost certainly the product of a victorian artist's imagination) Austen's uneventful life is not exactly the stuff that dramas are usually made of.
  This production makes an... more info

• Austen - the pain behind her words
  JANE AUSTEN REGRETS is the latest period drama offering from the BBC. As a fan of period drama, and some of Austen's novels, I thought this would be an interesting insight into the lady behind the words.
  JANE AUSTEN REGRETS shows us Jane during a relatively small period in her life, as she is approaching 40 and is still unmarried. Jane's niece, Fanny Kinght, who is young, beautiful and eager to fall in love, cannot beleieve that Jane would be able to write novels such as "Pride and Predjudice" without... more info

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