Paula Byrne: evaluation

Transcript context

…You recommend a movie, Patricia Rozema’s version of Mansfield Park, which is now in my to-watch list. Why is that more interesting and vital than most other Austen adaptations? I think at the time — it was quite a while ago I saw it, and it did feel very refreshing because it really engaged with the politics. It engaged with the slave trade. I think it revealed Fanny as more spirited. It’s not a faithful adaptation, put it that way. I know it really did divide people. At the time, I was like, “It’s really fun, it’s really risqué, and it’s fresh.” But then I saw it again recently, and I was a little disappointed. I was like, “Oh, it’s not as brilliant.” You know how you go back to a film that you love and you think, “Oh, that’s so great,” and you go back and you’re like, “Eh”? I don’t think anybody has really got Mansfield Park right, but there was something very new and fresh and vivid about the way that she filmed it as well. Filmically, it’s really interesting. I really liked her depiction of Tom Bertram, the wayward son, and his engagement with the slave trade. I really liked the way Harold Pinter — because Harold Pinter played Sir Thomas. He was a bully, which I’ve always felt that Sir Thomas is a bully. She took lots of risks. Ultimately, she doesn’t get Fanny right. I just felt at the time, keep it fresh, keep it relevant. We don’t have to be so faithful, and we don’t have to be all frocks and smocks in big houses. Every Jane Austen adaptation, the house is way bigger than what it would have been. She’s not interested in aristocrats. She’s interested in gentility. They’ve always got it wrong. The films I like — I love Clueless. Clueless is the best adaptation because it’s so funny. She just gets the funniness. That’s the really important thing. Clueless is so great. That has never lost its charm for me. Your book on Evelyn Waugh, the phrase pops up, and I quote, “naturally fastidious.” Why can it be said that so many British people are naturally fastidious?…

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