strange and random happenstance

Wives and Daughters is the most nearly perfect miniseries that exists that I can not watch. Based on Elizabeth Gaskell's unfinished novel of the same name it is a perfect compromise between fans of Austen and the Brontës. Because the world sucks and feels the need to always pit women against each other, for the longest time you had to identify as either an Austen fan or a Brontës fan, you just couldn't be both. Which is bullshit and where Gaskell enters the frame. She's like Austen with politics or the Brontës with more balls. She revels in a happy ending and social satire, much like Austen, but unlike Austen she deals with weightier subjects and, like her friend Charlotte Brontë, is willing to go a bit broody and bleak when the story requires it. In simpler terms, she's totally willing to kill characters that you love and have no regrets about it. Which is why I have such a problem watching this miniseries almost to the point I just can not watch it. Which pains me because I love it so very much. The thing is, I am perfectly comfortable watching Tom Hollander die over and over again. I even once had to watch Tom Hiddleston do the dirty deed. What I can't handle is Michael Gambon's reaction to Tom Hollander's death. Hollander is after all playing Gambon's eldest son. It is, to me, the most accurate portrayal of grief I have ever seen and it just rips open my very soul. Just even thinking about it makes my heart hurt. And this annoys me all the more because I didn't much care for Hollander's character, but he was so beautifully acted and pathetic and poignant. But where there is love, there is pain. And Wives and Daughters is probably the closest Gaskell ever got to writing a straight-up love story. Sure, she does go on about the inter-dynamics of mixing a family, but in the end, it's the love of two characters, Roger and Molly, that makes this perhaps the best miniseries I have ever seen. Even more than Andrew Davies's other beloved adaptation, Pride and Prejudice, this broke and mended my heart a hundred times over and left me nearly satisfied. For some reason Davies decided to focus on the fact that Roger's first love with Molly's stepsister, Cynthia, was more about attraction, whereas the love between Roger and Molly was more a meeting of the minds and companionship and mutual respect. I feel that they are soul mates, and in need of a good snog, thank you very much. True love wins the day, so let the curtain close on a kiss. And right there is why this is only nearly perfect. Because Roger and Molly never kiss. They have their HEA, the times, they are a changing, and yet, there is no true satisfaction. I don't know if this is because Andrew Davies had to create the ending himself. Usually left to his own devices he brings something to a miniseries that otherwise would be lacking, I'm thinking in particular of the songs in Tipping the Velvet, which also starred Keeley Hawes. Here he's so close. The proposal, the rain, the admission of love, and then the lack of a kiss. It just doesn't work. Which is why it's best I don't watch this miniseries. It angers and destroys me in equal measure.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Andrew Davies, Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Jane Austen, Keeley Hawes, Michael Gambon, Pride and Prejudice, Tipping the Velvet, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Hollander, Wives and Daughters

For about six years in the late eighties and early nineties everyone seemed to fall under the mass delusion that Patsy Kensit could act. She was everywhere. I don't know if it's because of her music career with Eighth Wonder or the, to me, completely baffling successful of Absolute Beginners, but she was the "it girl" of the moment. As an aside, if a movie stars David Bowie and I buy it for a dollar at Half Price Books yet am never able to bring myself to finish watching it, that is the definition of a bad movie. In fact Robert Altman takes the piss out of it in the first few minutes of The Player. Now that is a movie worth watching. As for Adam Bede, the only reason I have this on DVD is because it was included in The George Eliot Collection and it was cheaper to buy the whole set than to buy Middlemarch separately, and I needed my Rufus Sewell. I know you know what I'm talking about. When I got the set ironically the first adaptation I watched was Adam Bede because I was in the mood for some Iain Glen. This was long before Game of Thrones and therefore the reason I was mildly obsessed with him was because of Wives and Daughters. You know I really think Mr. Preston and Cynthia could have made a go of it. But that wasn't to be. And ironically Adam Bede is just another Iain Glen doesn't get the girl story. And yes, it's a recurring theme. The only lasting impression I have of that first viewing is thinking how depressing it was. I also remember that I had some disappointment that Patsy Kensit survived. I mean, if she's going to darken my door the least she could do is slump over and expire on the stoop. What annoys me most about her casting is this is peak early nineties casting, Iain Glenn, James Wilby, Susannah Harker, and Alan Cox! Think how good this could have been without her? Especially when the supporting roles are played by Jean Marsh, Julia McKenzie, Freddie Jones, Patsy Byrne, and George Innes. Oh, and George Innes, he is fabulous. Most known for his roles in The Italian Job and Upstairs, Downstairs, he has only one scene where he's in the witness box and he describes the dead child Patsy Kensit's character has left under a bush, and it's just heartbreaking. Even if she wasn't guilty as sin, for being Patsy Kensit AND for abandoning the child James Wilby got her with, I would have convicted her just due to the testimony against her. To have one actor outshine everyone made you realize how pedestrian this adaptation is. It's nothing more than a girl being seduced by the lord of the manor and getting with child, thus destroying the good village boy who truly loved her. AKA Iain Glenn not getting the girl. Again. So therefore I maybe shouldn't lay all the blame on Patsy Kensit? I mean, her casting technically just adds to the peak early nineties vibe... And it's not like this rather pedestrian story could have been improved. At the end of the day her character was transported to Australia and the much nicer girl played by Susannah Harker got the boy. So, win win in the end? Or maybe it was a Pyrrhic victory?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Absolute Beginners, Adam Bede, Alan Cox, David Bowie, DVD, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, George Eliot, George Innes, Iain Glen, James Wilby, Middlemarch, Nineties, Patsy Kensit, Rufus Sewell, Susannah Harker, Wives and Daughters

There are only a handful of miniseries that I allow to be categorized as my favorites. They are sheer perfection and I return to them again and again because I love them so much. Wives and Daughters starring Keeley Hawes, Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth, The Forsyte Saga starring Damian Lewis, and a dozen more, these aren't just seminal to me, they made me who I am. As did Jane Eyre. This adaptation of Jane Eyre starring Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson will forever be the best adaptation of a Bronte book. Period. I came to Jane Eyre's story by such a roundabout route, watching different adaptations over the years on cable while never picking up the book. Ironically my first literary experience of the world created by Charlotte was actually in Jasper Fforde's book The Eyre Affair. I first learned to love Edward Rochester as filtered through another author after first experiencing him through countless adaptations. After all this data from so many different mediums I finally went to the source and fell in love with the book. Here's a fact about me that I promise is relevant to this discussion of Jane Eyre. Before I fell in love with books I loved movies. In fact I remember one TA in college asking why I was studying art and not films. I really didn't have an answer for him, other than I had nebulous thoughts that while I was going to continue making art forever films were more just a form of entertainment for me and I had no interest in really making them. Criticizing them yes... But that's a different career path and actually kind of what I do on this blog... Where I was going with this is that for a long time books needed to be adapted for me to reach their "final iteration." This is actually a hotly debated subject, because books as books are their final form and they don't need a movie or miniseries to make them more real. But there was the old me and the new me and the old me needed to see Jane Eyre on screen. And there was Rochester on screen. THERE HE WAS! It wasn't Maggie Smith's son, it was Rochester. Even the scene where he first meets Jane on that rainy road as I first saw it in my mind in The Eyre Affair was exactly how I pictured it. Now I'm not saying that a perfect adaptation is only perfect for finding one moment and making it exactly as I saw it, I'm just saying, seeing my vision on screen for even a second made me sit up and pay attention and fall in love with this adaptation irrevocably.       

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Adaptation, Brontes, Charlotte Bronte, Fifty Years a Masterpiece, Films, Jane Eyre, Jasper Fforde, Maggie Smith, Miniseries, Pride and Prejudice, Ruth Wilson, The Eyre Affair, Toby Stephens, Wives and Daughters

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Published by: Everyman's Library
Publication Date: 1848
Format: Hardcover, 390 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

"In my research phase, I like to get my hands on anything my characters might have read, both to pick up on the slang and physical details of the day, but also so I know what my characters’ cultural landscape is like. Mary Barton created a huge stir when it came out in 1848, detailing, as it did, the life of the poor in Manchester. My historical heroine scandalizes her staid sister-in-law by reading Mary Barton.

It also provided me with inspiration for the background of my hero, Gavin Thorne, who grew up poor on the streets of Manchester and begged and stole his way to the Royal Academy.

Even after all this time, Mary Barton is still a multi-hanky read. (Or a box of tissues, if we’re being modern about it.)

Of course, you could always just skip straight to North and South…." - Lauren Willig

Mary Barton's life isn't easy. Even before she lost her mother and her unborn sibling, she had lost a brother and her aunt had run off. Mary's life is just her and her father and a few close friends like the Wilsons. The Wilsons have had their fair share of loses as well, if not more then the Bartons. Young Mary works hard at a seamstresses, supplementing her father's income from the mills, and when he's laid off, being the only source of income, and a meagre one at that. Most days the only thought is whether to spend money on food that will barely stave off the hunger, or spend it on opium to take away the pain. But the father and daughter still have reasons to live. John Barton is heavily active in the local unions trying to get fair wages for his fellow workers, while Mary is for a time happily the center of a love triangle, where one of her suitors is the son of a mill owner. But as the times get harder and John is out of work longer and longer, the thought of rivals in love does little to comfort Mary when she realizes she has been playing a fool with other's hearts. Her own heart might just break when a shocking murder happens in Manchester and she might just be the cause of it.

For 19th century women writers you can't do better then Jane Austen and the Brontes. There's a reason why all their books are still classics to this day. Yet sometimes Austen is too perfect with her happily ever afters, which Charlotte Bronte dissed as lacking passion, the feel of blood being pumped through a beating heart. Whereas the Brontes, Emily in particular, could be a bit bleak. That's where Elizabeth Gaskell enters in. When I first read Wives and Daughters I thought to myself how it was such a happy blend of the two extremes of these other popular authors. With Elizabeth Gaskell, the romance of Austen is tempered with the bleakness of the Brontes. What results is a happy, yet realistic, middle. The harshness and horrors of the world aren't covered up or hidden behind lacy curtains while the heroine sits and daintily sips tea in a parlor. Life isn't extremes, it's not all roses and it's not all bleak moors. Elizabeth Gaskell's work feels more relatable, more real by her having the good mixed equally with the bad.

But I was sorely tried when starting Mary Barton to find the balance Gaskell is known for. For much of the book you aren't just inundated with the depressive lives and the horrors of Manchester, you are drowning in it. If, at any time in your life, you're feeling a little too happy and content, pick up Mary Barton and I guarantee that you will be in a nice depressive state in minutes flat. The sorrow of the book is so overwhelming that at times I wondered if I could go on, with the book that is. There's stillbirths, typhus, drug addiction, prostitution, destitution, stalking, murder, starvation, delirium, blindness, strokes, and this is just off the top of my head! Death, death and more death, spiraling ever downward.

But what shocked me is, when you think about it, these struggles are still ongoing. People are still starving, still dying. There are constant arguments about raising the minimum wage, of what to do with the homeless. So many of us live in a bubble that we just don't see. We don't dwell on the starving children because they are easy to forget in our daily lives filled with immaterial concerns. I can't imagine the sensation this book caused in it's day by not sugar coating life. Did this book provide a wake up call for Victorians? Because if it did we sorely need a reminder in this day and age. We need a modern Gaskell or Dickens to come along and shake the tree. You can see why they were friends because they believed in showing the real underbelly of the world that most don't see everyday, if ever. If you do get severely depressed at least it's eyeopening.

But the genius of Gaskell is, despite the fact that she's taking you on a personally guided tour of hell, she weaves in characters and stories of such eloquence and romance that you must keep reading, if just to see if there's a happily ever after. The point in which Mary Barton really connected for me was when the murder was committed. This is referred to in the introduction as the "crisis point" in the book. Before this the book didn't have much plot. We were just wallowing in the filth, sadness, and despair of Manchester life. Yes there's a little love triangle and comings and goings, worries about where the money for dinner was coming from, but nothing that really declared itself to be the spine of the book. The all of a sudden, out of nowhere, murder!

Now I love me a murder mystery, I can't deny that, but here it galvanized the loosely assembled coterie of characters into a driving force that made the last half of the book fly by where previously I had been laboring through it. I was there with Mary as she worried about the accused, as she made herself physically ill hunting down an alibi, as she took to the witness stand resulting in her losing her grip over her mind. I mean, yes, I was somewhat involved in Mary's life previously, but, wow, Gaskell just stepped it up a notch and took a book that I thought would be nothing but me crying and made it something more. She made it a classic worthy of those other authors of her time...

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Bronte, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Lauren Willig, Manchester, Mary Barton, Murder, North and South, That Summer, This Summer, Wives and Daughters

The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton
Published by: Viking Books
Publication Date: 1938
Format: Hardcover, 416 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy (different edition then one reviewed)

Nan doesn't want a governess. Her sister Jinny didn't have to have one, neither did the Elmsworth girls, and the irrepressible Conchita surly never needed one, not that she would have accepted her fate as Nan does. But Nan's mother is convinced that Miss Testvalley will be able to not only help Nan, but get some good British refinement that is lacking in her little American savages and perhaps help as an entree into New York society. But New York society isn't ready for these girls. Conchita makes a match with a third son in a great British family and it gives Miss Testvalley an idea. If New York society is so shocked by these young bloods, why not take them over to England. Give them a season where anything they say or do is unique and alluring compared to the dull English roses the aristocracy is used to.

In no time at all the girls are settled into the highest echelons of the British Isles. Jinny is married to Lord Seadown, the Brightlingsea heir and older brother to Conchita's husband. Both the Elmsworth girls, while not in the peerage, make very advantageous marriages monetarily and politically. While Nan surprises everyone and marries Ushant, the Duke of Tintagel, the wealthiest man in England. Yet Nan isn't happy. It becomes clear that her husband married her not for wealth or even for love, but because she was naive as to what a duke was and wasn't hunting for a title, that and her youth makes her malleable. Though the longer she is married to Ushant, the more she realizes that their marriage is a mistake. This realization has nothing to do with the fact that she is falling in love with the young Guy Thwarte. She would be fine if Guy never knew of her love as long as he was happy and she was free once more.

Back in the days before DVRs and having anything you could possibly imagine to watch just at the flick of a switch, spending the midnight hours surfing the channels always yielded the most interesting results. On channels like A and E, before they became the home of reality programing, you could often find interesting miniseries airing at anytime of day or night. It was on this channel that I first saw Nathaniel Parker deflate a sheep in Far from the Madding Crowd. I'm not sure what channel it was on that I first stumbled across The Buccaneers, but it was definitely in one of these late night surfing sessions. Much like how I caught Louisa May Alcott's The Inheritance in bits a pieces, it wasn't until years later when it was released on DVD that I got to watch the series in all it's glory. The cast alone is a who's who of British and American actors, from the omnipresent James Frain (seriously, he was recently in Grimm, The White Queen and Sleepy Hollow AT THE SAME TIME), to Greg Wise and Michael Kitchen to Mira Sorvino and Connie Booth. This miniseries had it all, including Castle Howard!

At the time I was unaware that the miniseries was based on an incomplete manuscript of Edith Wharton's. I mean, I knew it was Wharton, I just didn't know the she died before she could finish it, much like Elizabeth Gaskell and Wives and Daughters. I do remember stumbling across the "finished" book one day at a used bookstore and picking it up. I mean, seriously, how could I NOT buy it? Firstly, I liked the miniseries, and secondly, well, it had a John Singer Sargeant painting on the cover that happens to belong to the Devonshires. What I didn't know until I was researching the book before I read it was that the miniseries and this specific book have different endings and that both endings are kind of reviled by fans of Wharton. This made me wonder if perhaps I should have read the incomplete manuscript, but then, even knowing that there was no ending, I might get that unexpected sadness that I did when reading Wives and Daughters. Also, having seen the miniseries didn't spoil me for the book. Is the wrong ending maybe acceptable because at least it is an ending? The fact that it ends "happily ever after" is what gets most Wharton fans... it wasn't her style. Edith's MO was more, and everyone is sad, some are dead, there is no striding happily into the sunset. Yet maybe it was this change up that made the book appeal to a wider audience? But what would Wharton herself think? There's a part of me that really wants Martin Scorsese to get his hands on this and come up with a bleaker ending...

The problem with a book with two authors writing the same book more then fifty years apart is the question where does Wharton end and Mainwaring begin? To me, there's a complete seismic shift at the beginning of the third section, wherein Nan hijacks the book as the heroine she was always meant to be. The book definitely falters here because until now the focus of the book had been more egalitarian. Nan taking over, while she is our heroine, is unable to shoulder the narrative much as she is unable to shoulder her duties as a duchess. How can we really connect with someone who doesn't know her own mind or even who she is? While humans are more realistic when faced with internal conflict, her conflict combined with her lack of personality made my growing love of the book falter. How can she love that Guy has this connection to his ancestral home yet not see the same connection in her husband? Is this a flaw of Ushants? Or is it a flaw in Nan? Looking to see where Wharton's writing ceased, it appears to be long after these problems start cropping up in the book. Wharton was just roughing it out and because she herself changed the feel and style of the book Mainwaring was never able to get The Buccaneers to rebound and seemed to be so desirous of tying things up quickly that the book ended abruptly and the reader is left with the sad realization that this could have been a true masterpiece if Wharton had lived.

While the book does have it's problems because of the situation it was put in because of Wharton's death, the overarching theme of the power of art and literature is captivating to me. The character of Miss Testvalley with her connection to both art and literature through her cousin Dante Gabriel Rossetti, breathes life into the book. The characters that are most alive are those with an appreciation of the beauty of the world. In fact, this might be why Nan loves Guy over Ushant, despite them both having this underlying connection and obligation to their ancestral homes, Ushant views his stewardship as an obligation and a duty, not a privilege bound in love. He never appreciates the art for it's beauty and ability to transport you, he views it as part of the house. It is this ability of beyondness that Nan talks about, this transcendence that can be found in art and literature that made me sit up and say yes! You need to look beyond, you need to expand your horizons to make yourself all that you can be. This is not an insular little world we live in, no matter how hard you might try to make it. Go out and read a book, go to a museum, capture some beauty for yourself and you will maybe find a little happiness, because as Wharton shows us, art is life.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Castle Howard, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Downton Denial, Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Gaskell, Grimm, Louisa May Alcott, Miss Testvalley, The Buccaneers, The Inheritance, The White Queen, Wives and Daughters

Elizabeth Gaskell is probably most known among Anglophiles for the BBC's stunning adaptations of her books Wives and Daughters, Cranford and North and South, the later being responsible for the cult of Richard Armitage. She could also be considered the half way point between Jane Austen and the Brontes, being bleak, like the Brontes, but willing to embrace romanticism and love in a way the Brontes never did, seeing as they looked down their noses at the likes of Austen.

Elizabeth Gaskell published Mary Barton anonymously in 1848, though within a year her authorship was widely known. Mary Barton was an immediate success, like her previous venture of a book of poetry with her husband William, a Unitarian minister, Sketches Among the Poor, she dealt with the harsh realities of the Victorian poor. Always an advocate for those without a voice and believing in good works, in early 1850, she wrote to Charles Dickens asking his advice on a young woman she met in prison. While the fate of the young woman is unknown, at least to me, Dickens had praised her work on Mary Barton and invited her to contribute to his magazine, Households Words. Cranford began it's serialization in Households Words the following year, with North and South to follow in 1854.

With the exposure from Dickens's magazine and his help, Elizabeth Gaskell became a popular writer, her Gothic ghost stories being favorites among her readership. While Dickens did help establish Gaskell, whom he referred to as dear Scheherazade, there was a power dynamic between them that lead to constant struggle between the two. From the onset Dickens tried to exert control over Gaskell, making editorial changes to Cranford despite the lack of her approval. He even would deny having gotten letters from her, even though he had, till after the story had gone to press so that his changes would remain. While his main change was to omit the jokes about his own story, The Pickwick Papers, claiming that it seemed like self-aggrandisement, being published in his own magazine, it comes across that perhaps he couldn't take a joke. The reason the reference is funny in Cranford is because everyone knows Dickens and therefore gave the joke a universality!

During the publication of North and South, a title foisted on Gaskell by Dickens, he was also writing of similar material with Hard Times and criticized her story, which he was publishing it must be said, as "wearisome to the last degree." Gaskell herself had a hard time working within the serialized construct of Household Words as well as the technical constraints and time pressure. When her books where eventually published after their serialization, she would often go back in and fix things Dickens had changed and expand on ideas he had made her omit. Their difficult working relationship can be summed up with what Dickens said to his sub editor about Gaskell's work on the magazine as a contributor: "Oh! Mrs Gaskell-fearful-fearful! If I were Mr G. Oh heavens how I would beat her!"

Needless to say, that she eventually moved on from Dickens and her final piece, Wives and Daughters, was serialized through Thackery's magazine, The Cornhill Magazine. This could be considered a slap in the face to Dickens who was occasionally on rancorous terms with Thackeray. Sadly, Gaskell died in 1865 before Wives and Daughters was complete, which was a true lose to literature. For awhile it seemed as though she would disappear into obscurity, but luckily she now ranks as one of the most highly-regarded British Victorian novelists. I'm sure that her connection to Dickens helped, despite their ups and downs. Also, the miniseries didn't hurt any either, mmm, Richard Armitage.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 4 comments  

Labels: Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Cranford, Elizabeth Gaskell, Hard Times, Household Words, Jane Austen, Mary Barton, North and South, Richard Armitage, Thackery, Wives and Daughters

If you're a reader of my blog you're pretty sure in the knowledge of my love of books. Oh, who am I kidding, I'm obsessed with them! You know it, I know it, everyone is assured of this fever that grips me, especially workers at local bookstores. This blog is one of the many ways I express my love of the written word. But there are other ways! Oh yes, dear readers. Now, I'm not talking interpretive dance, which I would be awful at, but art, which I am good at. Some of you who've gotten to know me better through this lovely thing called the internet know that this blog is just my little side project, my little bit of fun, while what I really do is Graphic Design. After slogging through the University of Wisconsin-Madison and getting out with a BS in Art and a BA in Theatre, I realized that I didn't actually have any marketable skills, what with not knowing how to work a computer. Hence I went back to school at our wonderful technical college and now I have some wicked skills and some outlets for my bookishness. I don't always make my projects about books, it sometimes just happens, just like you just happen to breath. Books are in my blood and I need to express this, and what better way then through art.

As it turns out, my weird book obsession has paid off. Every year the design community gets together and has a big awards show, it's called the Addys, and it's the closest thing we've got to the Oscars, but sadly no Colin Firth. You submit your work and are judged. You are awarded either a Silver or a Gold medal, there is no 3rd best. There are three tiers to the competition, local, regional and national. The local is today! And I've WON! I've won five times and I am over the moon. The pieces are here before you, and yes, they all have a book theme, as I'm sure you've guessed. The piece above is about the wonders of reading and is a Public Service Announcement that would be targeted to entertainment magazines that would encourage parents to read to their kids versus letting the television do it for them. This would be the first in a series of books that were also made into famous movies... I think after The Wizard of Oz, it might be time to show a little love for Alice in Wonderland.

This piece here is a glamour spread for an annual report. Annual reports are sent out by a company to their investors to show how they've done in the previous fiscal year. There's charts and graphs and what have you. I chose to do mine on Penguin Publishing, surprise, surprise. I also got the comment from my teacher that he would never let me near any of his copies of Charles Dickens because of what I did to mine, aka, the little penguin on the page. But let me ease your fears, I did not deface a book that could have been read. I went to my local bookstore and searched through old penguin books, because it just HAD to be a penguin book. I found an old copy of David Copperfield that was barely held together any longer, the pages were falling out. But falling out pages was just what I needed! So rest assured, I took a book and gave it new life, I did not murder it!

What I am most proud of, though, is my series of Elizabeth Gaskell DVDs. My teacher is a huge movie fan, and a fan of the movies The Criterion Collection releases. For our final project, we had to choose three related movies and make DVD covers for all three, be it director based or theme based. The thing with The Criterion Collection is that they mainly do off beat or foreign films, in other words, something that is not the typical release. I chose the three awesome miniseries that the BBC has done of Elizabeth Gaskell's books, Wives and Daughters, North and South and Cranford, and not just because getting to rewatch them counted as homework, though that was quite nice, but because I hated these DVDs original packaging too. I wanted to harken back to the old style of Masterpiece Theatre posters that had the elegance of the time period as well as many little things that only those who've read the books or watched the miniseries would pick up on. Utilizing Illustrator, I did all the drawings myself in my trusty computer. For this cover, I have Cynthia, as played by the wonderful Keeley Hawes, the queen bee of the narrative... I mean at one time she's juggling four different suitors! The quote on the back says: "No come on, you can’t go trying to match her eyes like a draper." The remainder of the quote is that Cynthia is Roger's lodestone, hence, I have named this illustration, The Lodestone.
 
For my second piece I have Margaret Hale as played by Daniela Denby-Ashe. As you can see, she has just suffered an injury at the hands of the strikers and holds a newspaper, which details, not only the strike, but the threat of Irish workers and the love of the home she left behind. The background is of cotton, because when she first enters Thronton's Marlborough Mills she says: "I believe I have seen hell and it’s white. It’s snow-white." Not only did this piece win an award as part of the DVD set, the illustration of Margaret also won a separate award. And not to slight Cynthia, this is my favorite of the three.

For my final piece I have Cranford depicted as Miss Deborah Jenkyns as played by the wondrous Eileen Atkins. I don't think I captured her as well in the face as the others because you don't immediately think that it's her. Though I do love how it turned out, in particular the lace (which kept crashing my computer), because "this is no occasion for a sport!There’s lace at stake!" This also won an award as a separate illustration.
 
So there you go! A little look into how my mind works. I should say how my bookworm infested mind works. But all in all, it should be a fun night out! My friends also won awards and I have a nifty new dress, think Edwardian Downton meets just the slightest hint of flapper. Because a period-esque dress was a must.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Addys, Cranford, Criterion Collection, Daniela Denby-Ashe, Eileen Atkins, Elizabeth Gaskell, John Thornton, Keeley Hawes, Margaret Hale, North and South, Penguin, Wives and Daughters, Wizard of Oz

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Masterpiece, no longer, but still thought of as Theatre. Masterpiece Theatre brought the best of British Broadcasting and period dramas to the United States, long before technology allowed us to have easy access to, what I view, as the best television in the world. Today, over at The Daily Beast, Jace Lacob is talking about those shows polled as the best, Upstairs Downstairs, Prime Suspect, Downton Abbey, Bleak House, Sherlock, Jeeves and Wooster, Cranford, The Politician's Wife, The Forsyte Saga, House of Cards, Our Mutual Friend and Traffik. I of course, happened to notice, that this did not actually coincide with the poll which I eagerly watched when Derek Jacobi counted it down, not least of all cause some of these shows came way after the poll and were inserted to show their continuing excellence. Because I voted in this poll and, probably ended up being the one who rigged The Forsyte Saga into winning second place, I want to set the record straight. I also want to say a few things about these beloved shows, but first a little Masterpiece rant. PBS used to be the only place that showcased these fine shows, that is no longer the case. From BBC America to cable channels willing to spotlight British Broadcasting, the American love of all things British has never dwindled, yet PBS has. They now edit shows for content and time, Downton Abbey being a case in point. Instead of having the show naturally develop over seven weeks they hacked and slashed it to make it four episodes. No matter if these are "improvements" according to them. This show was written in 45 minute arcs, no more, no less. PBS has become a joke. In a day and age when technology makes these show available sooner and other outlets are moving with the times they need to step it up. BBC America has same day airing of Doctor Who but we have to wait YEARS for shows to make it to PBS. They have become lazy and all the greatness of these shows is due to the BBC, not Rebecca Eaton, who is hanging onto their coattails trying to make it look like she has made a contribution. They may show the best, but it's a paired down best that lacks the greatness of Russell Baker and instead relies on "star value" to sell these shows with little quippy intros of no depth or historical bearing, this doesn't apply to you Alan Cumming, I love you. But enough about my rant, which doesn't even touch on the fact the old Mystery intro needs to be brought back... here are the top twelve shows as counted down by Derek Jacobi, not inaccurately reported by Jace Lacob.

12) Jeeves and Wooster: Sheer brilliance. Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry were MADE to play these roles.

11) Wives and Daughters: One of my favorite miniseries ever. There is just one flaw, in that Roger and Molly don't have a romantic kiss... but I'll overlook that, most of the time. Andrew Davies is a genius and this is even better than Pride and Prejudice. Yep, you heard me right! Better than P and P, yes, Michael Gambon, take that victory lap.

10) Moll Flanders: Alex Kingston is awesome in the fun frolicking romp, too band the really bad music detracts from the awesome. Also Daniel Craig in a long flowing wig, so funny.

9) Reckless: I admit, I haven't watched it all, because my DVR messed up, but what I saw was really great, how could it not be with this cast? Francesca Annis, Robson Green and Michael Kitchen!

8) House of Cards: You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment.

7) Poldark: Cornwall and shipwrecks!

6) Jewel in the Crown: After Brideshead, this set the standard for what could be done with period drama willing to move outside the studio.

5) Prime Suspect: What made Helen Mirren a star, and rightfully so. Also, the first instance of PBS editing for content. The first of the slippery slope.

4) Bleak House: Which I have made my peace with. I will no longer be bashing it, yes it is awesome, as long as you don't watch the last episode. I mean WTF! It's dark, it's atmospheric and then, happy ever after garden party time.

3) I, Claudius: Not really my thing, but made some many stars.

2) The Forsyte Saga: The best miniseries ever hands down. It's almost too painful to watch with it's raw emotions and superb acting. Just be prepared to cry. A lot.

1) Upstairs, Downstairs: The standard. What BBC television is, was and shall ever be. If you haven't ever watched it, I feel sad for your pathetic little lives.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 5:00 PM 6 comments  

Labels: 40th Anniversary, Bleak House, Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, House of Cards, Jeeves and Wooster, Masterpiece Theater, Moll Flanders, Poldark, The Forsyte Saga, Upstairs Downstairs, Wives and Daughters