Posted by jj on August 17, 1997 at 22:50:14:
In reply to Re: I've got Emma3! giggling yet? posted by greg on August 17, 1997 at 01:37:23
] are you finding laughs in e3, jj? i found it incredibly funny, and more so with repeated viewings, but in exactly the same way that i find ja's novels funny. ...
] speaking of real life funny, when i bought e3 at the video store, the kid who rang it up wanted to make sure i knew i wasn't buying e2, so he innocently said, "you're aware this is the documentary version, right?". "oh yes", i replied!
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DOCUMENTARY version? Were you able to reply to that with a straight face??? LOL!!
To answer your question, yes, I did find parts of Emma3 amusing. Mr. Woodhouse's obsession with his and everyone's health, most of Mrs. Elton's comments, the episode where Mr. Woodhouse debates the wisdom of eating eggs. I think you're right in that these are everday, unplanned occurances that just happen to be funny. I thought Emma3's Miss Bates was exactly the way Jane Austen described her, although Sophie Thompson was quite hilarious in Emma2. My main disappointment with Emma3 was that, in trying to cram as much of the book as possible into 2 hours, many of the scenes were too short and confusing and the story jumped around so much I had trouble keeping track of where the scenes were occurring. If Emma3 had been made into a longer adaptation, as P&P was, it would have been MUCH more satisfying. I'm surprised that they didn't do a longer version, since P&P had proved there was an avid (rabid?) audience for faithful Jane Austin adaptations, no matter the length.