Dom Robinson reviews
Jane Austen's Persuasion
Distributed by
Producer:
Screenplay:
Music:
Cast:
Anne Elliot: Amanda Root (The Man Who Cried)
Captain Wentworth: Ciaran Hinds (The Man Who Cried, Oscar and Lucinda, Titanic Town, TV: Ivanhoe, Jane Eyre, Prime Suspect 3, Young Person's Guide To Becoming a Rock Star)
Lady Russell: Susan Fleetwood (Heat and Dust, The Krays, TV: The Buddha of Suburbia)
Sir Walter Elliot: Corin Redgrave (Four Weddings and a Funeral, TV: The Ice House, Ultraviolet)
Mrs Croft: Fiona Shaw (The Butcher Boy, London Kills Me, Three Men and a Little Lady, Undercover Blues)
The First Doctor (original): William Hartnell (Brighton Rock, Carry On Sergeant, Private's Progress, The Way Ahead, Will Any Gentlemen?)
Jane Austen's Persuasion
is a love story gone wrong. Over seven years ago it wasn't her head that ruled the heart
of Anne Elliot (Amanda Root), but the heads of others who persuaded her not to
accept the proposal of marriage from Captain Wentworth (Ciaran Hinds).
Now, after all this time, he has returned from his time at sea one of the most eligible
batchelors around, but it's up to her to persuade him that they should be together, despite
all the misunderstandings and the etiquette of social arrangements of the era getting in
the way. Of course, you know how it will end because you can see the result on the front
cover, which is different to the original choice seen above.
The picture quality is rather a disappointment. Yes it's watchable and it's not the
occasional flecks on the print that are the problem, but it's one that could have so
easily been resolved: The ratio on the disc is 14:9, but like all major BBC dramas filmed
in the last few years, they were shot at the 16:9 widescreen ratio much associated with
digital television but when transferred to video or broadcast on analogue TV, they are
often compromised with this 14:9 halfway-house ratio which is a central crop of the original
16:9 ratio. The average bitrate is a fine 5.37Mb/s.
The sound quality is fine. I have no complaints with the surround soundtrack but it's
mainly used for ambience and a few directional effects and won't have the neighbours
banging on the walls.
Extras :
Chapters :
There are 18 chapters covering the 102-minute film, which covers most scenes but I never
say no to more.
Languages & Subtitles :
The dialogue comes in English Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround) with subtitles for
the same.
Biograhpies :
Slightly different to what one normally expects from this section. Instead of biogs about
the cast, they're actually about the characters which makes for a novel departure.
Booklet :
The enclosed booklet contains four pages of info about Jane Austen and this film
along with a few pictures.
Menu :
A static and silent menu, featuring a picture of the two leads and options to toggle
subtitles on/off, select a scene, play the film or return to it having come back to the
menu partway through.
Overall :
To put an anamorphic 16:9 print on video or DVD would have required more expense, including
that of getting the film re-rated by the BBFC and sorting out an anamorphic version, but it
would've looked so much better. As it stands, it is watchable as I said, but the loss of
picture won't attract DVD-philes and those who usually buy videos will already have it so
it's difficult to see who will clamour to buy this on DVD.
Jane Austen isn't usually my cup of tea and whatever your thoughts on her works,
Persuasion will not change your mind. Due to the widescreen ratio, this particular
disc is only worth considering if you watch the video so often that it's wearing out and
are in need of a more durable medium.
The other titles now available are Monty Python: Best of Vol.1, The Black
Adder Series 1, Noddy In Toyland, Persuasion and coming in January 2000,
The Planets.
Scheduled for Spring next year are :
Monty Python: Best of Vol.2, Gormenghast, Walking with Dinosaurs and,
of course, Black Adder II.
As for which DVDs I'd like to see from the BBC in future. They include :
Red Dwarf (in their original versions, not the remastered form),
The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, Fawlty Towers and, depending
on whether I could bribe the new DG with enough cash, Eldorado...
FILM : **
PICTURE QUALITY : ***
SOUND QUALITY : ***
EXTRAS : *½
-------------------------------
OVERALL : **½
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
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