Movie/music Monday
It’s funny that this prompt comes up today. I just spent the weekend watching a miniseries and a movie set in England, and while the prompt is past tense, as in we have already traveled because of a movie or book, I would love to travel there in the future. Of course, I’ll have to get a passport first, which, I may need to get before any travel plans given the current political climate in my country. Passports prove citizenship and that’s all I’ll say about that.
The miniseries and movie that I’m talking about of course is, “Pride and Prejudice”. During a recent team building activity at work, we all had to say what hill we are willing to die on. My supervisor said her hill is that the 2005 version of “Pride and Prejudice” is superior to the 1995 Colin Firth miniseries. She said it was superior despite the lake scene with Colin Firth. This weekend, I watched both versions. And I can say with 100% confidence…she is WRONG! Now, the only caveat I will make is that in the 2005 version, the scene at the end when Mr. Darcy is walking across the field toward Elizabeth in the early morning light and his shirt is unbottoned and his coat is all flowy, and then he gets to her and the whole line he says, “you bewitched me body and soul”….that is greater than the Colin Firth lake/wet shirt scene, which let me just say, I wasn’t all that impressed by. I was hoping for him to come walking out of the water with his shirt clinging to his chest. Not so. So, I will give credit where it’s due for that 2005 Mr. Darcy scene. However, the movie did NOT alter the grey matter in my brain as someone on Threads claimed it would. And honestly, the Colin Firth version didn’t either, but I really did much prefer it. Given that it was a series of 6 one-hour episodes, it was so much more faithful to the book and really, it was much better cast and the characters were played much better than the ones in the 2005 version. I did prefer Dame Judy Dench as Lady Catherine in that version though.
So, all in all, I enjoyed my “Pride and Prejudice” weekend. Each version gave very different scenery for England. Of course, I’m assuming it was actually filmed there. And obviously it doesn’t look like that in 2026, but I would still love to visit the country. Truthfully I’d love to visit any country in Europe. Stanley Tucci’s show and videos on Instagram have made me want to visit Italy if for no other reason than to eat as much food there as possible. I can’t say that I’ve heard anything spectacular about the food in England, but there’s other things to do and see there I’m sure. I mean, after all, Ted Lasso was filmed there, that’s reason enough to want to go.
Also, if anyone is wondering, the next book I started reading is My Life as a Furry Red Monster by Kevin Clash. The subtitle is: “What being Elmo has taught me about life, love, and laughing out loud.” Kevin Clash is the guy who was the puppeteer and voice of Elmo for a really long time. He published this book in 2006 and it’s been on my shelf since then. It’s certainly been a while. I’m not too far in, but I may not finish it. It’s hard to read it knowing why he is no longer Elmo. The shorthand reason is that he was charged with sex crimes against teenage boys. The cases against him were dismissed, but not because he was innocent or there was no evidence or anything that cleared him of wrong-doing. They were dismissed because the statute of limitations had been reached so they had to be thrown out. Obviously he’s not going to talk about that in a book where he intertwines stories about his personal life with stories from his career playing Elmo. It’s a fairly short book and the fact that I bought it before the charges came out against him makes me feel somewhat o.k. about reading it. After this one, I’ve got my other Tom Perrotta book lined up. F’ing Tom Perrotta. Let’s see if he can redeem himself in the book I have. I’m not so sure.
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