Emma Goes Hollywood
Between 1970 and 1986, seven feature-length films or television miniseries, all British, were produced based on Jane Austen novels; in the years 1995 and 1996, however, sex additional adaptations appeared, half of them originating in Hollywood. The concerns at the center of Jane Austen's plots - sex, romance, and money - play a large part in the adaptability of Jane Austen's work into film. The details of developing love and the constraints of limited finances provide difficulties that lend her storylines interest for the 1990's reader of sufficient maturity. This paper will examine two very different adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma, comparing the satirical dimensions achieved in each in relation to the novel. The first adaptation is Douglas McGrath's 1996 film entitled Emma, with Gwyneth Paltrow playing Emma, and the second is Amy Heckerling's version, Clueless, starring Alicia Silverstone as the Austen counterpart to Emma in Cher Horawitz. On it's most obvious level, Austen's Emma is a witty satire whose chief target is snobbery and a romantic story of matchmaking. It features they usual Austen suspects - in this novel it is the vulgar Eltons who are ridiculed for their sense of superiority, while
also taking a deeper risk of investing its own heroine with seriously problematic attitudes toward class. One of the most important lessons Emma must learn in the novel is the error of her own false sense of class superiority. Both McGrath and Heckerling's versions take full advantage of Austen's slippery text, reinforcing the ideology of class structure on which modern society relies. McGrath's Emma attacks class notions through humor of a different order from Austen's. His film appears to make light the class notions for these folks, and emphasizes this point with sight gags. When Harriet visits the poor with Emma, the visit degenerates into a comical episode, with Harriet knocking over baskets. Knightley's explanation of wanting to stay "here where it's cozy" paired with a screen shot of an enormous manor is McGrath's way of seemingly making a joke of hierarchies of Highbury life. Little effort is made to communicate the pressures of rank on an interpersonal level. This lack of explanation of rank makes Emma's errors appear as silliness and foolish snobbery. In contrast, Amy Heckerling's rendition actually achieves a satirical edge that brings it much closer to the spirit of Austen's novel. Heckerling cut free from her source so completely that most people who saw the film did not recognize it as a 1990's reinvention of Emma. Although the only overt reference to Austen's original is the use of one single character's name, Elton, Clueless takes both the characters and plot almost directly from Austen, while simultaneously transforming Austen's world so thoroughly that it achieves a satire perfectly attuned to modern times. Despite the fact that the name is different, Clueless comes much closer to a straight remake of Austen's Emma than any other versions available. The general setting of Beverly Hills, as well as the specific setting of a public high school, offers rich opportunities for class based satire. The target of the Beverly Hills setting seems to be conspicuous consumption, in which all the characters seem to live in mansions and own expensive cars, whether they have a driver's license or not. Heckerling's sa
Some common words found in the essay are:
Austen's Emma, Cher Loadies, McGrath's Emma, Beverly Hills, Amy Heckerling's, Tai Don't, Hughes Clueless, Jane Austen's, Overall Heckerling's, Elton Clueless, austen's emma, jane austen's, version emma, austen's film, class notions, heckerling's version, amy heckerling's, film appears, heckerling's rendition, class lines,
Approximate Word count = 1450
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
