Persuasion (1995 film)
Encyclopedia
Producer Fiona Finlay had for several years been interested in making a film based on the novel Persuasion
, and approached screenwriter Nick Dear
about adapting it for television. Dear however stated his preference to work on either Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice, two other productions then occurring, instead; he agreed to work on Persuasion after reading the novel, as he considered it to be a much more mature work than the others. Dear spent the next two following years working on a script.
As a young child, English director Roger Michell
was a big admirer of Jane Austen
, which set him apart from the other boys in school. "I was the only boy in my class who took Austen as a special paper," he has said. Michell explained that Persuasion attracted him because he believed it to be Austen's most emotional and poignant novel, as well as her most autobiographical. Previously a theater and serial director, Michell was chosen to direct Persuasion, in what was to be his first feature film.
Michell attempted to be as faithful to the novel as possible, in particular avoiding what he felt was the "glossy, artificial feel" of other 19th century depictions. Michell explained, "I was desperately trying to make it feel like it could be happening in the next room. I tried to make it something which is absolutely about real people and not about dressing or hairstyles or carpet." Consequently, because he felt the realistic look of the age would make the film more dramatic, Michell chose to depict the actors without make up, and disallowed them from looking too hygienic. English actress Amanda Root
, who played Anne Elliot
, commented about the film's natural look in an interview, "I basically didn't wear any makeup [in the movie], and my hair was obviously set in a very unflattering way. That was it, really. I suppose the lighting was quite harsh, as well. None of us looked good". She continued in a separate interview, "[Michell] didn't want the picture-postcard look, really. And I wanted to make Anne Elliot a somewhat plain woman who was not really miserable but had found a way to be content somehow, and yet emotions are buzzing around her all the time". Root believes the film's realistic depiction of the age is a key aspect of the film's appeal.
The shooting of Persuasion coincided with a sudden resurgence of Jane Austen
adaptations. The last feature film made for theatrical release that was based on an Austen novel was 1940's Pride and Prejudice
. Director Michell described the author's sudden popularity, "It's not a fever but a typhus in the U.K. at the moment". The BBC provided more production funding in its adaptations of the 1990s, and Persuasion consequently benefited, allowed the film to be shot at on-site locations like Lyme
, Bath, and in the southeastern English countryside. Persuasion was initially budgeted as a BBC Two
production at £750,000, but received further funding after it was made a co-production with WGBH Boston
for theatrical release in the United States. Persuasion thus inadvertently became Roger Michell and Nick Dear's first feature film. French company Millesime also co-produced the film in exchange for airing it on television in France. As a result of this additional funding, it was shot on 35 mm film
, and its funding was increased to £1,000,000. Mobil Oil Corporation, as a sponsor of Masterpiece Theatre
, also contributed to the film. WGBH gave the BBC detailed notes, which were then integrated into the script, while Millesime was unhappy with certain aspects of the story, for instance wanting the entire Lyme sequence removed because they considered it "too boring".
, was played by English actress Amanda Root
in her theatrical film debut. By her own admission, "every actress in England" read for the part; having worked with the director previously, Root won the role by writing a letter to him to gain an audition. The American production company had wanted a better known actress for the part, but agreed to Root's casting after seeing her screen test. On her character's appearance, Root explained that "If you feel unhappy inside, you'll look it. We shot the movie in chronological order, and it made me realize what a difference that sense of unhappiness can create. Because obviously at the end of the film she's happier and looks better. At one point late in the shooting we had to go do one of the scenes that takes place earlier in the action. Having done the rest of the film, it was quite a shock to realize what it felt like to be that insular".
Irish actor Ciarán Hinds
, who depicted Captain Frederick Wentworth, commented that Austen "understands a man's heart and how delicate it can be sometimes," and appreciated the fact that though Wentworth was a "competent leader of men in his profession" he was "socially inept" in Anne's presence. Susan Fleetwood
, the actress who played Lady Russell, died soon after filming. Persuasion was her last movie role.
During shooting, Persuasion often had to compete for costumes and props with the BBC
production Pride and Prejudice, which was being filmed at the same time. Persuasions crew consequently had to send for replacement items from Italy and Australia.
The film was shot on location in the English counties Gloucestershire
, Somerset
, Wiltshire
, and in the cities Bath, Lyme Regis
, and Portsmouth
. Nick Dear desired to have the opening sequence be on board a Royal Navy ship of the period, but the only authentic vessel available was the retired HMS Victory
. It was dry docked in Portsmouth, and was only available for short periods, as the ship was meant to be for entertaining tourists. The subsequent shot, in which Anne and Wentworth gaze into the ocean, was taken from the 1984 historical film The Bounty
. The film's low budget also resulted in one of the opening shots, depicting Admiral Croft's ship on the ocean, being taken from The Bounty. To display the climax when Anne and Wentworth finally approach each other with their feelings, two different scenes were shot, one in which they kiss and one in which they do not. The scene where they kiss was inputted by the request of the American distributor for its US release, and was retained for the British version because Michell liked the scene. Rebecca Eaton, one of the film's American producers, thought "A kiss would be an emotional pay-off".
in 16 April, 1995, on Easter day to 3.8 million viewers. Two other Jane Austen adaptations, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, were released in late 1995 to great success in the United Kingdom
. Their success lifted Persuasion out of "potential obscurity", as the film's theatrical release occurred on 27 September solely in the United States. The film earned $56,000 in its first week of release in New York
, and grossed $150,000 in Los Angeles
. The total US gross was $5,269,757.
calculated the film at 83%, which refers to the percentage of positive reviews. Caryn James of the New York Times rated it a "critic's pick," praising the actors' performances. James elaborated, "[The novel] is brilliantly captured by Mr. Michell, with the screenwriter Nick Dear and a cast completely in sync with Austen's warm but piercing style. Their "Persuasion" is profoundly truthful in many ways: in its sense of emotional longing; in its natural, unglamorized visual beauty, ranging from drawing rooms to the sea; in its fidelity to the delicate tone of Austen's satire and romance". Writing for Entertainment Weekly
, critic Ken Tucker graded the film with an A-, writing it should "should enthrall even those who haven't read the Jane Austen
novel on which it is based... A clearheaded love story, Persuasion is the sort of passionate yet precise comedy that reminds me why Austen remains such a vital writer". Susan Ostrov Weisser, a professor of nineteenth-century literature, called the film a "faithful parade of Austen's world", and praised Root as the film's "crown jewel" for playing a "fiercely intelligent, regretful, and frustrated Anne Elliot with subtlety and nuance". James Rampton of The Independent
rated it in 2008 the fourth best Austen adaptation of all time.
Of the many productions of Austen adaptations that appeared in the 1990s, Carole M. Dole noted Persuasion was the only film to "insistently draw attention to class issues," and "provide striking visual testimony to the workings of the British class system".
Persuasion (novel)
Persuasion is Jane Austen's last completed novel. She began it soon after she had finished Emma, completing it in August 1816. She died, aged 41, in 1817; Persuasion was published in December that year ....
, and approached screenwriter Nick Dear
Nick Dear
Nick Dear is a writer for stage, screen and radio. He received a BAFTA for his first screenwriting credit, a TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion....
about adapting it for television. Dear however stated his preference to work on either Sense and Sensibility or Pride and Prejudice, two other productions then occurring, instead; he agreed to work on Persuasion after reading the novel, as he considered it to be a much more mature work than the others. Dear spent the next two following years working on a script.
As a young child, English director Roger Michell
Roger Michell
Roger Michell is an English theatre, television and film director.-Personal life:He was born in Pretoria, South Africa but spent significant parts of his childhood in Beirut, Damascus and Prague as his father was a diplomat. He was educated at Clifton College where he became a member of Brown's...
was a big admirer of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, which set him apart from the other boys in school. "I was the only boy in my class who took Austen as a special paper," he has said. Michell explained that Persuasion attracted him because he believed it to be Austen's most emotional and poignant novel, as well as her most autobiographical. Previously a theater and serial director, Michell was chosen to direct Persuasion, in what was to be his first feature film.
Michell attempted to be as faithful to the novel as possible, in particular avoiding what he felt was the "glossy, artificial feel" of other 19th century depictions. Michell explained, "I was desperately trying to make it feel like it could be happening in the next room. I tried to make it something which is absolutely about real people and not about dressing or hairstyles or carpet." Consequently, because he felt the realistic look of the age would make the film more dramatic, Michell chose to depict the actors without make up, and disallowed them from looking too hygienic. English actress Amanda Root
Amanda Root
Amanda Root is an English stage and screen actor and a former voice actor for children's programmes.Root known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion and the British TV comedy All About Me, as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004 and when she was a...
, who played Anne Elliot
Anne Elliot
Anne Elliot is the protagonist of Jane Austen's sixth and last completed novel, Persuasion .-Description:Anne is the overlooked middle daughter of a narcissistic and extravagant baronet, Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall. Unique among Jane Austen heroines, she is 27 years old and seemingly a...
, commented about the film's natural look in an interview, "I basically didn't wear any makeup [in the movie], and my hair was obviously set in a very unflattering way. That was it, really. I suppose the lighting was quite harsh, as well. None of us looked good". She continued in a separate interview, "[Michell] didn't want the picture-postcard look, really. And I wanted to make Anne Elliot a somewhat plain woman who was not really miserable but had found a way to be content somehow, and yet emotions are buzzing around her all the time". Root believes the film's realistic depiction of the age is a key aspect of the film's appeal.
The shooting of Persuasion coincided with a sudden resurgence of Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
adaptations. The last feature film made for theatrical release that was based on an Austen novel was 1940's Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice (1940 film)
Pride and Prejudice is a 1940 film adaptation of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. Robert Z. Leonard directed, and Aldous Huxley served as one of the screenwriters of the film. It is adapted specifically from the stage adaptation by Helen Jerome in addition to Jane Austen's novel...
. Director Michell described the author's sudden popularity, "It's not a fever but a typhus in the U.K. at the moment". The BBC provided more production funding in its adaptations of the 1990s, and Persuasion consequently benefited, allowed the film to be shot at on-site locations like Lyme
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-Devon border...
, Bath, and in the southeastern English countryside. Persuasion was initially budgeted as a BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
production at £750,000, but received further funding after it was made a co-production with WGBH Boston
WGBH-TV
WGBH-TV, channel 2, is a non-commercial educational public television station located in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. WGBH-TV is a member station of the Public Broadcasting Service , and produces more than two-thirds of PBS's national prime time television programming...
for theatrical release in the United States. Persuasion thus inadvertently became Roger Michell and Nick Dear's first feature film. French company Millesime also co-produced the film in exchange for airing it on television in France. As a result of this additional funding, it was shot on 35 mm film
35 mm film
35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for chemical still photography and motion pictures. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, which consists of strips 35 millimeters in width...
, and its funding was increased to £1,000,000. Mobil Oil Corporation, as a sponsor of Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece Theatre
Masterpiece is a drama anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston. It premiered on Public Broadcasting Service on January 10, 1971, making it America's longest-running weekly prime time drama series. The series has presented numerous acclaimed British productions...
, also contributed to the film. WGBH gave the BBC detailed notes, which were then integrated into the script, while Millesime was unhappy with certain aspects of the story, for instance wanting the entire Lyme sequence removed because they considered it "too boring".
Casting
The film's main protagonist, Anne ElliotAnne Elliot
Anne Elliot is the protagonist of Jane Austen's sixth and last completed novel, Persuasion .-Description:Anne is the overlooked middle daughter of a narcissistic and extravagant baronet, Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch Hall. Unique among Jane Austen heroines, she is 27 years old and seemingly a...
, was played by English actress Amanda Root
Amanda Root
Amanda Root is an English stage and screen actor and a former voice actor for children's programmes.Root known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion and the British TV comedy All About Me, as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004 and when she was a...
in her theatrical film debut. By her own admission, "every actress in England" read for the part; having worked with the director previously, Root won the role by writing a letter to him to gain an audition. The American production company had wanted a better known actress for the part, but agreed to Root's casting after seeing her screen test. On her character's appearance, Root explained that "If you feel unhappy inside, you'll look it. We shot the movie in chronological order, and it made me realize what a difference that sense of unhappiness can create. Because obviously at the end of the film she's happier and looks better. At one point late in the shooting we had to go do one of the scenes that takes place earlier in the action. Having done the rest of the film, it was quite a shock to realize what it felt like to be that insular".
Irish actor Ciarán Hinds
Ciarán Hinds
Ciarán Hinds is an Irish film, television and stage actor. He has built up a reputation as a versatile character actor appearing in such high profile films as Road to Perdition, The Phantom of the Opera, Munich, There Will Be Blood and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. His television roles include...
, who depicted Captain Frederick Wentworth, commented that Austen "understands a man's heart and how delicate it can be sometimes," and appreciated the fact that though Wentworth was a "competent leader of men in his profession" he was "socially inept" in Anne's presence. Susan Fleetwood
Susan Fleetwood
Susan Maureen Fleetwood was a British stage, film and television actress, best known as a star of the classical theatre companies of England. She received popular acclaim in the television series Chandler & Co and The Buddha of Suburbia.-Personal life:Fleetwood was born in St...
, the actress who played Lady Russell, died soon after filming. Persuasion was her last movie role.
Filming
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
production Pride and Prejudice, which was being filmed at the same time. Persuasions crew consequently had to send for replacement items from Italy and Australia.
The film was shot on location in the English counties Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, and in the cities Bath, Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-Devon border...
, and Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
. Nick Dear desired to have the opening sequence be on board a Royal Navy ship of the period, but the only authentic vessel available was the retired HMS Victory
HMS Victory
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805....
. It was dry docked in Portsmouth, and was only available for short periods, as the ship was meant to be for entertaining tourists. The subsequent shot, in which Anne and Wentworth gaze into the ocean, was taken from the 1984 historical film The Bounty
The Bounty
The Bounty is a 1984 British historical film directed by Roger Donaldson, starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, and produced by Bernard Williams with Dino De Laurentiis as executive producer. It is the fifth film version of the story of the mutiny on the Bounty. The screenplay was by Robert Bolt...
. The film's low budget also resulted in one of the opening shots, depicting Admiral Croft's ship on the ocean, being taken from The Bounty. To display the climax when Anne and Wentworth finally approach each other with their feelings, two different scenes were shot, one in which they kiss and one in which they do not. The scene where they kiss was inputted by the request of the American distributor for its US release, and was retained for the British version because Michell liked the scene. Rebecca Eaton, one of the film's American producers, thought "A kiss would be an emotional pay-off".
Reception
Release
Persuasion aired on British television's BBC TwoBBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
in 16 April, 1995, on Easter day to 3.8 million viewers. Two other Jane Austen adaptations, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, were released in late 1995 to great success in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. Their success lifted Persuasion out of "potential obscurity", as the film's theatrical release occurred on 27 September solely in the United States. The film earned $56,000 in its first week of release in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and grossed $150,000 in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The total US gross was $5,269,757.
Critical reception
Critical review website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
calculated the film at 83%, which refers to the percentage of positive reviews. Caryn James of the New York Times rated it a "critic's pick," praising the actors' performances. James elaborated, "[The novel] is brilliantly captured by Mr. Michell, with the screenwriter Nick Dear and a cast completely in sync with Austen's warm but piercing style. Their "Persuasion" is profoundly truthful in many ways: in its sense of emotional longing; in its natural, unglamorized visual beauty, ranging from drawing rooms to the sea; in its fidelity to the delicate tone of Austen's satire and romance". Writing for Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, critic Ken Tucker graded the film with an A-, writing it should "should enthrall even those who haven't read the Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
novel on which it is based... A clearheaded love story, Persuasion is the sort of passionate yet precise comedy that reminds me why Austen remains such a vital writer". Susan Ostrov Weisser, a professor of nineteenth-century literature, called the film a "faithful parade of Austen's world", and praised Root as the film's "crown jewel" for playing a "fiercely intelligent, regretful, and frustrated Anne Elliot with subtlety and nuance". James Rampton of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
rated it in 2008 the fourth best Austen adaptation of all time.
Of the many productions of Austen adaptations that appeared in the 1990s, Carole M. Dole noted Persuasion was the only film to "insistently draw attention to class issues," and "provide striking visual testimony to the workings of the British class system".
1996 BAFTA TV Awards
- Won, Best Single Drama - Fiona Finlay, Roger MichellRoger MichellRoger Michell is an English theatre, television and film director.-Personal life:He was born in Pretoria, South Africa but spent significant parts of his childhood in Beirut, Damascus and Prague as his father was a diplomat. He was educated at Clifton College where he became a member of Brown's...
and Nick DearNick DearNick Dear is a writer for stage, screen and radio. He received a BAFTA for his first screenwriting credit, a TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion.... - Won, Best Photography and Lighting (Fiction/Entertainment) - John Daly
- Won, Best Costume Design - Alexandra ByrneAlexandra ByrneAlexandra Byrne is a costume designer. She trained on the Motley Theatre Design Course under Margaret Harris before embarking on her career as a costume designer in film...
- Won, Best Design - William DudleyWilliam Dudley (designer)William Dudley is a British theatre designer.Dudley is the son of William Stuart Dudley and his wife Dorothy Irene. He was educated at the St Martin's School of Art and the Slade School of Art...
and Brian Sykes - Won, Best Original Television Music - Jeremy SamsJeremy SamsJeremy Sams is a British film director, writer, translator, orchestrator, musical director, film composer, and lyricist....
- Nominated, Best Make Up - Jean Speak
External links
- Official website at Sony Pictures ClassicsSony Pictures ClassicsSony Pictures Classics is an art-house film division of Sony Pictures Entertainment founded in December 1991 that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films from the United States and around the world. Its co-presidents are Michael Barker and Tom Bernard...