Transcript of Joe Wright's P&P DVD Commentary (Part 3)

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from parts 1 and 2 here!

[Darcy almost proposes]

See, the way he does that little gesture with his hand, it's so simple.
Really clear, really simple.
Really economical.

He wants to propose to her here.
That's why he's come round.
But can't... pluck up the courage.



And now just get the hell out of there.
I wonder if she does... have an idea.
I guess she hasn't 'cause she says she hasn't,
but I think ... maybe she knows a little bit.

-----------------------

[Mr. Collins in Church]

That was a gag that Tom made up on the day.

So the preacher would preach to the congregation
of the farm hands and the labourers and the farmers and all the ...the wealthy aristocracy
or gentry class would sit behind him in a separate area.


I think that was the last bonnet I let Keira wear in the film.

[Darcy's 1st Proposal] 

And here the story starts to change.
And we got into a much darker phase.

Jane Austen described Pride and Prejudice, the novel,
as being too light .... and lacking in shade.
So one of the things I did was try and
bring in a little bit of that shade...

It's Stourhead in Wiltshire.
The gardens of a stately home.

He lets that whole speech out.
He's prepared all of it, but wasn't prepared to say ''I love you.''
He'd written it down and he'd thought about it
and he'd rehearsed it.
Which is why he rushes through it.
Then surprises himself by saying ''I love you.''
It didn't occur to him, but he can't help but tell her.

I used a hand-held camera in this scene,
so that it becomes all about the actors,
that you move with the actors.
lf they want to go somewhere, you follow them.
So much of filming becomes about the camera
and the technical aspects.
And one of the good things about hand-held
is that it empowers the actors.

It happens so fast and so quickly.
And afterwards you can't quite remember
what happened or what you'd said.

 
You just know that something terrible happened.
Which is also why it's done at such speed.
With the then blinding stops.

I like the way, when she brings up Mr Wickham,
jealousy is a thing that then brings him forward and ...

And then this moment coming up.
When they almost kissed was something
that we actually talked about in the screen test
that we did with Matthew.

Basically. Lizzie and Darcy really, really fancy each other.

[Darcy's Letter]

This whole section is about seeing yourself for the first time.
That's Fordyce's Sermons.
 
So there she's thinking about the absurdity of Mr Collins.
Lovely piece of music by Dario as well.

And so here she's coming to look at herself.
Reconsider everything she thought.
Or the preconceived ideas she had.

And she's looking right in the lens there.
There's actually no mirror at all.
And she's looking through the flat directly at camera which is
her looking at us.
We are her.

Don't know why I did this whole letter the way I did.
Partly because, as I was saying earlier,
I think letters are really un-cinematic.
But, poetically, it just seemed, um, right
that he should start speaking the letter
and then disappear.
And that she's lost him, just when she realised
she wanted him.

She was a child and we are dealing with child emotions and..
And Lydia also, when Wickham elopes with her, is 15.

I did shoot a close-up of Elizabeth at that moment,
but I liked ending on the letter.

I thought it did more.
Sometimes to deny the audience the close-up
that they want is a good thing.
To play with expectations.

[Lizzie returns home]

And now she's come home
and home is different.
That her whole view of her world
and her family and herself has shifted.

And she can no longer be open and honest
with her sister, with Jane.

That was Carey's first crying scene ever.
This was her first film,
and this was her first crying scene.

Enter the Gardiners. Love the Gardiners.
Their relationship is based on pies.
In every scene, they're eating.
And they have a very happy marriage
in their shared admiration
of the great English pie.
Or cheese.

-----------------------

[Lizzie in bed with Jane]

 

And here, finally,
Jane's got her back to Elizabeth.

[Lizzie on top of the world]

This moment I thought up
while we were travelling up to Derbyshire.
With my eyes shut feeling the wind on my face,
looking out of a car window.

And I like cutting from an extreme close-up,
to an extreme wide.
Those kind of dramatic cuts.

This is a place called Stanage Edge
up in Derbyshire.

-----------------------

[Forest]

There's a bloke in those bushes
throwing up pheasants.

This is part of old Sherwood Forest,
also up in Derbyshire,
where Robin Hood rode around
with his merry bunch of men.
That's a 500-year-old tree, that.

Again, Mr Gardiner's eating a pie.

[Pemberley]

Now we're at Chatsworth, also in Derbyshire,
which is the home of the Duchess of Devonshire.

It's really important, that house, that it's got,
that it's got the moors and Stanage Edge
behind it and you see...
...it's all about the environment that
the house is in, not just its grandeur.

A lot of shots in the film "Elizabeth"
were from above.

Originally, in the novel, this scene
takes place in a picture gallery.
And she sees a painting of Darcy.
And when we went to Chatsworth,
 
we saw this sculpture gallery,
and decided that it would be more interesting...
to have Darcy as a 3D sculpture
rather than just a flat painting.

Also, there's a bust of Napoleon in here,

which is, for the period, completely incorrect.

this is about sex, this place, as well.
That it's about her discovering sensuality.
And also that she's not just admiring
Darcy's wealth,
but she's admiring his culture,
she's admiring his appreciation of beauty.
That he has a sensitive soul.
And that she loves him for his sensitivity.

It's the only time she wears anything
that isn't a deep earthy colour,
apart from the Netherfield ball.

And then the music you'll recognize as being the music
that we first hear
when we enter Longbourn at the very,
very beginning of the film.
...also by Dario, the composer,
who composed it before we started filming.
The reason I used the same music is
because it would remind her of home.
That finding the person you're supposed
to be with is like coming home.
And that even though this house is so
completely different from her house...
...it's the same spirit,
the same music moves there.


And now Georgiana, who we've had
built up by Caroline Bingley,
as this woman of great cuIture and sophistication,
and the rightful bride of her brother, Mr Bingley,
um, is revealed to be a child.

And here we really understand Darcy as well, his values.
And his primary...
...focus is his love of his sister...
...who he protects.

[Lizzie runs out]

I like very much the way
Matthew brought humour to Mr Darcy.
and he just brings a little edge of 
humour to him. It's really sweet.

The idea that these two people know each other,
knew each other when they first saw each other.
That they recognized each other from their future.

----------------------- 

[Georgiana] 

That's actually her hands.
She's called Tamzin. 
 
And, again, this is the first film she'd ever been in,
the first acting she'd ever done.
I think she's quite genuine, Tamzin.
She's a really honest person.

Like a lot of honest people, she can see others honestly,

and so when she sees...

when she watches them here ... there.
She is only 15.

To Be Continued ... part 4 is coming up, so stay tune for more!