Jillian: ok so we just watched pride and prejudice with a bunch of our friends on netflix party
so itās fresh in our minds
because they just put it on netflix, i think?
Summer: yes!!!
the first time i watched it was a torrented copy lol
Jillian: shoutout to netflix party for being the best way to watch movies with your friends during quar lol
but also the best way to watch movies with your internet friends who live several hours away, anyway
i canāt even remember the first time i watched it
Summer: itās kind of wild weād never done a netflix party before quarantine
even though we donāt see each other on the reg anyway
Jillian: i remember watching it on a rented dvd at some point in high school, i think? but that wasnāt the first time i saw it
maybe the first time i saw it was torrented too!
i truly donāt know but that sounds right
Summer: my first time was high school! I think my sophomore year. I read the book when I was a freshman
Jillian: i read the book around the same time
Summer: and I watched the BBC miniseries with Colin Firth? but I didnāt really like it.
Jillian: i read my momās copy and somehow lost it, sorry mom
Summer: omgā¦rip to that copy
Jillian: i have actually never seen that
iāve only seen the joe wright movie
Summer: I feel like I would probably like it a lot more now in 2020, but it wasā¦.boring
I didnāt really like the book the first time I read it either!
Jillian: i keep saying iām going to reread it and i just havenāt
Summer: I felt like I just didnāt let myself read slowly, especially when I was 14.
and Austen deserves to be read slowly!!!! her wit is too quick to skim!
Jillian: i think the most recent jane austen novel i read wasā¦ā¦northanger abbey? which i loved
and i remember reading emma at some point in college too, which i also loved
Summer: SAME! I read it at your recommendation and holy SHIT. If there was ever a novel I would want to adapt to screen, itās Northanger Abbey.
Jillian: itās soooooo good and funny
it made me appreciate austen a lot more
Summer: I also read Emma in college, and enjoyed it a lot. It made me want to give Austen another chance, since I hadnāt enjoyed P&P at that point and I also read Sense & Sensibility and also disliked it
Yes!!!! Glad our experiences link up so much lol
Jillian: i also want to watch the new emma adaptation but letās not go off on that tangent right now lol
i love emma
Summer: I think watching the Lizzie Bennett diaries helped me appreciate the core story of P&P a lot more and understand it was truly in line with my sensibilities, I just needed a different circumstance to read it.
Jillian: oh iām so glad you mentioned LBD
i kind of forgot about it
Summer: I finally gave it a reread about a year ago when I was on the plane to our mutual friendsā wedding
and i was like oh i actually love this
Jillian: but i was so into that
Summer: YES! LBD was so fucking good. I still think about it.
Jillian: and i agree that it helps you get into the story more if the actual novel isnāt your thing
Summer: I want to see more creative adaptations like thatā¦
Jillian: did you watch emma approved?
Summer: I started it but I never followed through!
Jillian: (sorry to keep bringing emma up again, but emma approved was my first interaction with that story and i loved it)
i was very into that style of storytelling for a few years
i should look around and see if people are still doing that kind of thing now
Summer: Honestly? Yeah. I feel like I donāt actually give more..indie TV a chance as often as I do presses or film
Jillian: i was just so fascinated by the way they used social media to kind of roleplay the characters and add to the story outside of just vlog-style youtube videos
Summer: Yes! Full immersive experience!
It felt like they really GOT their audience, too.
Jillian: yes!
Summer: Like, the way we were all vultures for images of our favorite actors outside of the context of the show and would re-write paparazzi photos into canonā¦.they just did that for us?
Jillian: the audience being probably mainly like, girls on tumblr
Summer: exactly lol
Jillian: i definitely have a lot of feelings about using social media for storytelling but we donāt need to get into that now
Summer: we can save it for another time haha
Jillian: i wanna talk more about the experience of watching p&p with our friends online
Summer: yes!
Jillian: because that was new!
Summer: It was cool because it was a joining of your different friend groups
but I felt completely comfortable to say/act/etc whatever in the chat because I knew we were all on the same page
Jillian: i have watched p&p with friends irl plenty of times before, because itās the kind of movie that is good to watch over and over and over again, and is especially good to watch with other people who love it
yeah that was a huge advantage of using netflix party
we werenāt as limited by who could join bc it was online
Summer: See Iāve only ever watched it by myself! but it felt like Iād watched it with other people, sort of, because of the way some of our friend group references it constantly and talks about it. I know what weāre all attuned to
Jillian: which meant we could sort of blend friend groups
Summer: It was successful too! I think we all had fun
Jillian: it was very fun!
it was very cute to kind of bring together people who didnāt know each other but had a shared love for this movie
and to see everyone scream in the chat at the same parts
the hand flex!!!!! the hand flex!!!!!!
Summer: SO GOOD!!!!!!
CHILLS AGAIN!!!!
Jillian: right!!!
ok so aside from that, what are your favorite parts of the movie
Summer: OK SO
Whatās interesting is what used to be my least favorite parts (the dancing/ball scenes) are now my favorite parts
Jillian: why were those your least favorite?
Summer: I think as a Teen I was stupid and didnāt pay enough attention to likeā¦the way choreography develops moments so sophisticatedly
especially without it being like a straight up musical
but as my taste has developed and Iām smarter now I am likeā¦.eleganceā¦..nothing better than some good blocking to tell a storyā¦.
Jillian: i do think itās funny how my opinions about the movie have changed
like with age, but also just because iāve watched it so many times now that there are new things iāve noticed and parts that i pay more attention to now
Summer: Tell me!!!
Jillian: the first few times i watched it i didnāt care at all about the scenes with mr. collins
to be honest i didnāt really care at all about the scenes with anyone but lizzie and mr. darcy
but as a teen i think i just didnāt understand how funny the mr. collins parts are
like when theyāre sitting at the kitchen table and heās saying all this nonsense and lizzie and her father are stealthily making fun of him
i really think my favorite line in the movie is WHAT EXCELLENT BOILED POTATOES
the delivery is perfect
Summer: FUCK ITāS SO FUNNy
I cried
Jillian: itās the best
Summer: I also forgot about the Mr. Collins scenes and just. how funny they are?
Jillian: the whole movie is really funny
Summer: I do sort of want to re-read the book again again
and see what different humor pops out this time
Jillian: yeah i think as a kid i didnāt really get that jane austen was supposed to be funny lol
and now that i see that more, itās way more enjoyable
Summer: Yes!!!!!
Likeā¦itās not stuffyā¦.at all
Jillian: like YES it makes me feel a lot of things that lizzie and darcy are in love! but letās not forget to appreciate the absolute ridiculousness oozing out of like, every scene
itās meant to be funny!
Summer: I havenāt watched the new Emma adaptation but I do appreciate the zany-ness of the trailer? because that seems like what Austen deserves? sort of the treatment of The Favorite or The Great
Jillian: especially for emma which i think is even more ridiculous
Summer: absolutely
thatās why clueless is so good
Jillian: CLUELESS
yes absolutely
what a perfect story
so now iām curious if there are any parts of p&p that you donāt like
Summer: Not that I can say off the top of my head, but I do really love the sympathetic lens give to Lydia in LBD
Jillian: ohhhh yes
Summer: The sympathy given to Lydia in LBDā¦just reinforces how good that adaptation is. The transformative nature of it! It made me almost forget that sheās just kinda a bimbo in canon
Jillian: i agree, kitty and lydia are both super annoying in the movie
Summer: Itās funny that kitty is useless
Jillian: and LBD did a good job of changing that
i also really liked how LBD made charlotte An Entire Character
which the movie doesnātā¦ā¦reallyā¦ā¦do
i donāt think thatās because the movie adaptation is bad or anything i just think it was a cool bonus of LBD
Summer: Me too! I love the way characters get rounded out more and re-invented in the adaptations. Itās not really a failure of the original, it just has different intentions but I think Iāve been thinking a LOT about character since reading about the various Little Women adaptations and what Greta did differently with Amy etc etc
Jillian: YES
i love love loved amy in gretaās movie, so much
it completely changed my perspective of the story
Summer: Iād love to do an experiment of reading a book alongside the dearer adaptations and seeing what happens.
Jillian: i havenāt read little women in such a long time
since i was a kid
Summer: Iāve been sort of fixated on project-based reading ā like this month I did the Sealey Challenge, maybe next month Iāll do something with Austen or lil women
Iāve actually never read all of little women lmao
Jillian: that would be very cute and i would be happy to join you
i was super into little women as a kid
i loved the book, it was probably the longest book i had ever read
and my parents took me to the orchard house in massachusetts so i could āsee where louisa may alcott wrote the bookā lol
a very formative experience for a young kid who wanted to be an author
Summer: thatās precious
Jillian: anyway i love the idea of doing a mini austen book club
maybe even like, picking one austen novel a month to read and then watching various adaptations
Summer: Cross-media clubā¦.what a Dream
Jillian: very cute
Summer: Sort of what MDZS is lol
Jillian: lol true
letās not go there i canāt even get into it
maybe for a future chat once you watch the untamed
Summer: lmao yes Iāll get there
Jillian: any last thoughts on pride and prejudice?
either the movie or the story in general
Summer: I love YEARNING
Jillian: YES
WE LOVE TO YEARN
what a perfect note to end on
Summer: š