DB7

Why new Pride & Prejudice is abridged in Britian
From Chris Ayresin Los Angeles and Jack Malvern



HOLLYWOOD has finally discovered what followers of the England football team have long suspected: the British do not like a happy ending.
The proof came when executives at Working Title, the British film production company, cringed at the ending to their adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and decided to lop it off.



As a result, the British version of the film is an estimated two minutes shorter than its American equivalent, after the producers at Working Title Films had a change of heart and left their Hollywood-style “pay off” shot on the cutting room floor.

“You got the more sugary one,” Matthew MacFadyen, who plays Mr Darcy to Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Bennet, revealed to a USA Today reporter. “The Brits hated it.”

The British version of the film instead concludes with Elizabeth’s father (Donald Sutherland) giving his consent when Mr Darcy asks for his daughter’s hand in marriage. “And if any young men come for Mary or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite at my leisure,” he declares, in the film’s final line. American audiences, however, are treated to a lingering shot of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy kissing under moonlight, on a terrace. Mr Darcy asks his new wife how he should address her. Should he, he inquires, call her Mrs Darcy? She replies that he should only call her that if he is absolutely in love with her.

“Mrs Darcy . . . Mrs Darcy,” he repeats as the credits roll.

The change came about after executives watched a screening of the longer film in America. David Livingstone, vice-president of Universal marketing and distribution, said that the American audience loved it but the British executives had reservations. “There was a moment when somebody said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if it ended with Donald Sutherland?’,” he told The Times.

The extra scene was kept for the Americans, as well as some Asian territories that prefer emotion to be “laid on quite thickly”, Mr Livingstone added.

The ploy certainly worked with the American critics, who forgave the film its lack of faithfulness to the novel. “The sumptuous new screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has so much to recommend it that it seems almost churlish to point out that its plucky, clever heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, played by Keira Knightley, is not exactly the creature described in the 1813 novel,” Stephen Holden wrote the New York Times.

But not all British cinemagoers are happy. A petition has been started demanding that the US ending is added to the DVD version. Margaret Smith, a member of the Austen Society, said that there was something missing. “It was lacking,” she said. “I hope that the other ending will be on the DVD.”

Mr Livingstone said that Mrs Smith’s wish would probably be granted. “I imagine the DVD will be over the moon about it. It is a viable possibility.”

Meanwhile, some members of the Jane Austen Society of North America have voiced their disappointment with the US version. “It has nothing at all of Jane Austen in it, is inconsistent with the first twothirds of the film, insults the audience with its banality,” Elsa Solender, the former society president, told the BBC.

The success of the film version of Pride and Prejudice has prompted ITV to commission a season of costume dramas based on Austen’s novels. Persuasion, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey are to be given the small-screen treatment in autumn 2006.

Holland

SNIP

That contradicts the story in The Telegraph which says the British film is the proper story and they tacked a different ending on for schmaltzy American audiences.

Although this has proved a hit not everyone is happy:

catflap

I saw it over the weekend and it seems that we Australians are getting the extra, treacley scene too.

DB7

Longer Pride to come to UK fans <span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"> Mr Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett embrace at the end of the US filmUK movie fans will be able to see the extended US version of Pride and Prejudice by the end the month, the film's distributors have announced.

The US release is eight minutes longer than the UK version because British test audiences hated the extended romantic ending.

But on 25 November, it will be shown in selected cinemas in the UK and Ireland.

A UK petition was started by fans demanding the longer ending be added to the DVD version before its release.

The film's producer Paul Webster said: "We were absolutely delighted in the continued interest in Pride & Prejudice and are excited about the opportunity to show the US ending to the British public."

Embrace

Matthew MacFayden, who plays Mr Darcy, told USA Today UK audiences disliked the more "sugary" ending so it was cut.

In the US version, the two main characters Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy embrace at the end.

And Donald Sutherland, who plays Mr Bennett said it was decided the US needed a "sweeter film".

In the worldwide release the film ends with the line "if any young men come for Mary or Kitty, send them in, for I am quite at leisure" uttered by Mr Bennett.

Sutherland added that US audiences preferred the version with "Darcy and Lizzy together".

But some members of the Jane Austen Society of North American were less than impressed with the US version. "It has nothing at all of Jane Austen in it, is inconsistent with the first two-thirds of the film, insults the audience with its banality," said former society president Elsa Solender. </span>