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Jane Austen Society of North America
2005 Annual General Meeting

October 7-9, 2005
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Milwaukee, Wisconsin



  PRIDE & PREJUDICE Advance Screening on October 7  



This Letter is to be dedicated entirely to Good News.         
  —Jane to Cassandra, December 28, 1798

Focus Features has generously invited JASNA members to an advance screening of the new PRIDE & PREJUDICE movie during the Milwaukee AGM. (Click here to see movie trailer.)

Only members and their companions who are registered for the AGM may attend. The screening will be on Friday, October 7, at 9:15 p.m. Bus tickets for transportation from the Hyatt Regency Hotel to the theater will be sold at the AGM registration desk ($10). Members may drive to the theater on their own if they prefer.  There is no charge for the movie.  

AGM Coordinators Marsha Huff and Sara Bowen were recently treated to a private screening of the film. They report that Matthew Macfadyen is as handsome a Mr. Darcy as could be wished, and Keira Knightley is lovely and endearing as Elizabeth Bennet. Keira and Matthew have an extraordinary chemistry, and their youth is perfectly in keeping with the descriptions of Elizabeth and Darcy in the novel. 

Brenda Blethyn is an attractive and fully developed Mrs. Bennet. Most depictions ignore the novel’s statement that Mr. Bennet was captivated in their younger days by her beauty and paint her instead as an elderly scold. The screenplay manages to humanize Mrs. Bennet, without minimizing her flaws, as she worries about her daughters’ future, while her husband is otherwise preoccupied.  

Members will also appreciate the attention to detail in furnishings, china, and lavish interiors, which are nicely balanced with lush outdoor settings.  Letters abound in the movie, as in the novel, and there is even a sloped writing box like Jane Austen’s. While many Austen adaptations deck their heroines out in décolletage barely suitable for a London courtesan, this film takes a welcome, understated approach to Georgian costumes.  

In the end, it is the joy of hearing Jane Austen’s familiar lines delivered by an excellent cast that makes the new PRIDE & PREJUDICE such a pleasure. JASNA members who attended the preview of Bride and Prejudice at the Los Angeles AGM recall the treat of watching an Austen film in the company of kindred spirits. Through the generosity of Focus Features, members at the Milwaukee AGM will share the movie we are all eager to see.


Welcome Plenary Speakers Breakout Sessions Schedule
Theme Hotel/Travel Milwaukee Tours Registration
AGM Diversions
Special Events Read JASNA
Imaginary Letters
PRIDE & PREJUDICE Screening