Miss Austen Regrets - DVD

Miss Austen Regrets - DVD (2008)

I LOVED this DVD, it was the perfect thing to watch on a cold and rainy weekend. In it, we get to meet Jane Austen in her thirties, writing her novels and trying to help support her sister and mother. Looking back at her life, she sees that she has missed her own chance at marriage and happiness and is saddled with being poor and unloved. In trying to guide her loved niece Fanny on her own love life, she realises that she is just as interfering as many of her characters.

I loved the portrayal of Jane as extremely witty, sarcastic and playful, all the things that she must have been in order to write such timeless books, all now two hundred years old. How hard life was, when men were relied upon to make the money and decisions about your life, and that living alone or being unmarried were frowned upon.

Hurrah for making Jane and her family real, with naturalistic hairstyles, makeup and costumes. I also applaud the use of a real actress to play Jane herself, much as I like Gwenyth, Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson, it is all a bit too Hollywood Hot roller for me, I prefer the characters to look like they get dirty and do their own hair.

4/5 because I could watch this one over and over.