Bridget Jones' Diary compared to Pride and Prejudice

Bridget Jones' Diary (1997), by Helen Fielding, also a succesful film, offers a strange and parodic comment on Pride and Prejudice. Its action roughly echoes the plot - but in the midst of a quite different moral world.

Pride & Prejudice

There are numerous film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, but probably one of the most notable version and probably the most famous is the film released in 2005 starring Keira Knightley (who was an Oscar-nominated performance) and Matthew Macfadyen.


Sparks fly when spirited Elizabeth Bennett meets single, rich, and proud Mr. Darcy. But Mr. Darcy reluctantly finds himself falling in love with a woman beneath his class. Can each overcome their own pride and prejudice?

Film adaptations!

There are numerous film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, but the most notable versions are that of 1940 starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, the BBC version of the novel directed by Andrew Davies (1995) and probably the most famous that of 2005 starring Keira Knightley (who was an Oscar-nominated performance) and Matthew Macfadyen.
This post is going to be focus on the 1940 and 1995 versions.

PLOT: Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, of Longbourn near Meryton, have five unmarried daughters, and Mrs. Bennet is especially interested in find suitable husbands for them. Then two wealthy single gentlemen move to their neighbourhood and Mrs. Bennet seems to pin her hopes on them. But a number of misunderstandings, unfortunate events, pride and prejudices affect their lives. The lover`s names are Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy.

1940: Pride and Prejudice (look back to the forties)



By courtesy of MGM Studios

 Starring Greer Garson as Elizabeth Bennet and Laurence Olivier as Mr Darcy, this film won an Oscar for Best Art Direction, Black-and-White. But what makes especially unique this film is the superb cast.

Here we show you the final scene of the film.

                FINAL SCENE

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 The film was critically well received. Bosley Crowther in a 9 August 1940 review for the New York Times described the film as "the most deliciously pert comedy of old manners, the most crisp and crackling satire in costume that we in this corner can remember ever having seen on the screen." Crowther also praised casting decisions and noted of the two central protagonists: Greer Garson and Laurence Olovier, saying that their acting was stepped right out of the book.

1995: Pride and Prejudice

This is the BBC version which is an excellent film adaptation of the novel by Andrew Davies, starring Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Darcy (also known for his role in Bridget’s Jones Diary as Mark Darcy).

As a curiosity, Bridget Jones's Diary is a British romantic comedy film based on Helen Fielding's novel of the same name. She has stated in many interviews that her novel was based on both Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and its popular 1995 BBC adaptation. The decision to cast Colin Firth as Darcy was obviously based on the fact that he played the 'real' Mr. Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. This is not the film's only connection to that serial of six episodes; the screenplay was co-written by Andrew Davies, who had written the adaptation of Austen's novel for the BBC.

But focusing on the 1995 BBC mini-series, it is by no means an exact adaptation of the novel, although it incorporates new dialogues and different scenes, but without altering the final product but improving the final result. Anyways, the film should not be seen as a substitute for the reading novel.

      TRAILER

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If you are interested or you want to re-live the romance and drama of Andrew Davies' lavish adaptation, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, you can also find more information on the BBC official page http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/prideandprejudice/ this is the link.