Austen's aura lives on

Felicity Jones is Catherine Morland and J.J. Feild is Henry Tilney in Jane Austen’s gentle parody of Gothic fiction, Northanger Abbey.

The highly anticipated Lord Dalhousie: Patron and Collector show is now on display, and beyond the exhibition of works commissioned by Dalhousie’s founder George Ramsay on display, there will also be a film series of Jane Austen’s most famous tales.

You may wonder how Jane Austen and Lord Dalhousie are connected.

Jane Austen was a contemporary of Lord Dalhousie, who was Nova Scotia’s Lieutenant Governor during Austen’s rise to fame.

“He, of, course, provided the name for our wonderful university and was a major force in the artistic world of his day,” says Ron Foley Macdonald, film curator with Dalhousie Art Gallery.

That said, Mr. Macdonald thought it would be appropriate to include six feature length film adaptations of Austen’s most famous novels as part of a film series entitled Jane Austen: Wit and Realism. Every Tuesday evening, from January 19, to February 23, an Austen filmed will be screened.

Considering Austen’s work has been made into film countless times, Macdonald admits it was tough to choose which to include in the film series.

“What we were looking for was excellence first, of course. Secondarily, we wanted the versions to fit into manageable two-hour film slots.”

The selections represent a wide range of adaptations of Austen’s work, from the classic MGM 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice to the recent 2007 production of Northanger Abbey.

“What all of these Jane Austen films share,” says Macdonald, “is the author’s extraordinary grace and wit.”

The films in this series were also selected based on their representation of Austen’s remarkable insights of female roles in British society which was far stricter than today. Accordingly, the 1999 version of Mansfield Park directed by Toronto filmmaker Patricia Rozema, one of the few women who have ever directed an Austen picture, was selected for the series. This version also stars Nobel-Prize winning British dramatist Harold Pinter who plays a supporting role.

Screenings take place Tuesdays, 8 p.m.in the MacAloney Room, Dalhousie Arts Centre. Admission is free, but space is limited.

	January 26 - Mansfield Park Dir: Patricia Rozema, UK/USA, 1999, 110 minutes. One of the few Jane Austen adaptations to be directed by a woman – Toronto’s Patricia (I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing) Rozema – Mansfield Park concerns itself with the life of a girl named Fanny, her family and her potential suitors from an upscale household headed by Sir Thomas, played by Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter.
	February 2 - Pride and Prejudice Dir: Robert Z. Leonard, USA, 1940, 114 minutes. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s opulence marks this sly take on Austen’s story of a family that must marry off five daughters. Greer Garson and a dashingly young Laurence Olivier head up an all-star Hollywood cast.
	February 9 - Emma Dir: Douglas McGrath, UK/USA, 1996, 111 minutes. Gwyneth Paltrow stars as a self-appointed matchmaking expert unaware of the state of her own heart in this brisk tale of early 19th century romance. Toni Collette, Alan Cumming also star, with Jeremy Northam as Mr. Knightly.
	February 16 - Persuasion Dir: Roger Michell, UK, 1995, 102 minutes. The return of a paramour from the Napoleonic Wars renews the possibility of love for Anne (Amanda Root) who at 27 is in danger of reaching an age out of the range for marriage. Considered Austen’s most subtle and nuanced story, Persuasion restrains its two lead characters, preferring to let their surroundings and families speak for them.
	February 23 - Northanger Abbey Dir: Jon Jones, UK, 2007, 86 minutes. Hopeless romantic Catherine (Felicity Jones) gets to indulge her fascination with gothic mysteries when she is invited by an admirer to the lavish medieval estate of the title in this gently satiric romantic drama made recently for British television.