The last of the hopeless romantics

WARNING!!! POSSIBLE PLOT SPOILERS FOR PRIDE AND PREJUDICE IN THIS ARTICLE!!!

Its funny how sometimes people only associate you with one thing. In my case its archaeology. I’m sure if you were to ask most people who know me what the first thing that enters their head is when they think of me its that. I must admit though that archaeology is a very big part of my life so it’s not surprising. In one or two cases the reason is that the person in question doesn’t know me all that well and that’s why they associate me with archaeology rather than anything else because chances are they’ve met me through that. Many of you who know me through this blog only know me from what I write. Amazingly I don’t seem to have written all that much about archaeology. Therefore in some respects you know more about my life outside of archaeology than many.
One thing that some people may not realise is that underneath my grouchy, sarcastic exterior there is a bit of a hopeless romantic. Hard to believe when I write such scathing blog entries about annoying pervy guys who instant message me eh? One of my favourite books of all time is Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and I adore the 1995 BBC adaptation of the book. I spent several weeks one summer watching it endlessly and I have no doubt I will be watching it again over the next few days.
Imagine my delight at finding out some months ago that they were adapting it as a film again. I wasn’t terribly sure about Matthew MacFadyen as Darcy and there was always the danger that they’d americanise the story. Since hearing about the film I’ve been scrupulously avoiding any documentaries or news items about it. I’ve started to learn that by only watching the trailer you’re more likely to enjoy the film when you finally see it because you haven’t seen *all* the best bits!
Sunday night I finally got to see the it. My sister is a bit of a Pride and Prejudice fan too, although she’s never read the book, so decided to treat the pair of us to deluxe seats to see it. Yes it was very different from the BBC adaptation but that had about six hours in which to dramatise the book accurately while the film only had two. I still thoroughly enjoyed it and will definitely be buying the DVD when it comes out.
I don’t want to spoil the film for anyone (which is why I put the disclaimer at the start of this entry!) so please don’t continue reading if you haven’t read the book or seen the film but intend to. There was an overwhelming emotion to this film that really captured me. Arguably such emotion was out of character for the book, set in an era of restraint and formality. Yet in the context of one of the greatest love stories ever it was not out of place. It’s the sort of film many of us women watch and sigh and wish real life could be like that. I can’t honestly see me ever standing under the portico of an 18th century folly in the pouring rain having a fiery argument with the man of my dreams that almost leads to a passionate love scene. Lets face it, it’s the stuff dreams are made of. Where the film does make us feel better though is that even a very flat chested Keira Knightly can get a good-looking romantic guy. We don’t have to look like the busty, seductive Jennifer Ehle from the BBC adaptation! These hope for us all yet!
Movies are meant to be magic. They are not necessarily portrayals of real life. I’d even go so far as to say the majority of storylines involving love and romance are probably not. They are a rich fantasy world where we are meant to go for escape from reality. To that end I know my love life is never going to resemble a film, except the early parts of Bridget Jones’ diary, before she starts dating Daniel Cleaver. No amount of moaning and groaning will ever change it especially when you’re up against a die hard core of men to whom romance is a foreign language. Take a recent conversation my sister had whilst on a sailing trip. They were discussing chat up lines and one guy said the best chat up line a guy likes to hear is ‘fancy a shag?’ Depressing isn’t it? In despair she turned to another bloke who she thought was a romantic at heart. He did at least disagree with the first guy. According to him the best chat up line is something along the lines of ‘fancy a shag? I don’t want to contact you again afterwards’. When up against this is it any wonder that most women don’t have romance in their lives?
One of the biggest misconceptions though is that you have to do large expensive gestures to be romantic like fancy meals out, jewellery and weekends in Rome. The truth is that it’s actually the smaller (and often free) gestures that are more romantic. One criticism that can never be levelled at my most recent ex is that he didn’t have a romantic bone in his body. Ok, so I rarely got flowers and get forgot Valentine’s Day the other year. Yet everyday he would compliment me on how I looked and everyday he would compliment me on something different. That to me is worth a bunch of flowers every day. Maybe if more guys understood this they might give romance more of a chance? Who knows but until they do I’m just going to have to be content watching Mr Darcy over my cup of coffee.