A Love of Literature Jane Austen Movie Club bonds over period films
SAXONBURG — The lights dim and the sound of traffic on the street outside fades. Soon the audience is caught up in a tale of snoods and reticules and children dropped off on the doorsteps of embarrassed fathers.
For the first time in over a year, the Jane Austen Movie Club was meeting in the South Butler Community Library, 240 W. Main St.
Founder of the club, Susan Scheib Przybylek of Sarver, said she started the group because of a love of Jane Austen, the 18th century author of “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility.”
Academics hold Austen in high esteem for her social commentary, humor and examination of women's roles in genteel society.
Przybylek said, “I read Jane Austen and I was enthralled by the history.”
Setting out to find other devotees of Austen's world of landed gentry, secret engagements and grand country estates, Przybylek used word of mouth to gather together 12 to 15 people three years ago to form the group.
Karen Walker of Saxonburg, a retired paralegal, said, “I stumbled onto this group. I had come into the library to use the Internet and they invited me to stay.”
Walker brought her two Knoch High School classmates, Susan Hall of Cabot and Susan Smith of Butler into the club.
Susan Thomas of Butler knew Przybylek when they were both Civil War re-enactors.
The Jane Austen Movie Club meets at 1 p.m. on the last Friday of the month to watch a movie or TV adaptation of a novel set in the 18th century.
The members soon realized they would have to expand their scope beyond Austen, who only wrote six novels in her lifetime — “Northanger Abbey,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Pride and Prejudice,” “Mansfield Park,” “Emma” and “Persuasion” — as well as two unfinished novels, “Sanditon” and “The Watsons.”
Members added movie and miniseries adaptations of works by Anthony Trollope, Henry James and Sir Walter Scott among others to their viewing schedule.
They particularly like productions that are filmed in England for the gorgeous location shooting.
But this isn't a reserved or reverent audience. Clothing that was wrong for the period or just wrong will bring a chorus of jeers.
Przybylek said, “The clothing has to be of the time. A prom dress is not authenticity. We try to be as historic as possible. We are not the Red Hat Society.”
Przybylek brought a selection of authentic period bonnets, fans, stockings, underbonnets and other clothing that she made herself to the meeting.“Each one of us has a unique perspective on what we are watching,” she said. “We boo and hiss. We really get involved.”“A snood is a woven net that holds your hair in place,” said Thomas.A reticule is a small handbag that came in different sizes and styles, said Przybylek, and was either carried or tied to a woman's waist.That expertise extends to the animals shown on the screen. Club members Lorrie Simmons of Penn Township, Thomas and Walker are or have been horse owners.Thomas said, “We see horses on the screen and we say, 'Look! Is that a hackney?'”All the members present this Friday to watch “The Girl,” based on the 1977 novel by Catherine Cookson, agreed that the English movies and miniseries were superior to the American versions of their favorite novels.English versions were more authentic, while Hollywood was prone to take too many liberties with the stories.Thomas came too late to the “Outlander” series of novels by Diana Galbadon, detailing the adventures of a 20th-century who time travels to 18th-century Scotland and finds romance with the Highland warrior Jamie Fraser.But that late start didn't stop her from taking a 10-day tour of Scotland to various locales described in the novels.“If you saw the site of the Battle of Culloden, there's a Fraser memorial,” said Thomas. “It's a memorial to the Fraser clan. Jamie Fraser is a fictional character.”What's the appeal of the romantic and financial trials of men and women of three hundred years ago?“The clothing and the manners,” said Simmons.“The romance and the setting,” said Smith.“The language is clever,” said Walker.“It's the dry sense of humor,” said Hall.Przybylek said although the films can deal with betrayal, infidelity and a rigid class system, the time period makes it seem more removed. Their challenges don't seem so immediate.And after the movie is over, there's food to share as well as opinions — such as whether Colin Firth is the superior Mr. Darcy — and an appreciation of a surprisingly good portrayal by Sally Field as the “good aunt” in “David Copperfield.”The Jane Austen Movie Club also ventures out of the library to events such as “Outlander” teas at Hartwood Acres and Succop Nature Park.“I think I come for the camaraderie,” said Przybylek.Anyone interested in sharing that camaraderie and an interest the manners and mores of a bygone era are invited to attend the next meeting of the Jane Austen Movie Club at 1 p.m. July 30 in the library. The club will be screening “Tess of the d'Urbervilles.”
