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EMMA – Rachel Portman
THROWBACK THIRTY
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The mid-1990s were an extraordinary time for Jane Austen on screen. Within a remarkably short period audiences were treated to Roger Michell’s Persuasion, Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, Andrew Davies’s enormously popular BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth, Amy Heckerling’s contemporary Emma reworking, Clueless, and finally this more traditional version of Emma, released theatrically in the summer of 1996. The film was written and directed by Douglas McGrath, who was making his feature directing debut after having earned an Academy Award nomination for co-writing Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway in 1994. It stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Emma Woodhouse, a wealthy, intelligent, confident young woman living in the English village of Highbury who has convinced herself that she possesses an exceptional talent for matchmaking. Unfortunately, Emma understands almost everyone’s romantic feelings except her own. Read more…
EMMA – Isobel Waller-Bridge, David Schweitzer
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
What a year it has been for the Waller-Bridge sisters. Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the actress and writer, won Emmys and Golden Globes and BAFTAs galore for her work on the second season of the brilliant BBC comedy series Fleabag, and also for her work as the creator of the drama series Killing Eve, before being hired to polish the screenplay for the upcoming James Bond film No Time to Die. Now Phoebe’s composer sister, Isobel Waller-Bridge, has followed up her own success writing the ironic choral music for Fleabag with this wonderful period score for a new literary adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma. Waller-Bridge has teamed up with another English composer, David Schweitzer, a child prodigy who has a massive amount of experience writing for documentaries and animated TV series, and contributing additional music on shows like The White Princess, Vanity Fair, Victoria, and The Crown. With the possible exception of Fleabag, this is the most high profile above-the-title score of both composers’ careers, and if the music here is anything to go by, we will be hearing lots from them in the future. Read more…
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