angelosdaughter

Insight into a part of history most of us have never heard of: what happened to the white Russian troops after the Bolsheveiks won. I didn't find it tedious. Junker didn't get to live a life. The scene in which the woman watching him sleep. Is caressing his hair, saying that she now knows what he was like as a little boy coupled with the scene of him alone in the rented room sobbing on the bed bring home just how young he was, and how far from home. The boy he befriended in the village who, despite his appearance was well-educated was a symbol of the future that Junker would not see. The boy's determination to return Junker's watch even to carrying it as an adult until he reunited it with its owner, and standing on the boat as it passes the ship saluting Junker who was hailing him was poignant. It is posssible that the adult was now a Bolsheveik.

The smirking nose wrinkling Kiera Knightly as an anything but witty and intelligent Elizabeth, Donald Sutherland's almost comatose version of Mr. Bennett, and the shambling oaf Matthew MacFayden as Mr. Darcy (who was acted so elegantly and arrogantly as in my opinion, the perfect Mr. Darcy played by David Rintoul in the 1980 version-my favorite, as well as the actor playing Bingley as a silly spiritless creature dominated by Darcy.. Then there is the execrable lending scene of the now married Elizabeth and Darcy on the balcony with her instructing him as to what affectionate endearments and when he can bestow them upon her. Oh, please! This version is not Austen or rather Austen for the short attention span. Pride and Prejudice cannot be done justice in a movie of only a couple of hours. I recommend the BBC serial versions of 1980 or 1995 if one wants to experience the spirit of the novel.

Her novel "The Other Boleyn Girl" was so far from history that reading it removed my desire to read anything else by her, I can only imagine what havoc she has played in The Spanish Princess with the story of Katherine of Aragon and Henry VIII in this series based on a novel she wrote. The producers should have hired someone with at least a passing acquaintance with the history and the historical personages.