Formative Performances: Jennifer Ehle in “Pride and Prejudice”

The Oscars are over, and while much has rightly been said of a certain host making certain crass jokes that alienated the core Oscar audience all for the sake of increasing the appeal to the precious, more-important-than-ANYTHING 18-49 male demographic, I’m going to ignore that for now and focus on the positives: ANG LEE WON BEST DIRECTOR AND DJANGO UNCHAINED WON BEST SCREENPLAY! The second is not much of a surprise, but the first is, and I am so happy. Ang Lee is lovely and he makes movies I love, and Tarantino is creepy but also makes movies I love, so to have them both win in the same year, for movies I adored in completely different ways, makes me bounce in my seat.

Also, can we talk about the fact that I was wrong in 4 of my 8 predictions in the top 8 categories? That’s amusingly pathetic. I’ve gotten 6/8 or even 7/8 in years where I’d seen barely any of the nominees. It just goes to show that seeing all of the movies doesn’t make you a better prognosticator.

Anyway, enough of that, because I won’t be talking about movies for the rest of the month – not on this blog, anyway. March is Women’s History Month, which means it’s time for a return of my Formative Performances series. For the next 31 days, I will be writing about 31 female performances that have moved me, entertained me, and/or changed my way of thinking – only this time, I’m moving away from the glittery world of cinema and slumming in the third world of television.

My first choice as a formative performance shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who knows me. Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice has been (correctly) described as the ideal Mr. Darcy, but the six-part miniseries wouldn’t be the success it is without Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet. Her default expression – the knowing smile she wears in every scene – is perfect for Austen’s most popular heroine, the smart, spirited Lizzy who’s cleverer and more perceptive than most of the people around her (and knows it, too). I’ve included several clips of Pride and Prejudice in my blog, so today I’m going to highlight the wonderful second proposal scene, where she humbles herself and shows gratitude to Mr. Darcy, only to discover that he’s still in love with her. Watch as Lizzy’s smile of understanding and self-satisfaction broadens into a smile of barely contained joy, as she finally admits to him (and to herself) that she’s fallen in love with him, too.

So of course she can’t help joking with Jane that she’s only marrying him because of his awesome house. Oh, Lizzy. Don’t ever change, and don’t ever take life too seriously.