Northanger Abbey (BBC, 1986)
by Giles Foster
List Price:
Our Price: $8.99
You Save: $5.99 (40%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $4.65 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Geoffrey Chater, Googie Withers, Katharine Schlesinger, Peter Firth, Robert HardyDirector: Giles Foster
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Nat Crosby
Editor: Robin Sales
Producer: Louis Marks
Writer: Jane Austen
Writer: Maggie Wadey
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-04-19
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Warner
Movie Reviews of Northanger Abbey (BBC, 1986)
Movie Review: A Sparkling Spoof For all Seasons
Summary: 4 Stars
If PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is the most dramatized of the Jane Austen novels, NORTHANGER ABBEY is probably the least. This is the story of young Catherine Morland, who leaves her rustic country home for the cosmopolitan tourist town of Bath under the protection of her family friend, Mrs Allen. Miss Morland, a great novel reader, is especially fond of gothic thrillers (and would today probably be a great fan of the TWILIGHT series).
Katharine Schlesinger is perfect as the innocent, wide-eyed Miss Morland and I loved the movie's poetic device of showing us her romantic and slightly creepy reveries. The rest of the cast was also superb, including the witty Henry Tilney.
This edition gets a little too fluffy by not depicting the economic circumstances of the people involved. It glosses over the fact that both Miss Morland's father and Henry Tilney are clergymen, albeit on opposite ends of the economic spectrum. It plays fast and loose with the character of General Tilney, inventing a weird Frenchwoman companion and endowing him with gambling debts in defiance of Jane Austen's depiction of him as a very stern and proper father. Such divergence from the "sacred texts" forces me to knock off a star.
However, this movie shines in the portrayal of the main theme: the need to keep fact and fiction in their proper spheres. For fun, romance and a gentle but effective spoof of a type of literature that never completely goes out of style, I heartily recommend this movie edition of NORTHANGER ABBEY!
Summary of Northanger Abbey (BBC, 1986)
Young catherine moreland innocent & fresh from the country enters into the depraved society of bath with dreams sparked by her love of gothic romance novels. When she meets the dashing henry tilney the young heir of the mysterious northanger abbey she has difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 04/19/2005 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: NrJane Austen goes Gothic in this darkly dramatic rendering of her Northanger Abbey, a novel that wasn't published until after her early and sudden death. Austen pokes fun at her peers in this story, in which her heroine, Catherine Morland (Katharine Schlesinger), is hopelessly addicted to macabre romance novels that wreak havoc on her imagination. She comes from a large, but loving family, and she's taken, as a companion, to the decadent society of Bath. There, she meets the duplicitous Thorpe siblings, Isabella (Cassie Stuart) and John (Jonathan Coy), and the kindly Tilney sister and brother, Eleanor (Ingrid Lacey) and Henry (Peter Firth). The Tilneys also have an elder brother, the snobbish soldier Frederick (Greg Hicks), and an oddly eerie father, General Tilney (Robert Hardy). Needless to say, all this provides plenty of fodder for fantasies and Catherine comes up with many, even imagining all sorts of evils on a visit to the Tilney family home, Northanger Abbey. The soundtrack is more than a little melodramatic, but it's best to think of it as a humorous touch rather than a serious, punctuating one. --N.F. Mendoza
Comedy DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in My favourite well-loved movies....those I will watch over & over......
The Portrait of a LadyRelease date: 1997-11-19; DVD
Best price: $94.85
Henry James' The Turn of the ScrewRelease date: 2004-04-13; DVD
Best price: $10.66
Price in other shops:
Howards EndRelease date: 1999-04-06; DVD
Best price: $6.72
Price in other shops:
The House of MirthSony; Release date: 2001-05-29; DVD
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops:
The Age of InnocenceSony; Release date: 2001-11-06; DVD
Best price: $6.77
Price in other shops:
The Wings of the DoveBOHMAN CARTER,HELEN; Release date: 1999-09-14; DVD
Best price: $4.66
Price in other shops:
The Remains of the Day (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2001-11-06; DVD
Best price: $6.74
Price in other shops:
The Golden BowlLions Gate; Release date: 2001-11-06; DVD
Best price: $7.52
Price in other shops:
Howards End - The Merchant Ivory CollectionImage Entertainment; Release date: 2005-02-15; DVD
Best price: $14.78
Price in other shops:
The Breakfast Club (High School Reunion Collection)RINGWALD,MOLLY; Release date: 2003-09-02; DVD
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
PersuasionWarner Brothers; Release date: 2008-01-15; DVD
Best price: $13.74
Price in other shops:
MiddlemarchWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-04-19; DVD
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops:
Masterpiece Theatre: Northanger AbbeyWGBH BOSTON VIDEO; Release date: 2008-01-22; DVD
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops:
Pride and Prejudice - The Special Edition (A&E, 1996)AUSTEN,JANE; Release date: 2001-09-25; DVD
Best price: $16.95
Price in other shops:
Sense & Sensibility (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 1999-08-24; DVD
Best price: $5.78
Price in other shops:
EmmaRelease date: 1999-01-05; DVD
Best price: $4.94
Price in other shops:
Emma (A&E, 1997)A&E; Release date: 1999-10-26; Published: 1997-01-01; DVD
Best price: $7.91
Price in other shops:
Mansfield Park (BBC, 1986)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2004-08-24; DVD
Best price: $7.61
Price in other shops:
Mansfield Park (1999)Release date: 2000-07-11; DVD
Best price: $5.08
Price in other shops:
PersuasionSony; Release date: 2000-02-01; DVD
Best price: $6.62
Price in other shops: