I can't quite recall: I know I was exposed to Austen in a literature class I took around 2004 in community college. But I was also flipping through cable channels once around the same time and came across the ending to what was clearly a late 80's/early 90's movie or show. I knew it was something Austen-related and thought it was Pride and Prejudice. So I eventually watched P&P, the 90's series one with Colin Firth, and really liked it. But that wasn't the one from cable I saw.
I later tracked down the show I saw as a mid-nineties adaptation of Persuasion starring Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root and it's among my favorite movies. It's short and to the point. The characters act and look like believable characters while still being total caricatures: the vain, snobby rich people; the snobbier rich people; the down-to-earth new money sailors; the woe-is-me emo who's into poetry; the hypochondriac sister; the smarmy cousin that's just after a buck. The costuming and make-up was purposefully subdued so the people look, dare I say, normal. Even the lighting was purposefully subdued so it doesn't look like your regular, overly-polished Austen adaptation. There's multiple scenes where the characters converse or dance to candlelight. They go out into the countryside and to the seashore, so it's not as if the entire movie is in some stuffy room. I watch it when I need a cozy movie that's not a Ghibli movie.
To summarize it: it's about
a Christmas cake an "old maid" named Anne Elliot who is the middle of three daughters to a widowed, vain, overly-pompous baronet. She wanted to marry for love but was
persuaded not to because her husband-to-be Frederick Wentworth was a poor sailor. She deeply regrets this choice and becomes a wilted flower of a person who has no interest in marrying anyone else or even dancing. Around 8 years pass and Anne's stupid father has spent way too much of their money so they have to rent their family estate out to the rich Admiral Croft. Admiral Croft got rich from the naval prize money and so did his brother-in-law, who happens to be Captain Frederick Wentworth. And it's not so much "oh, now he's rich" but the fact that he's actually back in her life (through their social circle) and all of that regret from her youth is now slapping her in the face. But she knows she broke his heart and has no business saying anything further than a greeting to him. He, meanwhile, is looking for a wife and they end up together again by the end of the movie sailing the high seas in happiness.
But, yeah, I know Austen adaptations can be stuffy. I think the 90's Persuasion is on the lower end of the stuffy meter. It lets you know it's a period piece but doesn't wallow in the fact. I have tried watching other adaptations and I get bored when they're too stuffy. There's an 80's Pride and Prejudice series that's really stuffy but it has my favorite version of Mr. Darcy as played by David Rintoul. The 90's Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth is one I also find on the lower end of the stuffy meter but it's five episodes at around forty minutes a piece so if it's not your thing it will feel like a slog. I like Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson (even though a bunch of character ages are all wrong) but the circumstances of the characters just makes me angry. (The good characters mostly get financially shafted and the bad characters basically get all the money they wanted.)
I don't recall how stuffy the Kiera Knightly Price and Prejudice is because I hate that movie. Everybody and their mother loves it, it's their favorite, and they all go gaga over Matthew McFayden's Mr. Darcy when he literally looks wet and dirty in every other promo pic. (Everything looks wet and dirty in that movie to me.) Colin Firth and David Rintoul's Mr. Darcys look contemplative and reserved. McFayden's Mr. Darcy looks like he has no fucking soul. Thanks, I hate it.
I actually haven't completely sat through any version of Emma (other than Clueless), Northhanger Abbey, or Mansfield Park nor have I even read those. I found them a bit boring. I've come pretty close to getting through Emma. I spaced out somewhat so I don't count that as me having watched the whole thing. But the other two outright put me to sleep. Maybe I'll try them again someday.
