Taglines: Jane Austen’s Wicked Comedy.
Mansfield Park movie storyline. At 10, Fanny Price, a poor relation, goes to live at Mansfield Park, the estate of her aunt’s husband, Sir Thomas. Clever, studious, and a writer with an ironic imagination and fine moral compass, she becomes especially close to Edmund, Thomas’s younger son.
Fanny is soon possessed of beauty as well as a keen mind and comes to the attention of a neighbor, Henry Crawford. Thomas promotes this match, but to his displeasure, Fanny has a mind of her own, asking Henry to prove himself worthy. As Edmund courts Henry’s sister and as light shines on the link between Thomas’s fortunes and New World slavery, Fanny must assess Henry’s character and assert her heart as well as her wit.
Mansfield Park is a 1999 British romantic comedy-drama film based on Jane Austen’s novel of the same name, written and directed by Patricia Rozema. The film departs from the original novel in several respects. For example, the life of Jane Austen is incorporated into the film, as well as the issues of slavery and plantation life. The majority of the film was made at Kirby Hall in Northamptonshire.
Slavery in the Movie
Austen’s novel mentions slavery on several occasions but does not elaborate on it. Most notably, in the novel, Fanny asks a question about the slave trade to Sir Thomas and is not answered. The film includes slavery as a central plot point, including explicit descriptions of the treatment of slaves (e.g. Fanny finds violent drawings of the treatment of slaves in Tom’s room); numerous reminders of how Bertram family owes its wealth to slavery, as well as England’s role in the slave trade.
The role and influence of slavery in the world of Mansfield Park is emphasized from the start of the film. Fanny sees a slave ship on her initial journey to the family, asks her coachman about it and receives an explanation. A parallel is drawn between Fanny’s role as a woman and a poor relative in the Bertram family, and the role of slaves.
Tom Bertram’s return from Antigua is motivated by his disgust with what he has seen there, and this disgust is reinforced by a journal that Fanny finds at Mansfield Park showing apparently criminal events occurring in Antigua that involve Sir Thomas. At the end of the film a voiceover also informs the viewer that Sir Thomas has divested from his estates in Antigua, presumably as a form of redemption.
Mansfield Park (1999)
Directed by: Patricia Rozema
Starring: Embeth Davidtz, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola, Frances O’Connor, Harold Pinter, Lindsay Duncan, Sheila Gish, James Purefoy, Victoria Hamilton
Screenplay by: Patricia Rozema
Production Design by: Christopher Hobbs
Cinematography by: Michael Coulter
Film Editing by: Martin Walsh
Costume Design by: Andrea Galer
Set Decoration by: Patricia Edwards
Art Direction by: Andrew Munro
Music by: Lesley Barber
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief violent images, sexual content and drug use.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: November 19, 1999
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