The Little Princess (Cert. U) and Sense and Sensibility (Cert. U)
The Little Princess (Cert. U) is a beautiful exposition of the entirely Scriptural idea that everyone is special (see Psalm 139.13).
'Every little girl is a princess', says the heroine to the sour headmistress, Miss Minchin. 'Didn't your father ever tell you that?' And as she says it, she appears to grow taller and Miss Minchin, smaller. The film is loosely based on the excellent book by Frances Hodgson Burnett, but much is changed and it is better to see it as a variation on the same theme rather than a dramatisation of the original.
Sarah Crewe is a little girl who has enjoyed the privileges of wealth and the devoted love of her father. Of particular importance is the fact that Sarah has been raised on stories, and this fund of stories (from the India of her formative years) endears her to her fellow inmates at Miss Minchin's academy, a rigid and stifling institution, where every flight of the imagination is soundly shot down.
The need for and love of story is another theme of this book and it is a theme which again points to a creator God. Stories nourish Sarah when she is suddenly reduced to the life of a drudge. Stories have educated her emotions- not only can she dream and hope, she can love and give, even out of abject poverty. The film is a great delight, even if the ending goes a bit too far. Take your children, your granny and your box of tissues. Teachers, Secretaries of State for Education, and Ofsted inspectors should be forced to watch it, to remind them that that they must value the things that cannot be measured as much as those that can. Top neglect the development of the human spirit is foolish and dangerous.
'If thou of fortune be bereft
And of thine earthly store have left
Two loaves, sell one, and
with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed the soul.'
Austen at the cinema
Elinor and Marianne Dashwood have had hyacinths aplenty, in the much-praised Sense and Sensibility (Cert. U), Emma Thompson's adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. Exquisite scenery and very convincing acting make this film a treat for the eyes and the emotions.
It is a story of unkept promises and broken hearts, and although the setting is Regency England, the theme is timeless. All young, single girls dream of love, and the Dashwood girls are no exception. On the face of it, Elinor is all sense, Marianne all sensibility. Marianne passionately believes Shakespeare's assertion that 'love is not love which alters when it alteration finds', but learns painfully that a first passion can be misspent. Elinor, on the other hand, whom Marianne despises for her caution and self-control, exemplifies an enduring love, which looks on tempests and is never shaken. Marianne is the type who rushes out into the pouring rain, unsuitably clad; she faints, she gets fevers and a good deal of attention, before she sees where her interests truly lie.
Meanwhile, Elinor, in the face of disappointment, puts on her pinafore and sees to the vegetables. Look around you in the pew next Sunday. There are plenty of Mariannes and Elinors in our churches. The clothes are a little different, but many Christian young women feel just as helpless in securing a good husband (which is a worthy ambition, after all) as Jane Austen's heroines. They wish, they hope, they dream, they even pray. Foolishly, some wait for a dashing young Willoughby to sweep them up in his arms, and despise the quieter but more enduring qualities of a Colonel Brandon. And then there are the Elinors, whose patient and calm exteriors, hide in every case a beating heart and a depth of feeling rarely given the opportunity to show. (What a wonderful moment in the film, when it finally does.) Come on, you shy and stuttering young men, go to it!
