9 Pairings for Pride & Prejudice
PRIX FIXE #3: Recommendations from Fran Hoepfner, Mitra Jouhari, my mum + sister, & more!
Welcome to Prix Fixe, a series on Never Cursed where I pair a movie I love with a set menu of other things to enjoy (paintings, movies, music, poetry, etc.), each one resonating with the film in a different way.
For our first Prix Fixe “Potluck” I’ve gathered a smorgasbord of culture recommendations to pair with 2005’s Pride & Prejudice from some of my favorite writers, friends, & family. Pride & Prejudice just enjoyed a lengthy 20th anniversary theatrical rerelease, selling out theaters on both sides of the pond for weeks. It’s a movie that begs to be seen with a crowd, funny and gorgeous and breathtaking — a rare treat to see in theaters, or at home with a gaggle of pals.
Thank you so much to all the sweet friends who contributed to this Pride & Prejudice Prix Fixe, a delicious menu (“at least three courses!”) if I’ve ever seen one. I loved putting this together SO much. If there’s a movie you want to collaborate on for a guest post, DM me!
Fran’s Pick: The Music of Eric Coates, 2006
“I always go completely nuts whenever there's a dance or a ball scene in a movie, and not to be like "embrace tradition," but I think society lost something when we stopped hearing waltzes recreationally. I discovered the music of English composer Eric Coates listening to WQXR, and I love his light, airy music. There's an excerpt from his suite Summer Days on this album subtitled "At the Dance," and it has all the chaos and romance of a ball. Whirling strings, cheerful cymbals, and flirty woodwinds! I love the easy, romantic tone of the piece and how playful it sounds. Not for nothing, it's followed by Coates's The Three Elizabeths suite which... while named for royal Elizabeths specifically, maybe we can just pretend is about Lizzie Bennet.”
- Fran
Clare’s Pick: Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff
“The easy pairing for something to read with Pride & Prejudice would be another sweeping, classic, and/or historical romance. But I think the sheer endurance of Austen’s books as aspirational accounts of womanhood and romance is something to focus on: what from the contemporary will endure like this? When you think of current majors in romantic fiction, Colleen Hoover and Emily Henry could very easily depress you via the consideration, “if this is what’s popular now, romance as a genre just simply isn’t good anymore.” But it is! Big Fan couldn’t get more topical and contemporary, following a millennial “political strategist” who fantastically falls in love with her teenage crush: an ex-boybander, now her age and kind of washed up. It’s far more pulpy and to the point than Austen would be if she were alive today, but it takes your breath away in the same kind of quick wittedness and unbelievable romance. It was the best thing I read last year, and holds a candle to Pride & Prejudice’s depiction of “the way things are” for women who love.” - Clare
Dema’s Pick: Cinnamon Girl Cocktail
“I’ve made these a few times for parties I’ve hosted. You can’t serve a batch big enough. Like George Wickham they’re popular, sweet (then tart), and dangerous in excess." - Dema
Sophia’s Pick: Rev
“Watching Pride and Prejudice on a rainy Saturday at the AMC CityWalk in Los Angeles, I was struck by two new favourite points - one, Charlotte's line of "be grateful, Lizzie, if he liked you, you'd have to talk to him" (iconic), and two, Tom Hollander's performance... full stop. One of my favourite actors (more than Holland and Hiddleston combined), I am a huge fan of Rev, the actor's 2010 BBC comedy about a naive country vicar left in charge of a "socially disunited" East London congregation. Olivia Colman plays his wife, Liam Neeson plays God, and there's a scene where Rev debates stealing money from a charity bucket that I think about often. It's an ensemble comedy in the same vein as other masterpieces like Fleabag, This Way Up, etc... just instead of a codependent, early-30 year old woman with repressed grief to unpack, it's a priest who occasionally gets overwhelmed and drinks too much, kisses the wrong woman, etc. Oh, and fourteen years before Conclave... Ralph Fiennes plays a very funny Bishop of London. Watch Rev, and then read Hollander's Sunday Times "A Life in the Day" from COVID lockdown 1. Another quintessential Hollander... masterpiece.”- Sophia
Mitra’s Pick: Discovering A New Crush
“I recently had the pleasure of watching Pride & Prejudice for the first time EVER at the 20th anniversary re-release. I cannot recommend watching this movie in a room full of giggling, shrieking 16-year-old girls enough (to be clear, I was giggling and shrieking too — SO MANY HOT PEOPLE!). Since then I have been asking friends who their formative cinematic crushes were and giving those movies a shot. Discovering a new crush (or reigniting an old one) scratches my prepubescent lizard brain in ways I didn’t know I needed. Matthew Macfadyen 4 life!!!” - Mitra
Emily Spinach’s Picks: Max Richter’s War Anthem + An Ever-Fixed Mark
“When I got asked if I wanted to contribute a recommendation or two for this piece, I was standing at the kettle in my pyjamas and two pieces of media came immediately to mind. I thought they were terrible ideas and I should come up with far more grownup and literary ideas. But then, my engagement with Pride and Prejudice has never been grownup or literary. I fell in love with the 2005 Pride and Prejudice when it struck me dumb and had me staring into space in the playground because I couldn’t bear to think about anything else. So here are my irrational recommendations. I can never quite describe the feeling I got when I watched Pride and Prejudice for the first time and, particularly, how I felt when I heard the soundtrack. Mr Darcy walking across the countryside at dawn is one of the greatest musical moments of my life. There’s something deep, keening, and pitiful that wakes up in me – not pitiful the way you feel sad for a cold animal, pitiful the way your soul reaches out to a sublime view of ancient mountains. The only other piece of music that has stopped my soul in its tracks so hard is Max Richter’s War Anthem from his ballet based on the life of Virginia Woolf, Woolf Works. I can’t tell you why it would be linked to Pride and Prejudice apart from the fact that this music makes me want to sit on my own in the playground staring into space, too wonderstruck to speak to another person. My other recommendation is for a text I haven’t read yet, which I know sounds crazy. The thing I love most about the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie is that it’s not just a film I love, it’s a film I’ve loved in community with others. The fact I’m contributing to this essay is a beautiful aspect of that; we love this film together. It’s a world we bring others into and carry together like a shared path home. The other day, I asked one of my closest friends what her favourite fanfiction she’d ever read was and she mentioned An Ever-Fixed Mark, a novel-length rewrite of Pride and Prejudice with multiple potential endings to choose between, set in a world where people carry the identifying mark of their one true soulmate on their skin. I can’t honestly tell you if it’s good – I haven’t started it yet. But it was recommended to me by someone I love, who loves this film as deeply as I do, and probably as deeply as you do. I’ve always felt like fanfiction is a pure and complete expression of community. Writing five hundred thousand words in response to Pride and Prejudice, to post for free, anonymously, on a website where no one knows your name and you won’t earn any money, is something you only do motivated by the joy of loving something in a community. Pride and Prejudice is out of copyright. You can just write a novel about it if you want. But someone whose name I don’t know chose to give me this work for free, as a gift. My friend sent me the link and now I'm sending you the link. This is how women love things together. Writing these paragraphs for this essay has inspired me to start reading An Ever-Fixed Mark on the train tomorrow. If you want to read it alongside me, we’ll be nestling down in our shared homeland together.” - Emily
Odette’s Pick*: Noguchi Sculptures
*my mom!
“When I saw P&P in the theater last month, I noticed so many things, having only seen the film on small screen TVs (100 times+, but still). You don’t notice until you notice and then there it is: a tiny detail that changes your perception. Isamu Noguchi’s sculptures are full of these surprising, subtle, movements in texture: a rough stone chip-carved into a perfect ovoid and at its center is an even rougher carved ledge. It’s a juxtaposition that you might walk past: a rounded rock on a pedestal, unremarkable until you notice the regularity of the chip marks, and then the plunge into the center. In the same way, you might not be wowed by the everyday brown dress Lizzie Bennet wears until your eyes fasten on that teeny tiny gauze trim that surrounds her neckline. The brown dress immediately leaps from Plain Jane to fascinating detail.” - Odette
Oona’s Pick*: RIBBONS!
*my sister!
“In Joe Wright's adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, ribbons are meticulously woven into the script and costumes (literally) to embody the social norms and expectations of England in the early 1800s. They serve as symbols of femininity, status, and the constraints of societal roles. Today, the modern use of ribbons often rejects traditional gender norms, using them to celebrate individuality and self-expression rather than conforming to societal expectations. The ribbon craze of 2024, seen in brands like Sandy Liang, reflected a shift towards a more fluid understanding of gender identity and an industry-wide exploration of girlhood in contemporary fashion. Affordable access to ribbons makes the fashion trend an easy way for people to DIY their clothes at a low cost and demonstrate their creative individuality to the world. From Pride & Prejudice to now, ribbons are meaningful adornments that enhance personal expression across different eras and generations.” - Oona
My Pick: Joe Wright on Team Deakins + A Long Walk
I finally felt settled in NY when I found my favorite neighborhood walk, and I do a loop through the Botanic Gardens whenever I can. There’s grass and trees and if no sirens drive past the fences I can pretend I’m in an English country field, or at least a park in London. My favorite interview podcast to listen to on these walks is Team Deakins, hosted by the titular team of Roger & James Deakins. It’s the first and most comprehensive anti-auteurist look at film craft that I’ve encountered, placing interviews with costume designers, sound mixers, and ADs on the same footing as conversations with much-interviewed directors. Their chat with P&P director Joe Wright is so sweet it made me cry. Hearing about things like the discovery of the Bennet sisters’ shared laugh during rehearsals and the influence of Wright’s parent’s puppet theater (!?) on his work added even more depth to my enjoyment of a movie I have seen about 5,000 times. I can’t think of anything better than listening to this interview on my favorite long walk, showing up at my destination with a nest of wind-whipped hair, Lizzy Bennet-style. - xo H
Love this concept!!