The Unofficial Chronology of Dame Judi Dench's Career 

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 Pride and Prejudice
Film -- 2004     In Theatres -- 2005
Dame Judi as Mr. Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Working Title Films Website         Official UK Website
IMDb Webpage         DVD         Soundtrack CD
Trailer # 01       Trailer # 02       Trailer # 03
Last Updated:  November 25, 2006


WMP Video Clip # 01 of Dame Judi's first scene from the film
Windows Media Player Required   ( 6:28 Minutes )

WMP Video Clip # 02 of Dame Judi's second scene from the film
Windows Media Player Required   ( 3:03 Minutes )

See below for more Screen Captures from these scenes -- from the trailers that are available

 


"Daily Variety" -- January 19, 2006
Joe Wright, director
An article connected with the Sundance Film Festival that is titled,
"10 Directors to Watch."

Thanks to Connie E, USA, for scanning and sharing this



 


Pride and Prejudice
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Pride & Prejudice
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Pride & Prejudice Soundtrack CD
Buy New: £14.99
Available for Order at Amazon.co.uk
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CineMedia Promotions generously donated
(4) CD's to be given away by this Website.

Giveaway # 01 -- the 11th Person to submit an entry to win was
Nancy S, MD, USA

Giveaway # 02 -- the 15th Person to submit an entry to win was
Bess M, VA, USA

Giveaway # 03 -- the 23rd Person to submit an entry to win was
Lisa R, CT. USA

Giveaway # 04 -- the   9th Person to submit an entry to win was
Shirley B, PA. USA
 


Official Press Release

JANE AUSTEN'S CLASSIC TALE OF ROMANCE AND WIT

PRIDE & PREJUDICE FEATURING ORIGINAL MUSIC BY DARIO MARIANELLI

WITH PERFORMANCES BY ACCLAIMED PIANIST AND DECCA RECORDING ARTIST JEAN-YVES THIBAUDET

**SOUNDTRACK TO BE RELEASED ON NOVEMBER 8TH ON DECCA**

(October 5th, 2005- New York, NY)- The glorious world of Jane Austen is at last brought back to the big screen in all its romance, wit, and emotional  force in Pride & Prejudice, which Focus Features releases in theaters this holiday season. Directed by Joe Wright, the classic tale of love and misunderstanding unfolds in class-conscious England near the close of the 18th century. The soundtrack
features an original score by Italian-born composer Dario Marianelli (The Brothers Grimm) with performances by Decca artist and French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and will be released on November 8th on Decca.

The hauntingly beautiful and mesmerizing soundtrack exudes a feeling of empowering romanticism coupled with great emotional suspense builders. Music is an integral part of the film, with the main piano theme used as both background music and as source music when one of the characters plays the
instrument on-screen. "Darcy's Letter" and "Leaving Netherfield" put forth a somber feeling, while "Meryton Townhall" is an uplifting jig providing a sense of whimsy present in the personalities of the film's  younger characters. Weaving piano melodies into the sweeping score enhances the beautiful cinematography and sweep of the love stories. In addition to the piano theme, Marianelli has also reworked the popular Rondeau from Purcell's Abdelazer to depict the dance scenes, and the overall effect fully complements the touching on-screen action. 

Adding his rich piano playing to the score, Jean-Yves Thibaudet began his musical studies in France at the tender age of 5. At age 12, he entered the Paris Conservatory where he studied with Aldo Ciccolini and Lucette Descaves, a friend and collaborator of Ravel. At age 15, Thibaudet won the premier Prix du Conservatoire, and three years later he won the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York. In 2001, the Republic of  France awarded him the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 2002, Jean-Yves was awarded the Premio Pegasus from the Spoleto Festival for his artistic achievements and his longstanding involvement with the festival.

The French pianist has received much praise from the press; The New York Times stated ".the joy, brilliance and musicality of his performance could not be missed," while The Los Angeles Times was quoted as saying he is a "virtuoso with pronounced and admirable musical depth."

Dario Marianelli has been composing music for films for about ten years. Born in Pisa, he studied piano and composition in Florence and London. After a year as postgraduate composer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he received a scholarship from the Gulbenkian Foundation for a course held
on the subject of Composition and Choreography. Other scholarships allowed him to go to Germany for a series of workshops on European Film Music. He spent three years at the National Film and Television
School, from which he graduated in 1997. His credits include scoring the BAFTA Award-winning In This World and The Warrior. Over the last few years, Dario has written music for several feature films, TV dramas, documentaries, animations, theatre, contemporary dance and concerts. Most recently he scored the music for The Brothers Grimm.  Faithful to the setting and the period of the beloved novel and filmed  entirely on location in the U.K., the film revolves around the five Bennet sisters - Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), Jane (Rosamund Pike), Lydia (Jena Malone), Mary (Talulah Riley), and Kitty (Carey Mulligan) - who have been raised well aware of their mother's (two-time Academy Award nominee >> Brenda Blethyn) fixation on finding them husbands and securing set futures. The spirited and intelligent Elizabeth, however, strives to live her life with a broader perspective, as encouraged by her doting father (two-time Golden Globe Award winner Donald Sutherland). When wealthy bachelor Mr. Bingley  (Simon Woods) takes up residence in a nearby mansion, the Bennets are abuzz.  Eldest daughter Jane, serene and beautiful, seems poised to win Mr. Bingley's heart. For her part, Elizabeth meets with the handsome and - it would seem - snobbish Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen), and the battle of the sexes is joined. The ensuing rush of feelings leaves no one unchanged, and inspires the Bennets and everyone around them to reaffirm what is most important in life.

Focus Features will release Pride & Prejudice, which also stars Academy Award-winner Judi Dench, in
select cities on November 11th with a nationwide expansion on November 23rd.
 

A Special Thank You to Beth K, CineMedia Promotions, for sending me this info and CD's


Click on this link to watch a Video Clip Trailer of Lady Catherine and Elizabeth

 


A radiant take on a classic love story

November 12, 2005 -- By Wesley Morris -- Boston Globe

On hand to torment Elizabeth is the epically supercilious Lady Catherine, Darcy's aunt. The role falls to Judi Dench, whose skin is tight and tanned and whose hair has been piled up and swept back into a great gray mane that makes her look so entertainingly ferocious she could be the MGM lion.

Click here to read the entire Review

 


Excerpt from
The New York Times Review -- November 10, 2005

Late in the movie, Dame Judi Dench storms onto the screen as Mr. Darcy's imperious aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourg, to offer a tutorial on British snobbery. Elocution curdled with contempt and kept on ice; upwardly tilted facial posturing with narrowing eyes; and the deployment of artful humiliation, as when Lady Catherine coerces Elizabeth into playing the piano (very badly): all are laid out to be studied by mean-spirited future grandes dames on both sides of the Atlantic ...

Click on the link above to read the entire Review
 


Meet the puppet master

Liz Hoggard meets Joe Wright, director of the new Pride and Prejudice,
and discovers why he is a name to watch

Sunday September 11, 2005 -- The Observer

He's made one of the hottest British movies of the year, but director Joe Wright's approach to filming Pride & Prejudice was somewhat bizarre. He thought of it as a puppet show. Not, you understand, because he considers his stellar cast wooden. But because he grew up with marionettes. His parents founded Islington's Little Angel Theatre.

'Pride is the closest thing I've done to one of my dad's puppet shows because of the energy and the atmosphere. Whenever I cast a character, I think, "How would I make a puppet of them?" My mum always dressed the witches in red, so you'll notice Caroline Bingley is wearing green and red in the film, and I really like the way the Bennets live in a house surrounded by a moat. It's like five virgins living on an island.'

Best known for the TV drama Charles II: the Power and the Passion, Wright was the surprise choice to direct Working Title's big screen adaptation. 'It was terrifying,' he admits. 'But fear drives me. Every morning during shooting I was crying my eyes out, but that's part of the thrill. I feel more in touch with the world when I'm filming.'

Wright gives us Austen with 'a muddy hem'; not surprising when social-realist director Alan Clarke is his hero. Nature Boy, Wright's 2001 breakthrough, was a wonderfully raw TV drama about a boy's quest to find his father, in the mould of Clarke or Ken Loach.

You sense that eyebrows must have been raised when he didn't want to cast Keira Knightley. 'I thought Lizzie Bennet maybe should be someone slightly plainer. Darcy's attracted to her because of the liveliness of her mind. But then when I met Keira I discovered her to be this incredibly vital, independent-minded, scruffy tomboy. There are so many actresses out there who look alike with their perfectly ironed hair. I like actors who surprise me.'

He got Judi Dench on board by writing her a letter saying 'I love it when you play a bitch', and petitioned Donald Sutherland to take the part of Mr Bennet. 'We ended up having a long email correspondence about everything from 18th-century agriculture to my relationship with my father. I cast Donald a) because he's a god, and b) because you needed someone of that strength to handle those six women.'

Colin Firth is a hard act to follow. But Wright draws a wonderfully nuanced, erotic performance from Matthew MacFadyen. 'For a film with not a single kiss in it, there's a lot of sex in there,' he says. 'I'm not very blokey. On set with the actors I'm a bit of a softie and try and tap into men's tender side. I know nothing about football.'

When we meet, Wright, 33, is nursing a killer hangover after a week of premieres. I'd assumed he'd be an Oxbridge type. But he's working-class and ferociously bright. 'I've lived on the same page of the A-Z all my life. People think Islington is so trendy, but it's all surface.'

Dyslexic, he left school with no O-levels. But after improv workshops at the Anna Scher theatre school, he was cast in an RCA film. 'I realised you could go to art school without qualifications if you had a body of work. I had my paintings and my Super8 films, so I was accepted to do fine art and film at Camberwell.'

The other plus of Pride & Prejudice is Rosamund Pike's quite lovely performance as Jane. During filming Wright and Pike became an item. 'I cast her because I knew she wasn't going to play her as a nice, simple person. Jane has a real interior world, she has her heart broken.'

Acting is an incestuous business and Bingley is played by Pike's ex-boyfriend Simon Woods. Wright admits it could have been tense, but credits them both for their generosity. 'I tried very hard not to cast Simon, but I knew he was perfect. Finally I rang Ros and asked if she'd mind, and she said, "Absolutely not". They hadn't seen each other for two years but the next day they were dancing together. It was lovely.

'Ros gets funny press,' he observes. 'People seem to think she's very cold and Sloaney, probably because of the Bond film. But she's warm and loving and has these amazing parents, both opera singers. She's one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. She's far cleverer than I am.'

Wright's next move confirms his position as our brightest emerging director: he's landed the coveted job of making Ian McEwan's Atonement, adapted by Christopher Hampton.

So far most of his films have been quite tormented, often about father-son relationships. 'My father was 65 when I was born so we didn't have much time together,' he says. But he's mellowing. 'Pride is my first film with a happy ending. Before, I naively thought they were a cop-out, but now I've come to believe that happy endings and wish fulfilment are an incredibly important part of our cultural life.'

 


Connie E, USA -- Account of "Pride &Prejudice"
August 28, 2005

I was lucky enough to attend an advance screening of "Pride &Prejudice" in West Hollywood. The screening was primarily for members of Screen Actors Guild and their guests. There was a Q&A with Keira Knightley following the screening with moderator Lou Diamond Phillips. The audience reaction was excellent. I think that most of them did not know that Judi Dench was in the film. When she appeared on screen, a murmur went up through the audience. Judi doesn't show up for quite a while into the story. The initial long scene got a great reaction. It is funny, and people were laughing and enjoying. There is one shorter scene later in the film. Not enough of Judi in it, but is there ever?

During the Q&A Phillips asked Keira Knightley about working with famous British actors. She said she was petrified doing "Love Actually." She said the same was true for the initial read-through of the script with Judi Dench and Donald Sutherland at the table. There was a 2 and a half week rehearsal period, which she said was unusual for a film - more like theatre. She said, however that working with Judi was the best day because Judi kept forgetting her lines - just couldn't get them at all - and Keira said that made her feel so much better knowing that she wasn't the only one who could do that. She also said that both Judi and Donald S. were just as excited the first day of filming as were the two girls playing her sisters who were in their first film. She thought that was great. She said that with so many young actors in the film that there was a great social life during the shoot, which was entirely on location. Donald Sutherland won't let anyone smoke around him. They finally got him to come to one of the parties, and he showed up in a full gas mask so that everybody else who wanted could smoke!

Claudie Blakley, who was with Judi on stage in "All's Well That Ends Well" plays one of the sisters. Rosamund Pike, who was in "Die Another Day" was also one of the Bennet sisters.  Penelope Wilton, who was in "Iris" is also in the cast. The scenery is beautiful. Having been to two of the locations, I noticed that they are interchanged a bit. Some of the indoor scenes that were supposed to be at Pemberly (Chatsworth) were actually from Burghley House(the house where Dench's character lives). KK also said that the actors' input was solicited about their costumes as they related to their characters.

Keira was very likeable but really got my attention when she said - unsolicited - that Judi Dench was the "nicest - I mean the nicest - woman in the entire world."

 

A special thanks to Connie E. for sharing this with us

 


 


Click here to watch another Trailer
Thanks to Lynn for sharing this


 


Pride and Prejudice Comingsoon.net Online Webpage        Keira Knightley Website
(includes a link for the Quicktime / WMP Trailers)                                                                        

Click here to watch the WMP Video Clip of the Trailer
( 2:26 Minutes )

Note:  These images in this format are exclusive to this website

 


Release dates
Country Date
CA 11 September 2005 -- Toronto Intl Film Festival
UK 16 September 2005  --  UK Premiere is 5 September 2005
Netherlands 22 September 2005
USA 23 September 2005
Finland 30 September 2005
Belgium 4 January 2006
Czech Republic 5 January 2006
Sweden 6 January 2006
Germany 16 February 2006
Switzerland 16 February 2006 (German speaking region)

US cities -- November 11th:  New York, NY - Chicago, IL - Boston, MA - Washington DC - San Francisco - Portland, OR - Philadelphia - Minneapolis - Los Angeles - Dallas, TX - Seattle, WA - Houston, TX - Miami, FL - West Palm - San Diego, CA - Atlanta, GA - Baltimore, MD - Denver, CO - Detroit, MI - Palm Springs - Phoenix, AZ - Sacramento - St. Louis, MO - Salt Lake City - Milwaukee, WI - Hartford, CT - Kansas City - Austin, TX - Tucson, AZ - San Antonio, TX - Buffalo, NY - Albany, NY - Charlotte, NC - Cincinnati, OH - Pittsburgh, PA - Indianapolis, IN - Memphis, TN - New Orleans - Oklahoma City - Cleveland, OH - Tampa, FL - Las Vegas, NV - Columbus, OH - Nashville, TN - Orlando, FL - Omaha, NE - Santa Barbara.
 

TIFF Premiere -- September 11, 2005 (Dame Judi was not in attendance)

TIFF Press Conference -- September 11, 2005 (Dame Judi was not in attendance)

UK Premiere -- Sept 5, 2005  (Dame Judi was not in attendance)


 

Thanks to Kath, UK, for bringing these photos to our attention

 



Thanks to Connie E, CA, USA for sharing these photos and brochure

 


 

Dame Judi during a lunch break on the film set (apron is not part of her character's costume)

More photos from the set -- taken July 22, 2004

 

HELLO Online Magazine -- JULY 23, 2004

Some of Britain's hottest acting talents have been snapped while enjoying a break from filming their latest flick. Movie veteran Judi Dench and her teenage co-star Keira Knightley were photographed taking time out on the set of Pride And Prejudice.

Keira is no doubt enjoying the opportunity to work with Dame Judi, who is one of the UK's most celebrated and accomplished performers. The Oscar-winner plays Lady Catherine in the new adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel, while the inimitable Ms Knightley takes on the central role of Elizabeth Bennet.

The film, which is due to be released early next year, tells the story of five sisters whose lives are turned upside down when two attractive young men arrive into town.

Matthew MacFadyen, who TV fans will recognise from the espionage series Spooks, will be doing his best to set hearts aflutter as Mr Darcy. But the Scottish actor has his work cut out if he is to match Colin Firth's treatment of the character in the 1995 mini-series. Also appearing in the new film are Gosford Park's Tom Hollander, Bond-girl Rosamund Pike and renowned character actor Donald Sutherland.


"First Look" (small) photos of Dame Judi on the set of this new film -- taken July 20, 2004

 


From Movies.com -- July 14, 2004

This adaptation of the classic 19th-century novel by Jane Austen is the story of the initial misunderstandings and later mutual attraction between the heroine Elizabeth Bennet and the haughty Mr. Darcy.

Starring Keira Knightly, Jena Malone, Rosamund Pike, Matthew Macfadyen, Donald Sutherland, Judi Dench, Brenda Blethyn, Penelope Wilton, Simon Woods, Tom Hollender

Director(s) Joe Wright

Screenwriter(s) Deborah Moggach, Lee Hall

Story Source(s) Jane Austen's novel

Studio TBA

Production Company Working Title Films

Several big-name actors have signed on to the upcoming version of Jane Austen novel Pride and Prejudice, which will star Keira Knightley as Elizabeth and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy. Donald Sutherland, Judi Dench, Brenda Blethyn, and Penelope Wilton have all joined the cast.

Sutherland and Blethyn star as Elizabeth's parents, and Dench will play Mr. Darcy's aunt. Joe Wright directs, from a screenplay by Deborah Moggach and Lee Hall.

 


From Variety.com -- July 14, 2004

LONDON -- Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn (news), Judi Dench (news) and Penelope Wilton have joined the cast of Working Title's upcoming adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel "Pride and Prejudice."

Sutherland and Blethyn will play Mr and Mrs Bennet, the parents of the story's romantic heroine Elizabeth (Keira Knightley). Dench will take a cameo as the snobbish aristocratic aunt of the hero Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen).

Pic is directed by Joe Wright and will be distributed by Universal. It starts shooting July 19 on location around England.

Other cast members include Tom Hollender, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone and Simon Woods.

 

           Thanks to Connie E, CA, USA for first bringing this to our attention

 


 


 


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