Editing Review: Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice Directed by Joe Wright in 2005

Edited By: Paul Tothill

Looking at this particular scene the editing can be deconstructed as follows
-The Sound: The music everyone is dancing to, the conversation between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy and the faint murmurs of conversation in the crowds. The music everyone is dancing to is the has the most sombre tone out of the whole film, it holds a heavier and more deep meaning tone than the more jovial ones that appear throughout. The conversation they are having turns from a back and form directed civility to Elizabeth trying heavily to probe Mr Darcy about his knowledge of Mr Wickham. Also Elizabeth states her preference of Private balls to public ones, which in a way mirrors the sequence of the two of them being the only ones in the room while they dance. This sequence is something that only lovers imagine, as they gaze into each others eyes so the fact that this happens between two people that seem to tolerate each other at best is a big neon arrow to events that will eventually occur. Lastly, though there are other people in the room, you scarcely hear them as we follow the melodic words of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.
-A lot more can be said about this scene, the way that two unnecessary dancing characters just move in front of the camera giving you the sense of watching the two central characters through a crowd, as if we are eaves dropping. How the characters look at no-one but each other despite Elizabeths current contempt for Mr Darcy. This scene leads on to a long take that helps to compress the time of the ball, showing what each character gets up to over the night [Clip 22 and 23 of 65]
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-XqKmJ4YnmhbJmm/pride_prejudice_2005_netherfield_ball_2/

The compression of time is something that is something that is dealt with very well throughout the course of the movie. For people that know a lot about the behaviour and society of the times whereby people would visit one another and stay for months at a time they, will appreciate the way that "Time" as a factor is kept out of the movie or speech to thus allow more fluidity, or how events overlap to make it look like many things are happening at once to distract away from the amount of time a character has really been away.