The trailer for Netflix’s Persuasion was largely slammed upon release, but as director Carrie Cracknell says, it’s not the whole movie.
Persuasion director Carrie Cracknell knows you didn’t like the movie trailer – she would, however, ask you to stick it out, because the trailer is not the whole movie.
The trailer for the Dakota Johnson-starrer – based on Jane Austen’s novel of the same name – was met with criticism upon release. Fans of Austen slammed the movie’s ‘modern’ treatment of the source material, objecting to the fourth-wall breaks and use of slang in the movie.
Speaking to IndieWire, Cracknell acknowledged fans’ protectiveness when it came to Austen’s material, but urged them to keep an open mind.
“I think people have a really deep feeling of ownership over Austen and, rightly, have a really sort of strong connection to the book,” she said, before adding that one would need to watch the film to understand her treatment approach to the book.
“I suspect that the trailer possibly skews more towards that comic quality in the film. So I would really encourage people to watch the film and then there’ll be a really interesting conversation about which elements of the essence of the book we’ve held in the adaptation and where we’ve been a little bit more iconoclastic.” she said.
“The thing I love about the breaking of the fourth wall is it allows the audience, in a way, to be cast as her friend or confidant,” Cracknell said. “I think it allows this access to complexity of her inner thoughts. It’s a way for us to understand Anne’s interiority.”
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This, she insisted, was necessary for the audience to connect with Anne.
“So much of the book is about Anne observing her family and their bizarre behaviours and her frustration at that, and so to be able to just look at the audience and sort of connect over that frustration felt really compelling as a device.” she added.
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Check out the trailer for Persuasion:
