Though she was just 20 when Pride Prejudice premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005, Keira Knightley had already built up a considerable body of work by then, with roles in 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham and 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Love Actually behind her. Nevertheless, Joe Wright’s lush adaptation of Jane Austen’s second novel hitched Knightley’s star ever higher, establishing her as perhaps the premier period-drama heroine of our time—while also helping to launch people like Carey Mulligan and Rosamund Pike into the stratosphere.
In honor of the film’s 20th anniversary, Pride Prejudice will return to theaters this spring, from April 20 (tickets are available now)…but in the meanwhile, ahead of Knightley’s 40th birthday on March 26, I cued the movie up on Netflix for the first time in a while to see how it ran.
Watch its new 20th-anniversary trailer below—then read on for all 71 things I thought (and learned!) while rewatching Keira Knightley and co. in Pride Prejudice.
1. This movie begins, as so many good ones do, with an establishing shot of the English countryside, sunlit and glorious.
2. Beautiful Keira as Elizabeth Bennett is caught up in a book. (Its title, First Impressions, is the one that Jane Austen originally gave to Pride Prejudice!)
3. Brief, shining glimpse of Rosamund Pike as her older sister, Jane!
4. Hello, Carey Mulligan (as Kitty—her very first film role!) and Jena Malone (as Lydia)!
5. Jena may not have the name recognition of other people in this movie these days, but she’s very much still working—interestingly, she appeared in Love Lies Bleeding last year.
6. The girls (Mrs. Bennett included) are all twittering about Mr. Bingley—he’s just arrived in town and is rich and single.
7. “Good heavens. People!” Miss you every day, Donald Sutherland.
8. Oh my God, I’m just making the connection that Brenda Blethyn, who plays Mrs. Bennett, was also Cynthia in Secrets Lies! And Catherine Keener and Emily Mortimer’s mom in Lovely Amazing! Indie icon.
9. Back to the movie. Everyone’s at a ball!
10. Elizabeth just referred to men as “humorless poppycocks.” Totally.
11. “And the person with the quizzical brow?” is how she refers to Mr. Darcy (our man Matthew Macfadyen) at first glance. Hahaha.
12. Matthew Macfadyen’s wife, the actor Keeley Hawes, actually plays Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, in a new series coming to PBS this spring. (It’s called Miss Austen, and stars Patsy Ferran—who is presently appearing as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire at BAM!—as Jane.)
13. For a second I thought that the man playing Mr. Bingley was Eddie Redmayne, but it’s actually Simon Woods…who is Christopher Bailey’s husband?
14. Also, Simon and Rosamund dated when they were at Oxford together?! And after doing this movie, Rosamund ended up dating (and becoming engaged to!) Joe Wright?!!
15. Anyway, back to the movie again! Mr. Darcy is looking very dour and unimpressed by the Bennetts.
16. Lydia and Kitty learn that “the regiment are coming” and are in hysterics. (“Officers! As far as the eye can see!”)
17. Asked by Elizabeth if he dances, Mr. Darcy’s response is “not if I can help it.” Hahaha.
18. Oh, God, Elizabeth hears Mr. Darcy refer to her as “not handsome enough to tempt” him. Dumb!
19. Darcy and Elizabeth have a weird little fight about whether poetry encourages or kills attraction. This ends with Elizabeth slyly indicating that she heard the mean thing Darcy said about her. :)
20. Elizabeth and Jane are very sweetly whispering under the covers. I wonder how this kind of thing is filmed?
21. The following morning, as Mrs. Bennett recaps the night, Mr. Bennett is very wearily like, “We were all there, dear.” I am laughing!
22. Anyway, she just wants the best for all five of her unmarried girls!!
23. Jane’s been invited to dine with…just Mr. Bingley’s sister, Caroline? Everyone’s confused.
24. Mrs. Bennett is crazy. She has Jane go to the Bingleys’ place on horseback instead of via carriage because she knows it’s going to rain, and they (the Bingleys) will feel obliged to have Jane stay over. As Mr. Bennett puts it, “Good grief, woman. Your skills in the art of matchmaking are positively occult.”
25. The rain makes Jane ill, of course, so she ends up having to stay there longer than planned.
26. Caroline is making fun of Elizabeth for having walked to their house. Whatever!
27. Darcy is being snobby about what it means for a woman to be “accomplished”...but he likes a reader and Elizabeth, as we well know, is that!
28. “A Mrs. Bennett, a Miss Bennet, a Miss Bennet, and a Miss Bennet.” Hahaha.
29. That famous hand flex of Darcy’s after he helps Elizabeth into the carriage!
30. Oop, Mr. Collins—the cousin meant to inherit their house when Mr. Bennett dies—is incoming.
31. “What a superbly featured room and what excellent boiled potatoes. Many years since I’ve had such an exemplary vegetable." We don’t like Mr. Collins, but we love Tom Hollander.
32. Oh, God, Collins is threatening to read to everyone after dinner.
33. Some flirting between the handsome officer Mr. Wickham (Rupert Friend, whom I have never, ever been able to distinguish from Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth! And then some weird tension between Mr. Wickham and Mr. Darcy…
34. Mr. Wickham is suggesting that Mr. Darcy was jealous of his (Wickham’s) relationship with his (Darcy’s) father when Wickham’s father managed Darcy’s father’s estate, and for that reason Darcy cheated him (Wickham) out of an inheritance. Hmm.
35. Another ball! Mr. Wickham is absent but Mr. Collins is very much there and, after learning earlier on that Jane is essentially spoken for, is desperate to stay close to Elizabeth. But Mr. Darcy is there too! And asks for Elizabeth’s next dance?!
36. They’re having a flirty little fight about Mr. Wickham.
37. Oh, love this sequence—for a moment it’s like everyone else in the room has disappeared, and it’s just Lizzy and Darcy. :)
38. A lot going on at this ball. Kitty and Lydia are drunk, Mrs. Bennett is spilling things on people, Mary—the other Bennett daughter—is playing the piano terribly, and Jane is being a little too coy around Bingley. Bingley’s mean sister Caroline very obviously disapproves.
39. Oh, dear…it’s the next day and Mr. Collins wants to speak to Elizabeth alone. Rather than ask her into another room, he weirdly has the entire family vacate the breakfast table? Anyway, Collins wants to marry Elizabeth.
40. Mr. Collins refers to the “violence of his affections”—gross—and manages to bring up his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourg, twice.
41. The answer is an unqualified no, obviously, despite Mrs. Bennett’s attempt to force Mr. Bennett to force Lizzy to reconsider. (I should note that while my Netflix subtitles are spelling it “Lizzie,” Austen used a “Y” and we are purists here.)
42. Oy, the Bingleys (and Darcy) have left for London, allegedly to see Mr. Darcy’s sister. The Bennetts are distressed.
43. Classic scene in which Lizzy’s friend Charlotte tells her that she and Collins are engaged to be married, to which Lizzy’s like, “Huh?” and Charlotte’s like, “Lizzy, be serious.” (By which I mean: “I’m 27 years old. I’ve no money and no prospects. I’m already a burden to my parents. And I’m frightened.” Truer words, etc.!)
44. Thank goodness that in Charlotte, Collins has found someone to get as excited about Lady Catherine de Bourg as he does.
45. Judi Dench, my personal queen.
46. Oh, Mr. Darcy is also at Lady Catherine’s! (He’s one of her nephews, we learned.)
47. Lots of tragic shots of Lady Catherine’s ailing daughter, who looks a little like Andreea Diaconu, if you ask me.
48. Oh God, a friend of Darcy’s tells Elizabeth that Darcy has just stopped Bingley from marrying some woman. Elizabeth puts it together that he means Jane…
49. Darcy goes running after Elizabeth in the rain…and then proposes to her in quite a clumsy and unromantic way? When she then says no, in part because she’s angry about the Jane thing, Darcy tells her that he persuaded Bingley to break things off because he was worried that Jane wasn’t that into him. (Charlotte actually raised this as a possible problem earlier!)
50. It seems for a moment like they might kiss, though he’s just said some pretty unkind things about her family and then stubbornly deflected when asked what went on between him and Wickham.
51. They part on very unhappy terms. But then Darcy hands Elizabeth a letter explaining the Wickham situation…before promptly galloping away. (Long story short, Wickham’s a playboy who broke Darcy’s sister’s heart.)
52. Jane’s seeming veryyy chill about remaining single, while Mr. Bennett’s seeming veryyyy chill about Lydia going to Brighton for the express purpose of flirting with officers. Yes, Mrs. Bennett is too wound up, but it’s possible that Mr. B just isn’t wound up enough!!
53. Hello, Penelope Wilton, playing the Bennetts’ aunt! Can’t wait to see you again in Downton Abbey 3!
54. Oh, my actual favorite scene in this movie: Elizabeth standing on a grassy cliff in the Peak District as “Liz on Top of the World” plays. I genuinely remember swooning over this in English class in about 2008. Love you, Dario Marianelli and Jean-Yves Thibaudet!
55. Elizabeth gets a tour of Darcy’s incredible house, Pemberley, with her aunt and uncle and appears to be quite taken with his art collection.
56. Wow, after all this talk of Mr. Darcy’s sister, Georgiana, we finally see her! Also, Elizabeth and co. were blithely walking around the house while Darcy was at home? Huh??
57. Oy, this chat between them is awkward. Darcy’s being sweet and Elizabeth’s being sweet, but she’s also feeling bad—probably about constantly misjudging him and touching all his stuff.
58. Georgiana is a good pianist! And suggests that Darcy has spoken very fondly of Elizabeth to her. :)
59. “Do you play duets, Miss Elizabeth?” “Only when forced.” Ha!!
60. Oy, Lydia has run away with Mr. Wickham…and married him! And Darcy paid for their wedding? Lord.
61. Oh, Bingley is back! And visiting the Bennetts with Darcy. Bingley will be in town a few weeks, but Darcy only a day? Everyone is in a tizzy.
62. God, two very shy people being in love (I’m talking about Jane and Bingley here) is such a disaster.
63. Okay, after a little prep with Darcy, Bingley finally gets Jane alone and comes out with it—but not before calling himself “the most unmitigated and comprehensive ass.” But anyhow, yay, Jane is finally engaged!
64. Oy, Lady Catherine hies to the Bennett house upon hearing a rumor that Darcy and Elizabeth are engaged…and tells Elizabeth that not only is she totally unsuitable in every way, but that Darcy and Catherine’s daughter have also been engaged since “infancy” (gross). Yet Elizabeth dismisses her, as is her way!
65. How do Elizabeth and Darcy just keep bumping into each other? This time it’s at dawn in a beautiful meadow—and we get another version of “Liz on Top of the World.” :’)
66. “You have bewitched me body and soul and I love…I love…I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.” Darcy!
67. Oh my God, she kisses his hand. Hot!
68. Mr. Bennett is understandably confused, given how fraught the Lizzy–Darcy thing has been.
69. “He and I are so similar. We’re both so stubborn.” So true, Elizabeth.
70. Aw, Mr. Bennett is moved by this development.
71. “You may only call me Mrs. Darcy when you are completely and perfectly and incandescently happy.” “But how are you this evening, Mrs. Darcy?” Goodbye, I’m dead! Typing this from the grave!!
