Dancing as if it's 2005

Twenty years, to quote Captain Wentworth, is “a period, indeed”—more than enough time “to change every pore of one’s skin, & every feeling of one’s mind,” as Jane Austen once noted.* And Austen was talking about a mere seven years, not the full two decades separating us from what at least some Janeites perceive as an epochal moment.

I speak, of course, of the 2005 release of the Keira Knightley-Matthew Macfadyen Pride and Prejudice, a film adaptation so swoonily romantic that it is, depending on your taste, either a deplorable travesty or best! movie! ever!

For those who fall into the latter camp, the past month has offered a sublime delight: the chance to see P&P on a big screen again, during its twentieth anniversary theatrical re-release. And as an extra special celebration of its hit—more than $122 million in gross global box office!-- Focus Features is throwing an extra special party, a “Pride and Prejudice 20th Anniversary Ball” on Thursday night at a luxury hotel** near Los Angeles.

“Don't miss your once-in-a-lifetime chance to be bewitched, body and soul, by an unforgettable experience for you and someone you love most ardently,” the film company urged during a promotion for a now-concluded ticket sweepstakes.

(Does that sentence—combining a misleadingly romanticized reference to Mr. Darcy’s first proposal with a quotation from the movie’s entirely made-up version of his second—set your teeth on edge? Well, then, you can sit by me.)

The ball is apparently not intended for mere riffraff: Tickets, which are on sale through tomorrow, cost either $150 or $300, depending on whether you are content to attend from 8 to 11 pm or would prefer to arrive half an hour earlier and receive a swag bag containing a copy of the novel and the brand-new vinyl edition of the soundtrack. Period attire is “invited,” though apparently not required, and “exclusive accessories” will be available for purchase. (What could they be? Hand-flex pins? Bewitchment blankets?)

Even at the lower ticket price, it’s not totally clear what your money buys, beyond entrée to the event and “a welcome glass of champagne OR non-alcoholic sparkling beverage.” The announcement mentions “live music, entertainers, experiential and immersive elements” (again with immersion!) and promises that “cocktails and light fare will be served,” but whether Regency dancing, food, and more than one drink are included remains obscure.

Somehow, though, I doubt this will bother the fans in attendance. If body-and-soul bewitchment is your cup of tea—or your glass of bubbly—it’s time to break open your piggy bank.

* In Letter #43 (April 8-11, 1805) in Deirdre Le Faye’s standard edition of Austen’s correspondence.

** Coincidentally, I stayed at this hotel two years ago, while my husband was on a business trip. We were randomly upgraded from our standard room to a “cottage,” in the Robert Ferrars sense of the term: a multi-room affair substantially larger than many a New York City apartment.