Original script, bitter tears but no “almost kiss”.

Miss Elizabeth. I have struggled in vain and I can bear it no longer.

Are you laughing at me ?

While preparing for the film, Wright and Knightley were blessed with serendipity. They discovered Austen’s one misgiving about Pride & Prejudice. In a letter to her sister, Austen “basically said that she was very happy with the book,” explains Knightley. “But that her one criticism was that she wished that she had put more shade in it”. I thought, “Oh! That’s great. That means we’ve got something to play with”.

Original script. Rain scene, different beginning.

This time with Lizzie.

 Too much of this scene? Tell me and I´ll stop!

The “almost kiss” most beautiful in film history.

Matthew and the rain scene.

This is the whole scene.For details see it in high-res .

“And here the story starts to change. And we got into a much darker phase. Jane Austen described Pride and Prejudice, the novel, as being too light …. and lacking in shade. So one of the things I did was try and bring in a little bit of that shade…

Darcy lets that whole speech out. He’s prepared all of it, but wasn’t prepared to say ”I love you”. He’d written it down and he’d thought about it and he’d rehearsed it. Which is why he rushes through it. Then surprises himself by saying ”I love you”. It didn’t occur to him, but he can’t help but tell her. It happens so fast and so quickly. And afterwards you can’t quite remember what happened or what you’d said. You just know that something terrible happened. Which is also why it’s done at such speed.With the then blinding stops.

I like the way, when she brings up Mr Wickham, jealousy is a thing that then brings him forward and …
And then this moment coming up. When they almost kissed was something that we actually talked about in the screen test that we did with Matthew.

Basically. Lizzie and Darcy really, really fancy each other”.

JOE WRIGHT (DIRECTOR).