“No corsets, no hatpins and no crying” are the second, third and fourth rules of this Victorian lady’s fight club. But you didn’t have to grow up in a country manor in the rolling hills of Steventon, Hampshire to know the first rule. We all know the first rule of fight club, so let’s break it: let’s talk about fight club.
Sick of their oppressively passive lives, the women of Austen’s 19th century English gentry go about their sewing, piano-playing and courting duties with the sullen attitudes of teenage girls everywhere. But when Pride & Prejudice’s Lizzie Bennett shows up to kick some butt, these ladies find liberation in knock-down brawls among the rose bushes. It’s not easy to pull off a street-wise strut in your lacy undergarments, but it sure beats waiting around for a decent marriage proposal.
This hilarious spoof was the grand prize winner of a Santa Monica-based film festival. The sponsor? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That’s right. To the list of winner Emily Janice Card’s influences, just below the societal reflections of a 19th century novelist, Quentin Tarantino’s adrenaline-infused Kill Bill soundtrack and the depraved sensibilities of David Fincher’s classic film, you can add the Mormon church.
Card, who plays Fannie in the film, is part of a group of young Mormon singles who put together spoof videos, play tag football and dine together, according to their Facebook page.
No word on whether a sequel is in the works, but the collective admirers on Boingboing, Jezebel and YouTube are certainly demanding one.
– Meredith Melnick