Sense & Sensibility
by Jane Austen (novel) & Emma Thompson (screenplay)
Columbia Pictures
Sarah: S&S time!
HELLLOOOO scenery pr0n!
Redheadedgirl: I used this as an excuse to buy the DVD.
Because the fact that I don’t own it is a travesty.
Carrie: One thing they added that isn’t in the book is the scene where they leave the big house and Elinor thanks the servants. I thought that was a good change – it spoke so much as to her character and it also helped solidify the idea that they are moving down in the world – otherwise the viewer would spend the movie wondering why these women are depressed about their very nice house that has a piano and everything.
Redheadedgirl: Have you read Emma’s set diaries?
Carrie: No.
Redheadedgirl: Oh my god. Carrie you would love them.
They’re in with the published screenplay. Her fights with the studio about them wanting a novel adaptation of the movie.
Her EXTREMELY NEUTRAL mentions of Greg Wise.
Carrie: Hilarious story:
Greg Wise who played Willoughby saw a fortune teller when he was cast and she told him that he would marry one of the women leads. At the time Emma the Great was married so Greg figured it must be his fate to marry Kate Winslet. They went on a super awkward date and parted as friends, and later Emma got divorced and she and Greg Wise got together and now they are married.
Redheadedgirl: EXTREMELY NEUTRAL.
Carrie: LOL yes I very much want to read that.
I love the look of the movie, and I know Emma writes about that a lot. It’s very soft and dreamlike and romantic.
Another true story:
I saw the movie all the way through for the first time a few months ago, but I started watching it way back when it first came out in DVD. I was living in Alaska and Glen and I had just decided to move beyond friendship and be a couple. Like – the night before this conversation had happened. So the next day we started watching the movie and we saw about 15 minutes of it and then we had, you know, distractions. So technically the movie was on. Technically. And as of yesterday we’ve been married for 17 years.
I do think that the casting in the movie is perfect other than the fact, which may have been intentional, that I am just not feeling the Marianne/Brandon connection. I keep waiting for him to realize that he loves Elinor since every time they are on screen together they have this incredibly powerful connection, they are bonded by their emotional maturity, and they totally look like at any second they are going to make out on the floor.
Sarah: “You will inherit your fortune. We can’t even earn ours.”
“Perhaps Margaret is right. Piracy is our only option.”
#TeamMargaret
Redheadedgirl: One of the great things Emma did was flesh out Margaret as a character.
Sarah: Yes.
Redheadedgirl: In the book she’s just kinda there.
Sarah: Elinor has to hold all these people together and try to keep everyone safe and marginally happy while people around her are either emotionally broken or completely ridiculous.
Redheadedgirl: I identify with Elinor as the family fixer SO MUCH.
Sarah: I’m going to call people I dislike “My dear Miss ____”
It’s like Austenized “Bless your heart.”
I saw this years and years ago, like in my early 20s or something, and my perspective now is so different. I remember thinking Elinor was so boring and stiff, and now I see the overlay on top of her determination and how much she hides and represses her feelings under necessary reserve.
Carrie: I love that the story, while it weighs in heavily in favor of sense, also shows the importance of sensibility.
Sarah: Oh gosh, Elinor saying goodbye to her horse is making me sniffle.
I know there are a lot of people who dislike Hugh Grant, but he’s fascinating as an actor.
Carrie: As adorable as Hugh Grant is in this role, and he is SUPER ADORABLE, Rickman and Thompson have super hot chemistry together and I totally ship them. I wish Marianne had taken the third option and stayed single for a while. I want to see her mature, not cave. And she’s so worn down by the end of the film that it feels like she caves. Don’t get me wrong, anyone would be lucky to have Alan Rickman. But I don’t believe it’s right for her.
Sarah: In everything I’ve seen Grant in, his minute choices of gesture and expression are so interesting. There’s often a lot in a little, in how fast or slow he speaks, or where he’s looking.
Oh, Fanny. You’re such a fanny.
Redheadedgirl: She’s the worst.
Sarah: Here comes Rickman. And now I’m really going to be sniffly.
“The air is full of spices…” “Mr. Potter.”
ANKLE TOUCHING GOOD GOD ANKLE TOUCHING
Redheadedgirl: HE ASKED PERMISSION SARAH. CONSENT!
Sarah: I KNOW BUT ANKLE TOUCHING. That was like third base.
Margaret: “Please don’t say anything important.” #TeamCaptainMargaret
Ok, look Sonnet 116 is much better and really only worth listening to when read by Vincent from Beauty and the Beast.
Redheadedgirl: You hush your candy corn loving mouth.
Sarah: Well, no now that I think about it, I think there’s a version read by Alan Rickman.
That’d be a grudge match.
You know, I don’t know that there is a winner. I just found Patrick Stewart reading 116.
So yeah the only winner is my loss of time management. THE CHRONOPHAGE WINS AGAIN
The assumption that someone does not have feelings is so damaging and painful.
Redheadedgirl: It’s completely in character for Marianne, though. She’s egocentric in a way that only a teenage girl can be.
She can’t conceive anything beyond the end of her nose, and this story is how she gets through that developmental phase.
Elyse: I saw this movie first in high school and I really disliked Marianne’s storyline because I was young and dumb and understood her want to have this larger than life romantic hero. And I hated Colonel Brandon.
Sarah: Yeah. She definitely grows up.
Elyse: Now as an adult I look at him and go YASSSSSS because there’s so much more to his character and I recognize the value of his constancy and kindness.
And also Alan Rickman is a fox.
Sarah: Does everyone twirl Kate Winslet around in romantic movies?
Elyse: It’s the law, Sarah.
Sarah: Apparently so, yes.
Elyse: This is the only movie where I find Hugh Grant attractive
When he stares at Elinor through the window and then Margaret whacks him? Melts my goddamn heart.
Also the flower scene pisses me off. Marianne acts like it’s inferior because Brandon BOUGHT her flowers. Dude, he thought about this. He PLANNED. Willoughby was walking over and was like, “oh fuck. Shoulda brought flowers. Yoink!”
Sarah: Yeah. Brandon’s came from a hothouse, possibly his own.
Redheadedgirl: I know what you mean.
And that is how she’s acting, but she’s already in this “Brandon is old and crusty and therefore everything he does is wormy” mindset.
And Willoughby is young and hot. If they’d each done the opposite, she’d react pro-Willoughby and anti-Brandon.
Sarah: Ayup, no question.
Also – the line up of Marianne’s heartbreak then Elinor’s is crushing. Wow, the rain in England brings miserable plot turning points.
And there goes Emma Thompson, acting emotional anguish with two blinks and rigidity. Is everyone in this film ridiculously gifted?
Elyse: She is the queen.
Emma Thompson, Our Lady of No Fucks Given.
Sarah: Also, can we have a full movie of Mr. Palmer? He is AWFUL.
I bet a person like Captain Margaret would bring him to his knees.
“He looks on you quite as his own sister,” because girl is evil. Eeeeevil.
Redheadedgirl: Uh I love him?
Elyse: Now I’m thinking Elinor and Brandon should have ended up together and fuck everyone else.
They bear all the emotional weight. They aren’t allowed to have a breakdown.
Sarah: Nope.
Mr. Palmer, RHG?
Redheadedgirl: Hugh Laurie, right?
Sarah: OMG.
I’m amused at myself.
I was just thinking, wow, he’s cranky like House.
Redheadedgirl: HA
Sarah: I had no idea that was him.
Redheadedgirl: I like his character.
He’s so crabby and put upon and has the best face.
Elyse: He does good cranky.
Redheadedgirl: And I would love to be his friend just to devil him.
Elyse: I wonder if he’s just permanently in a bad mood and not even acting
Redheadedgirl: You’ve seen Blackadder, right?
Or a bit of Fry and Laurie?
Sarah: Yes!
Can’t imagine how I didn’t recognize him. HA! I’m so amused at myself.
Redheadedgirl: He’s amazing at comedy and drama.
The reason I like Mr. Palmer is that beat when Elinor wakes him up to tell him that Marianne needs a doctor, when he puts a hand on her arm before going to find his pants.
He’s got a few beats where Elinor is one of the few people he seems to actually like, though I would find Imelda Staunton a trial, too.
Sarah: Yes. When he wakes up and understands and comforts her for a moment, when he says he’ll stay if she needs him. There are a few moments where he demonstrates with minimal gesture and dialogue that he respects her.
Carrie: I totally agree that you can see this movie totally different my based on age/experience. I am totes team Elinor. Emma just kills me in this role .
Sarah: Lucy Steele is eeeeevil.
Redheadedgirl: I hate her little knitted caplet thing.
I have hated it for TWENTY ONE YEARS.
Carrie: Omg that actress though. Hate the character, love the actress. She KILLS it. She practically has fangs.
Some of her line deliveries…you can just see venom seeping from her pores, disguised as spun sugar.
I had trouble with that metaphor
Sarah: Oh, yes. Big eyes, evil heart.
The contrast between Elinor and Marianne is so striking in how they handle their heartbreak. Elinor tells no one, refuses to make a mess emotionally or give anyone else anything to handle or manage.
Marianne is like, FEELS EVERYWHERE STAINING EVERYTHING YOU DON’T MIND DO YOU.
Redheadedgirl: I never thought of her as evil. She’s just playing the same game with the same desperation.
Sarah: She goes after Elinor in a way that’s unnecessary I think.
Also, I want a script of Brandon and Elinor getting drunk and talking shit.
Marianne is going to cut a bitch. There’s a moment where you can see she’s realized someone’s hurt Elinor and embarrassed her and she’s pissed about it.
There’s a subtle use of makeup, that as Elinor does more to steer her life, and is better informed and able to do slightly more than usual, her features are better defined in the shots she’s in. Whereas Marianne, because she’s ill and emotionally devastated, is visibly dissolving.
It is likely also lighting and shot composition, but it’s very brilliantly done I think.
Carrie: The costume and makeup department did a stellar job with making clothes and etc. reflect character.
Sarah: OMG. Emma Thompson has a flick of Fuck You eyebrow when Ms. Steele walks in.
Ouch. The painfulness of everyone knowing your pain and gossiping about it, and the painfulness of no one knowing about what hurts you just as much and misjudging your reactions.
She’s the soul of discretion, silent as the grave, and VIPER IN MY BOSOM.
Buzz got so upset by that scene he left the room. Poor thing!
Redheadedgirl: Oh, Buzz.
“I’m sorry the lady I can’t with this.”
Sarah: Marianne, the fuck are you doing.
Redheadedgirl: Walking in the rain being sad
ON BRAND
Carrie: Marianne is a Bronte character trapped in an Austen story.
Sarah: No lie.
Redheadedgirl: Modern Marianne would be a theater kid.
Sarah: Loooooots of eyeliner.
Carrie: Very emo.
Redheadedgirl: “ELINOR YOU HAVE FEELINGS LET ME MAKE YOUR FEELINGS ALL ABOUT ME.”
Carrie: Here Marianne, enjoy the song stylings of The Cure.
The real love story in the book is between the sisters.
Sarah: It really is.
Marianne would probably have a whole lot of crushed velvet and wear incredibly warm clothing on hot days.
Redheadedgirl: Marianne would be a Rennie.
Sarah: Alan Rickman reading poetry. Have mercy.
#TeamCaptainMargaret has red shoes and a telescope.
See, this right here, this is why you can’t keep your emotions all bottled up. You end up crying over Hugh Grant.
I watched this shortly after it came out, and my reaction was so different. I didn’t like it as much. Now that I can see the dynamics as an adult with all the emotional labor (my new favorite concept to think about) involved in holding oneself together and keeping everyone safe and fed when circumstances are so far out of one’s control, I like it a lot more. Mmm. Nuance.
I wish Elinor and Edward had had more time together, as they spent the entire bulk of the film apart. I had a moment at the end like, “oh, right, Elinor has to get her happy ending…with that guy. What’s-his-Grant.”
FUN FACT. The Amazon description says “Emma Thompson stars in the captivating romance based on Jane Austen’s classic novel of two sisters’ search for love in strict Victorian society.”
Sense & Sensibility takes place according to The Internet between 1792 and 1797.
So… yeah.
Redheadedgirl: Sure.
The TV miniseries gives Elinor and Edward more time together. And their Elinor is closer in age to the text.
But it’s Dan Stevens as Edward, and I’m still angry with him.
Sarah: Did you know there’s a Latina remake called From Prada to Nada?
It has terrible reviews.
IT LOOKS AWFUL.
Redheadedgirl: Oh my god.
Sarah: Don’t look at the trailer. DON’T LOOK IT IS NOT GOOD. SERIOUSLY SO BAD.
Anyway.
I’d give this a B+. I couldn’t look away, even though I intended to do some easy laptop stuff while watching it. The performances of the actors are so finely detailed that I didn’t want to miss an eyeroll or a Fuck-You eyebrow.
I appreciated it a lot more with age.
I hope you all enjoy it just as much.
Carrie: I agree with that grade. I’d say an A but despite my adoration of Grant and Rickman I’m not sold on either romance.
Redheadedgirl: It’s un-grade-able.
Elyse: A- is fair.
Carrie: I can happily live with an A-. As you say, it’s basically un-grade-able anyway.
I mean, Emma alone could earn it an !-. Rickman reads poetry. Lucy Steele drips venom from her lovely fangs. Winslet commits to the Marianne thing.
Redheadedgirl: I like the !- grade.
Carrie: It was a typo but a fortuitous one.
Redheadedgirl: No, no that’s a good grade.
Did you watch the movie recently? What did you think? Is this your first time or was this a repeat watch? What’s better: the film or TV adaptation?
And is Marianne a total theater kid? Let us know what you think!
I think I must have watched this version at least once a year since it came out! I remember introducing my two university housemates to it on VHS, and when Fanny is not-so-subtly telling Mrs Dashwood that Elinor’s no good for Edward one of them just said ‘Pleeeeeeeeease tell me she dies.’
(also as they were both medical students they reacted with abject flapping horror when the doctor bleeds Marianne, which I think really speaks to how relatable the people and situations in Austen are, that it takes something like that to remind you how long ago this actually was)
I haven’t seen the TV version as recently, but I remember it’s interesting that in that they cast Elinor as nearer to her book age (although the more I watch, the more I’m impressed with how Emma Thompson uses her voice and body language to appear younger than she was at the time), but narrowed the Marianne/Brandon age gap with David Morrissey as Brandon. Am I right in thinking the TV one also does some pretty heavy foreshadowing of Willoughby’s Infamous Conduct? I prefer the film’s take where it comes completely out of the blue, you have this lovely civilised comedy of manners and then BLAM, oh by the way, abandoned pregnant illegitimate girl.
Speaking of Mr Palmer’s little moment of comfort for Elinor, I love how many instances the film has of people just being nice to each other, from Brandon offering Edward a living right down to the Dashwood’s manservant wishing Lucy joy of her wedding, because she’s always been friendly to him. Sir John and Mrs Jennings might be every embarrassing uncle and auntie turned up to eleven, but Sir John’s the one who finds out his distant relatives (have they even met before?) have fallen on hard times and is just like well obviously you can come and stay on my estate and dine here every night because it doesn’t occur to him that any decent person would do otherwise.
Actually the more I think about it the more Sir John and Mrs Jenning’s are my favourites – they’re so utterly full of life, and want everyone else to have as much fun as they do.
I adore this movie, although watching it again the other night had me in a sobbing mess over Alan Rickman.
Dammit, there I go again.
Anyway, things I love:
* Margaret is a child, and allowed to be one.
* Margaret learning French is funny (because the actress is French 🙂 )
* Miss Steele using Every Single Chance to twist the knife. Ohhhh nasty. But you can see her, a poor man’s daughter, wanting to make sure of her life. Whereas Fanny Dashwood is just mean and spiteful.
So, my headcanon is… Lucy *does* marry Edward, because Fanny makes sure that Robert is kept away. Marianne’s fever is worse, and she dies pathetically not long after her mother gets to the hall. At least her mother got to say goodbye to her. But the fever, alas, also transmitted to Mrs Palmer, who, still recovering from childbirth, fell victim and died.
So both Colonel Brandon and Mr Palmer were at a loose end. Mr Palmer seeks a sensible, logical wife who will be an asset to him in his political career. The Colonel seeks comfort and security with a wife who will accept him as he is. Both of them are not passionately in love with Elinor, but they both care for her, see her values, respect her totally, would also be able to support Elinor’s mother and sister …
Which would she marry?
This was my first time watching this, and the second Austen work I’ve seen adapted. (Pride and Prejudice(2005) and Bride and Prejudice)
I’m glad I didn’t see it at the time it came out, because I don’t think I would have liked it back then. Still not really my type of movie, but I did enjoy it.
This has always been one of my favorite Austen adaptations. Visually, it’s just stunning. I love how much care and thought went into the script. Emma Thompson changed a great deal from the novel, but yet it feels like a very faithful adaptation. The spirit is there, even if some characters are eliminated and others are altered. The acting is just brilliant throughout the film, so much so that I didn’t mind at all that everyone has been aged up quite a bit.
Also, I melt at “Give me an occupation, Miss Dashwood, or I shall run mad.” So much repressed emotion in that moment. I agree that Marianne’s love for Col. Brandon does feel a bit like settling, but it at least makes more sense than it does in the novel, where it’s very clear Austen is just waving her Authorial Magic Wand in order to give Col. Brandon what he wants.
I was only so-so on this movie when it first came out (I was too young to get why Elinor and Edward are so well matched, and the Marianne-Brandon love story didn’t make sense at all to me) but boy has it improved with (my) age. Loved Edward being the only person to see and help with Elinor’s problems while she is running around taking care of everyone else (that scene where everyone else is having crying fits over Willoughby and she sits on the stairs and drinks the tea is one of my favorites.) The parts where Brandon is so in love with Marianne and she doesn’t even see him…oh, my heart. Agree that despite everyone’s best efforts, they never really sell Marianne doing more than settling for Brandon.
The character I had totally forgotten about, and now really want a sequel for, is Margaret. She would be a little old for the generation of Victorian lady adventurers…maybe in a few years she meets a hot young officer through Col Brandon’s army connections and they travel the British Empire together?
One thing I noticed on this viewing (although it mostly takes place off-screen) was the role of sense and sensibility in the men’s lives. Willoughby and Edward could have used a little more sense in their younger years to save themselves a lot of pain, whereas Brandon clearly regrets not giving in more to sensibility. I liked the fact that neither aspect was clearly good or bad in the movie.
The scene that always gets me is when Marianne is near death, and Elinor is pleading for her to try. So many feels.
@Janine:
Oh, yes – the idea that both sense and sensibility are important, and knowing when to apply each or both runs through all the stories in the book.
OMG YES PLEASE. I know this fanfic exists somewhere. It has to, right?
Can we have a minute to appreciate Ang Lee’s direction? What would it be like to come from China into British culture and create a movie for British/American consumption? I’d like to hear the stories about the cultural exchanges.
Yes, I saw this when it first came out and loved, loved, loved it! Though I wanted to smack Marianne quite a lot. And I did choke on the bit where Elinor, after cluing in Marianne about Willoughby’s many transgressions(!), says something along the lines of “well, sis, at least you can comfort yourself by knowing that he really loved you”. Gack!
Two digressions.
1) There is an Indian version of this (Tamil, I believe) called (in English) “I Have Found It”. Very charming, with Aishwarya Rai as the
Marianne character and Mammootty as the Col Brandon character.
2) For Bitches who want a quick Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman fix, check out ‘The Song of Lunch’. Kinda strange, but worth every minute just to see the two of them together.
My teenage daughter and I have seen this movie so many times we lip sync the whole thing every time. [Oddly, we can do that with Deadpool too.] I love all the nuances of this movie – one of my favorite scenes is in London when Edward comes to visit and Lucy is in the room – the awkwardness is palatable. Ms. Steele definitely drips venom – her flash of the handkerchief and eyes sliding up to catch Elinor’s reaction…I always want to punch her (I’m giddy when Fanny thrashes her).
I’m just happy that my daughter has come to understand that both sense & sensibility are important. I credit this movie and the discussions it has brought us.
The DVD I have has a commentary track. Emma is one of the speakers and she touches on Ang Lee’s influence on the movie. It has been too long since I’ve watched with that track on, so I don’t remember much, but I took away that it was a positive experience.
“Ok, look Sonnet 116 is much better and really only worth listening to when read by Vincent from Beauty and the Beast.”
LOL thank you for transporting me straight back to high school. I wonder if we could get a version of that album with just Ron Perlman and not the horribly cheesy music. (Srsly…him reading e.e.cummings’ “Somewhere I Have Never Travelled” is a revelation, except for the woman caterwauling “The fiiiiirst tiiiime Iiiiii Looooved Foreeeever…” in the background.)
Elyse: I feel very similar about Hugh Grant, except: have you seen “Impromptu”? It’s from 1991, and Hugh Grant plays an extremely shy and retiring Frederic Chopin who is basically dragged against his will into a passionate affair with Judy Davis’ George Sand. Exquisite. (His best line: “Madam, I have been informed you intend to seduce me, and at this rate you will succeed, so I must ask you to leave.”) Film also features Emma Thompson, Julian Sands, Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin…I could go on and on. And the scenery and the music and the costumes SHUT UP MOLLY.
Thanks for reminding me how much I love S&S, y’all. Now I want to stay home tonight and watch it instead of going to a party. Dang.
If you watch the audio commentary track on the dvd, Emma and the producer explain that they fleshed out the Margaret character to be us, the modern audience who questions everything. Since she is a child, she can get away with not understanding all the nuances.
Also, Emma explains why she gave the big speech at the end to Marianne’s character. In the book it is Elinor who asks Marianne whether her being with Willoughby would have been happy in the long run. Emma said she switched it to Marianne so it would show her growth, but also so Elinor wouldn’t look like such a bossy prig.
I think showing the Powell’s marriage was to show what happened more often than not when marriage was just a business transaction. Those two don’t have any affection for each other. There has to be some feels in there and I am not talking animosity, loathing, and disdain.
Sense and Sensibility is my least favorite Austen (she needed an editor), but the film adaptation is exquisite and probably my favorite film ever.
I totally understand why many of you wanted Emma and Alan to get together, but Elinor and Brandon were only destine to become great friends. In the book this is quite obvious, as is Marianne’s disgust of his worship. We see glimpses of this in the film via the fabulous Mrs. Jennings and when Marianne is cutting reeds for baskets. But the Marianne post Willoughby is a very different girl, she’s been humiliated socially and has almost died due to her own stupidity. Marianne is a teenage girl and Willoughby is her Justin Beiber, high school quarterback all rolled into one. It’s a cruel and public heartbreak to be sure.
Now Brandon has been a great friend to the Dashwoods never failing them in anyway, I felt her growing attachment to him was only natural, knowing of her close relationship with her father (from the book). She’s been so let down, Brandon’s attention and loyalty would be very attractive.
I love every moment of this superbly acted film, the casting, the cinematography, the adaptation……everything is brilliant. Alan Rickman is wonderful as the quiet hero Christopher Brandon and Emma rules the screen as the sensible Elinor, everyone is so good!
There is one thing I did miss though, in the book Willoughby comes to the Palmers in the middle of the night and explains what happened between him and Marianne and Miss Grey and her $50,000 pounds. It was so memorable and I always wondered why Emma changed it.
Great discussion gals! Thanks!
I still can’t watch anything that has Alan Rickman in it. Even seeing his picture can make me cry, even now.
But I really love this movie. Everyone is wonderful in it, but AR as Col. Brandon just slays me every time with his yearning for Marianne throughout.
There is a version of this story called “Scents and Sensibility” starring Marla Sokoloff and Ashley Williams. It is terrible but very watchable, and I believe it is streaming on Netflix. You’re welcome (or I’m sorry, it’s been a few years since I watched it)
Side note – adaptation change. In the movie, it’s the first Eliza’s lack of money that meant she couldn’t marry the Colonel. In the book, she has a ton of money – she’s an heiress – so she has to marry the Colonel’s older brother so that the money becomes part of the estate. Of course, then the older brother dies and the Colonel inherits everything, but by then it’s too late…
I have seen “Sense and Sensibility” several times, and have The Divine Emma’s book of the script etc. Thoughts as a historian:
A comment above noted that Marianne has humiliated herself over the whole Willoughby affair. In the Regency, she would have been considered to have *ruined* herself. Those events, had they become widely known, would have – taken with her utter lack of dowry – rendered her unmarriageable. Her acceptance of Brandon’s suit had nothing to do with romance. It was recognition that she would never, by any stretch of the imagination, do better; and given his fidelity and the complete absence of arguments against him, she decided to take what she could get. She probably would have done the best by him that she could. Meanwhile, he knows exactly what he is getting, but given that it comes in a young and beautiful package, he accepts her acceptance. It’s all very practical in a way that seems cold to modern readers/viewers, but few of us can really comprehend the scope of the disability that women existed with at that time, in terms of financial security.
It is the Elinor/Edward story that is the romance in S&S. And their respective reticences can be very exasperating for the modern reader/viewer. It’s only the actors’ talent that makes it work at all. It was a phenomenal cast all around.
Love, love, love this movie. Patrick Doyle’s soundtrack is just beautiful and so evocative of the time, place, and emotions.
I saw this for the first time in my mid teens and could not comprehend at *all* the appeal of Brandon. And I’m someone who has always been pro historicals and period pieces — I think the age difference compared with Marianne and Willoughby just turned me off.
In college my best friend and I used to joke that we were very much Elinor (her) and Marianne (me). I can say as someone who has had her own Willoughbys, a Brandon is really super hot and appealing now. I don’t think she settled for Brandon (I do appreciate the mores of her time would’ve made it a prudent match as well, regardless of her feelings); I think she was broken down and rebuilt through the relationship with Willoughby. And Brandon genuinely sees and loves her “impulsive sweetness” and offers her a grounding, stable base from which she can fly. Stability is very, very welcome after chaos and what I’m sure we’re massive blows to her self esteem. I believe she will be more fully herself in the marriage with Brandon, not less.
I adore this movie but I really wish that Emma Thompson and Alan Rickman had rather less chemistry. It distracts from the romances that the plot needs to make happen.
Never mind the twirling, have you noticed how many movies Kate Winslet winds up perfectly dressed for a wet chemise contest? Rose, Ophelia, Marianne, and I think there’s more but can’t recall now.
@Liz: Oh, my gosh, yes! Is that written into her contract? “Must look exceptionally well put together even when half an ocean has been dumped upon her while in costume?”
@Molly:
YES. THANK YOU. I am entirely with you there. Caterwauling indeed.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a couple Margaret Dashwood books. There’s one called Margaret Dashwood’s Diary by Anna Elliott.
I liked many parts of this adaptation but I had one major and one minor problem with it:
First, the minor: I saw it when it first came out when a bunch of women from work (including our department director!) played hooky to see it, and I embarrassed myself about 15 minutes after it started by saying more loudly than I intended “Their father just died and they’re wearing colors!”
Now, the major: the whole point of the Austen book, emphasized in the title, is to contrast two different ways of responding to life. Ang Lee casting Emma Thompson as Elinor destroyed this whole dynamic IMHO and reduced it largely to “wiser older sister/impetuous younger sister.”
Other Margaret books:
The Third Sister – Julia Barrett
Rifts and Reconciliations (?) (Can’t recall second word) – Sister M. Eucharista Ward
It looks like there may be more, too, for those interested.
I love the experience of seeing a movie at a certain age and then revisiting it later and releasing how much I have grown (or just changed). S&S was like this for me and the other one is Dirty Dancing. As a teenager, I thought Baby was excruciating – whenever she was ’embarrassing’ herself, I left the room (at boarding school, it was watched every other rainy weekend). I watched it again for the first time last year, and I just thought she was so sweet and young! It is magical that a movie (or a book) can give you such different feels across your own life.
uhm…. Margaret as adventuress (or politico) is a theme at the Derbyshire Writers’ Guild.
And there are some aMAZing Marianne/Brandon fics, too.
I do agree on the Rickman/Thompson chemistry–the structure of the movie also does not help in that Edward and Elinor’s screentime together is all in the beginning and then he basically disappears for most of the movie, and Marianne is willfully ignoring Brandon for most of that time, so Brandon and Elinor’s connection is the one we are focusing on.
Yes! The Tamil film “I Have Found It” is an amazing adaption of S&S, and so so so good–so much better than the disaster (fun though it was) that was Bride & Prejudice. So glad that was mentioned!
This is my favorite movie!! If I’m sick I want to watch this followed by the Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice Miniseries.
I love this movie! I saw it in the theater and it was the first movie I ever bought (on VHS). Now I have the DVD and I’m sure eventually I’ll have the brain download version. I like the more recent TV version too. I’ve always been an Elinor from day 1.
I own the DVD and watch it a few times a year. Last time I watched it when I was recovering from an illness.
@SB Sarah: Right? Also, that album introduced me to the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, for which I shall be forever in its debt. Ron Perlman intoning “Across what instrument have we been spanned? And what violinist holds us in his hand?”…*shivers*
I absolutely love this film, but I actually prefer the TV mini-series with Dominic Cooper as a really seductive but ass hat Willoughby and Savid Morrisy as a really good Colonel Brandon. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847150/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4
For a little Alan Rickman/Kate Winslet love, check out the movie A Little Chaos. He also directed it. A gardening and romance buffs dream.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2639254/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Boop, Bitchery has it handled
http://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/movie-review-little-chaos/
For fans of adaptations, there’s a Tamilversion of S&S that is quite good, called Kandukondain Kandukondain (I Have Found It).
“I embarrassed myself about 15 minutes after it started by saying more loudly than I intended “Their father just died and they’re wearing colors!” JaniceG, I think mourning customs were different in the 18th century than in the 19th, when Queen Victoria had a huge influence and the period of deep mourning (and wearing black) was extended.
@Michele – While it’s true that Victorian mourning customs were stricter than in the Regency period, even in the Regency only the very, very poor would not be wearing black on the death of a parent. I’m fairly sure this was a cinematic choice rather than a period-researched one!
This is one of my favourite movies! I’ve seen it I don’t know how many times. First time in the cinema, back in the 1990s when it came out. And then on TV now and then… Lots of times!
It had some of my favourite actors, and a great director, Ang Lee, whom I had discovered with ‘Hsi Yen’ – ‘The Wedding Banquet’ (1993). Emma Thompson tells the anecdote that while shooting ‘Sense & Sensibility’ Lee kept on telling her ‘could you please look younger?’
And the music of this movie! It was written by one of my favourite movie composers, Patrick Doyle, who made the music for Kenneth Branagh’s movies. I just love his music and used to play the CD all the time in the past.
It’s funny to see how I see the actors in a slightly different way than you, because I had seen them in other movies before.
I mean, I had discovered Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie as a contemporary couple in Branagh’s ‘Peter’s friends’ (1992). So it was quite funny to see them, again, as a historical couple in ‘Sense & Sensibility’ three years later (1995). The TV series ‘House’ came years later, so for me it was the other way around -I knew Hugh Laurie beforehand as an English movie actor.
The great performances, the subtlety of certain gestures come from two things. First, they are wonderful actors. But secondly, they had known each other for years, for instance, Emma and Hugh met at Cambridge university, were members of the Footlights club and even had a relationship then.
Alan and Emma were friends for years. There was a camaraderie between them that you could see on the silver screen. He was a bit older than her but they made several movies together. Not only this one or Harry Potter or Love Actually. When Alan decided to direct his first movie, Emma and her mother Phyllida Law were his chosen actresses – ‘The Winter Guest’ (1997), a cold movie set in Scotland about the emotional defiances of the mature age, full of understanding, emotion, and generosity.
And about Hugh Grant. Well, I’ve always thought that he’s a great actor who prefered money over art, which is a totally legitimate option, but he could have made better movies and performances.
I remember him in movies like ‘Maurice’ (1987), ‘Rowing in the Wind’ (1988) or ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’ (1995). Yes a lot of time ago, but that’s something than happens when you are forty something, you have been reading books and watching movies for quite a long time. And 1980s and 1990s were wonderful decades in British cinema.
‘An Awfully…’ is amazing, could you believe that he does not smile just once in the whole movie? Alan Rickman was also in that movie, BTW.
But you know how this thing goes. He went to Hollywood, where the big money is and he went on performing the same kind of character once and again. Great, and charming, and entertaining, yes, but totally forgettable movies.