Austen your day

If you’re an Austen fan and you missed Lost in Austen the delightful modern take on Pride and Prejudice recently screened on ABC, I strongly recommend checking it out. Amanda Price, a modern woman from London finds her life swapped with Elizabeth Bennet’s just as the P&P story is beginning. Equipped with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the story, she inevitably influences the characters and event, often to their detriment as well as her own!

 

I am still reeling from some of the events in this adaption with a lifetime of firm opinions on characters and conclusions distorted: Wickham with honourable intentions, a repudiated Darcy and a hedonistic Bingley! (Don’t worry, that won’t spoil anything for you!)

 

Watching Amanda living out a popular post-modern fantasy, it struck me how many Jane Austen adaptations and references there have been in the past decade.... some good, others [shudders] best left forgotten on the video store shelf. There are also references in other popular films such as You’ve Got Mail, the direct adaptations such as the three based on Pride and Prejudice (including Bridget Jones’ Diary) and those a little left of field such as Lost in Austen, Becoming Jane, even Clueless and Bollywood’s Bride and Prejudice!

 

I won’t monopolise your day with my own opinions on what it is about these stories that’s so appealing.

 

Rather, let’s keep it short and sweet. If you’re looking to escape the ennui of everyday life, need a bit of romance or want a happy ending, check out my favourite of all the Austen adaptations: Sense and Sensibility.

 

So what should you get?

 

Sense and Sensibility

 

DIRECTOR: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain)

 

CAST: Emma Thompson (Nanny McPhee, Love Actually), Kate Winslet (The Reader, Titanic), Hugh Grant (Love Actually, About a Boy), Alan Rickman (Love Actually, Harry Potter), Greg Wise (Cranford), Hugh Laurie (Blackadder, House).

 

PLOT: The Misses Dashwood, sensible Elinor and romantic Marianne, along with their mother and youngest sister Margaret find themselves guests in their own home when their late father’s estate is entailed away to their older half brother and his wife. John and Fanny’s arrival at Norland also brings Fanny’s delightful but reserved brother Edward Ferrars who strikes up a promising friendship with Elinor. But his family disapproves and the Dashwoods must move to the only place they can afford, a much smaller cottage in the country. In their new home in Devonshire the girls become a new project for matchmaking neighbour Mrs Jennings. Despite her attempts to join Marianne to the dignified Colonel Brandon, Marianne is rescued by the dashing Willoughby and a passion ensues. But when Willoughby suddenly departs with no explanation and Mrs Jennings’ cousin arrives, two shocking revelations are made which will forever influence the lives and loves of both the young women.

 

LOCATED IN: Comedy

 

For more Austen on film see:

• Lost in Austen
• Becoming Jane
• Persuasion
• Pride and Prejudice (BBC)
• Pride and Prejudice (Working Title)
• Mansfield Park 
• Emma

TRIVIA

 

Lead actress Emma Thompson won an Academy Award for her adaptation of the novel and was called in to doctor the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice because of her earlier success at translating Austen to the big screen.

 

Amanda Root was originally cast as Marianne but due to a scheduling conflict (ironically, another Austen adaptation Persuasion) the role went to Kate Winslet, who earned her first Oscar nomination for her portrayal.

 

For some real character dissonance, after seeing this, watch Love Actually and see Emma Thompson married to Alan Rickman (her sister’s suitor in Sense and Sensibility) and Hugh Grant (her own love interest) as her older brother!