TO AUSTENLAND AND BACK TO REALITY

I have been posting about it  for a while on My Jane Austen Book Club facebook page: pictures, news, trailers, clips, interviews,  whatever I could find about it. Expectations and anticipations grew my wish to see it. Now it is time to write my review. Ready to join me to Austenland ? 

I was really curious about this movie - though I haven't read the book so far -  so I watched it as soon as I grabbed my copy of the DVD and it was an actually funny ride through Austen-fandom-fairy-land. What do

AUSTEN ON SCREEN: AUSTENLAND, COMING VERY SOON!

The official trailer of Austenland has just been released (see below). I've also embedded a short clip from this long awaited for movie which has been out for some while.
Are you ready to have some fun in Austenland?
Unfortunately, Jerusha Hess's debut movie, produced by Stephanie Meyer,   will only hit selected theatres on August 16.
 How many of us will really manage to see it on big screen?

I doubt I will, for instance,  but I will keep my hopes high anyway and go on with my fingers crossed. No news of its release in Italy, yet! Actually, I've even received an invitation to participate to a preview screening in California but ... you know, that's really too distant (and expensive!)  a trip to just watch I movie. As much as you may wish to see it and love the genre, if you are a poor teacher like me, you can just kindly decline.

AUSTEN INSPIRED MOVIES: SOMETHING GOOD, SOMETHING USELESS

It's Friday again. How was your week? Mine was filled with chores, school work, deadlines but with a bit of  Jane Austen. As you know, I love watching movies, especially romantic comedies. If they are Austen–related or Austen-inspired, I literally can’t resist having a look, even when they are introduced to me as not very good. I hardly ever like what I insist on seeing after hearing negative comments,  but I feel the duty to give everything Austen a chance,  so I add  it to my “to be seen” list. This week I've watched one of these films and re-watched a good one I like.

KIM IZZO'S "THE JANE AUSTEN MARRIAGE MANUAL" TO BE ADAPTED FOR THE SCREEN

Do you remember Kim Izzo, journalist and writer, author of The Jane Austen Marriage Manual who guestposted here at My Jane Austen Book Club sharing the report of her meeting with the one and only Mr Darcy, Colin Firth? No? Yes? Well, anyway, if you've missed it, have a look HERE. 

I  immediately thought she was a very lucky lady on that account, but today my conviction has even been made greater. Kim Izzo IS a very lucky, talented woman and her Austenesque marriage manual is going to be adapted . 

Canadian film producer David Cormican announces the acquisition of the rights to bring  Kim Izzo’s debut novel The Jane Austen Marriage Manual to the screen. 

Kim’s charming and witty first novel, The Jane Austen Marriage Manual – a must-read for Austen die-hards – explores the modern day love story with a meaningful message.  Izzo tells the story of Kate Shaw, an acting beauty editor at a fashion magazine who is about to turn forty.  

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB MEETS THE JANE AUSTEN FILM CLUB! GUEST POST BY JENNY ALLWORTHY

Richard Armitage as Mr. Thornton in North and South

When Maria Grazia asked me to write a guest post for her blog My Jane Austen Book Club, I knew which photo I would lead off with. For any of you who don't know Maria Grazia too well, she has another blog Fly High which often features items about Richard Armitage, to the delight of those of us who share her taste in men.

Anyhow...I have a blog called The Jane Austen Film Club (I know, eerily similar) which I have been writing for about 2 years now. I am an optometrist during the day, so this is a part time gig for me. How, I hear you ask, does a Canadian optometrist decide to start blogging about period drama? Well, it all started with these two people:

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice 1995

Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth were in a photo similar to the one above which was plastered on the front of our weekly TV guide in 1995. As someone who had grown up avidly reading and watching Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie, my interest was piqued. I was also the mother of two young boys aged 4 and 1 at the time, so I needed a bit of television which didn't involve Winnie the Pooh.

And the rest, as they say is history. I taped the series on our old VCR, and subsequently wore out the video tapes. Thankfully, there were more films and mini-series on the way!

Sense and Sensibility 1995

By the time I heard that Sense and Sensibility was coming out, I had already devoured Jane Austen's wonderful book Pride and Prejudice, which is what many of you did after being captivated by Jennifer and Colin. For Sense and Sensibility, I had time to read the book first before seeing the film. With the book fresh in my head, I remember thinking what a genius Emma Thompson was to transform such a wonderful book into such a wonderful film. I was thrilled when she won the Oscar for her screenplay.

Persuasion 1995

Well, you can see where this is leading can't you? Again, like many other females in the 1990s, I was delighted that Hollywood and the BBC were anticipating the needs of an emotionally frazzled working mother by pumping out film after film that seemed like they were made just for me! Sigh!

Emma 1996

Even the big Hollywood movie makers were getting in on this phenomenon. Jane Austen was the new "It Girl" 200 years after she had written her books!

But, back to the story of my blog. As my children grew, so did my book and video (then DVD) collection. My two weaknesses are books and films and Amazon and IMDb were just enabling me! When the internet came along, I noticed that there were a lot of Jane Austen related blogs, but not many on the film adaptations of her books and other 19th century novels. And then I got a laptop!!!!

Wives and Daughters 1999

So finally, I stopped writing in my head (usually in the shower) and started writing on my new laptop. And then my sister suggested a blog instead of a book or a website which were my first ideas. So this blogging thing has been a journey for a woman with no writing experience, but just a lifetime of reading and enjoying film adaptations of my favourite books. I will admit that I prefer to see a film version first before I read the book. The book is always richer and often easier to follow after seeing a film version (especially with Dickens' many characters).

The Buccaneers 1995

Along the way, I have discovered other brilliant authors like Mrs. Gaskell and Edith Wharton and George Eliot and the Brontës. Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope have become my friends along with Thackeray and Hardy and P.G. Wodehouse. So many great books and so many great films! I get teased by my readers sometimes that I love ALL period drama and am not critical enough. I guess I am just so happy that they are making these films and mini-series AT ALL and I think even the worst period drama is better than the best reality TV. But I do have my faves of course, as do you I am sure.

I love the fact that my readers are always making suggestions of films I have yet to see. If only there was more time in the day!

Anne of Green Gables 1985

So if you would like to join the fun at The Jane Austen Film Club, come on by and add to the conversation. There are so many of us period drama junkies living all over this amazing planet and as far as I can tell, they are all really great people!

Thanks again to Maria Grazia for this opportunity to blather on about my favourite topic. It keeps me sane. And if you haven't read her hilarious account of going to see the village where the Vicar of Dibley was filmed, go take a look here. 

Jenny Allworthy

MY EMMA MOMENT - A BOOK AND A MOVIE

No, don't worry, I have not suddenly become interested in making all my single friends engaged and matched. Never been good at matchmaking  ( well, neither Emma Woodhouse is,  actually!) Honestly, I envy my single friends most of the time, why should I ruin their freedom? Jokes apart,  my "Emma moment" is simply the fact that in the latest couple of days, I happened to read and watch stuff someway related to Jane Austen's Emma. Ready to discover what? 

1. A BOOK 


Perfect Happiness , The sequel to Jane Austen's Emma by Rachel Billington , Hodder and Stoughton,  , London 1996

"Emma Knightley, handsome, clever and rich, with a husband whose affection for her was only equalled by her affection for him, had passed upward of a year of marriage in what may be described as perfect happiness: certainly this is how she described it to herself as she sat at her writing desk from which she had an excellent view of her father, Mr Woodhouse, taking a turn rould the shrubbery on the arm of her beloved Mr Knightley".

With this promising opening I was ready to dive into a joyful family picture and thrilling romantic tale, but none of that could I experience while reading this novel. Page after page, my expectations were disappointed. The characters were all there for a new great story, even some good points for a good sequel were there, instead I felt as if something was missing  all the time. Well-written, in due respect of Austen's style and atmospheres,  but  the protagonists at times sounded untrue to their own nature or,  from time to time,  some of the turns in the plot were not completely  plausible. It is not the worst sequel I've read, mind you,  but it didn't totally convince me. I really wanted to like it but just felt like I couldn't from , let's say ... the second chapter to the end. 

The story is easily summed - up, if you don't expect too many details. 

A tragedy strucks the quiet routine at Highbury:  poor Jane Fairfax, now Churchill,  has died in childbed and Frank Churchill, nearly mad and desperate has disappeared, refusing to see his newly born son and menacing to commit suicide. Nobody knows where he is. Nobody except for ... Emma.  Another tragedy follows, as John Knightley is imprisoned for debts and his family, Isabella and their children, need Emma's and her husband's help.  This time, and for the first time in her life, Emma has to move to London, leaving Mr Woodhouse to the care and company of Miss Bates - who is now alone after Mrs Bates's sudden death. Emma's London adventures brought her a new charming, independent friend,  Mrs Philomena Tidmarsh,  and lots of doubts on the nature of her marriage. Why is her husband, Mr Knightley, always so detached, controlled, and why doesn't he trust her with his complete confidence? And , above all, why isn't he as passionate as Mr Frank Churchill? 

Other events will disturb the quiet life of the inhabitants at Highbury but,         of course, there must be a happy ending in an Austen sequel, or even more than one.  Just a clue. At the end of the book, after more than a year of marriage Emma succeeds in calling Mr Knightley with his first name, George! A sign of the reached intimacy which had lacked  between them before? A sign of the finally reached "perfect happiness"?   Oh! And just another small one: Mr Woodhouse doesn't mind Miss Bates's company at all!

Perfect Happiness is published by US publishers, Source Books, under the title Emma & Knightley.

2. A MOVIE 


Beautiful Lies (De vrais mensonges) - 2010

I had read somewhere online  that in this new light French comedy directed by Pierre Salvadori  the protagonist played matchmaking just like Miss Woodhouse in Jane Austen's EMMA. And could I resist the temptation to see it? No, of course. I found a DVD with the audio in the French language and English subtitles and truly enjoyed myself watching it. French "Emma" in this story is Émilie  (Audrey Tautou),  the beautiful but brusque owner of a seaside beauty salon who receives a very romantic anonymous love letter from Jean , her handyman (Sami Bouajila). 
Émilie  is not at all impressed by Jean's words and decides to forward the romantic letter to her depressed mother,  Maddy (Nathalie Baye) . What's better than a love letter to improve self-esteem and self-confidence in her fragile mother abandoned by her father for a new partner, younger than Émilie herself? Émilie wants to play deus ex machina but her tricks will make all of them suffer, while setting in motion a train of misunderstandings and complications. Happy ending? YES! 
If you like French comedy and romance, you'll like this film.   It is light, tender and funny. 

READY TO LEAVE FOR AUSTENLAND? FROM THE BOOK TO THE MOVIE

Ready to see another Austen - related comedy? Have you read and liked Austenland? Jerusha Hess, co-writer of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, is set to make her directorial debut just with this romantic comedy,  Austenland.  Filming begins this week in the UK. Starring Keri Russell, J.J. Field (Northanger Abbey, The Sally Lockhart Mysteries, Captain America: The First Avenger) and Bret McKenzie (Lord of The Rings, Flight of the Conchords), Heat Vision reports that the film will also mark the producing debut of Twilight author Stephanie Meyer.

The supporting cast includes Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Seymour, Rupert Vansittart and James Callis. 

Russel, Field, MacKenzie from Enchanted Serenity of Period Films

Here's a synopsis of the book 

In 32-year-old singleton Jane Hayes’s mind, no man in the world can measure up to Fitzwilliam Darcy—specifically the Fitzwilliam played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Jane is forced to confront her Austen obsession when her wealthy great-aunt Carolyn dies and leaves her an all-expenses-paid vacation to Pembrook Park, a British resort where guests live like the characters in Jane’s beloved Austen novels. Jane sees the trip as an opportunity for one last indulgence of her obsession before she puts it “all behind her—Austen, men, fantasies, period,” but the lines between reality and fiction become pleasantly blurred as Jane acclimates to the world of Spencer jackets and stringent etiquette rules, and finds herself torn between the Darcyesque Mr. Nobley and a forbidden tryst with Pembrook Park’s gardener (from Amazon reviews)

[Check this book at  bookdepository or Amazon]

WATCHING AISHA (2010) - EMMA, KNIGHTLEY & BOLLYWOOD

Clearly inspired to Austen's Emma, Aisha has all the typical features of a Bollywood romance blockbuster: very good looking actors, easy pop melodies, dances, colourful costumes, beautiful natural settings, fairy-tale atmospheres. If you liked Bride and Prejudice or Bend it like Beckham, you may like this Austenesque parody too. Because this is the impression I got: it sounds more like a parody than a modern day version  of a classic in a different cultural environment .

Since I'm really curious of anything Austen-related and I didn't mind other products of the same kind, I wished to see this film too. "What harm can be done?", I thought, " it'll be a good pastime to see events and characters I know and love from the point of view of a director, scriptwriter, actor". It may be interesting. It was rather  interesting actually. But not that amusing or original. It was beautiful to watch, beautiful was almost anything my sight perceived but nothing more. Ok. Better to stop. You may decide to watch it and even like it, so I don't want to spoil much. 

THE PLOT (from Wikipedia)

Aisha (Sonam Kapoor) is a girl with a simple problem - she has to take others problems into her own hands; and match-making amongst her friends in particular. She is constantly criticized by her friend/neighbor Arjun (Abhay Deol) who advises her to stop meddling with others lives. She is unperturbed and carries on. She tries to make a match between her small town friend Shefali (Amrita Puri) and Randhir (Cyrus Sahukar). 

While at a party Aisha realizes her jealous over Arjun. After the party Arjun and Dhruv get a drink and talk about Aisha, Dhruv tries to act like he is in love with Aisha and insults Arjun. Arjun punch Dhruv and hurts him. She fails in her attempts and in the due course, she tries to match up Shefali with Dhruv (Arunoday Singh) until one day she realizes that love does not come by force. 

She loses her friend Pinky (Ira Dubey) due to her actions who in the end falls in love with Randhir (Cyrus Sahukar). Shefali finds her love in Saurabh (an old friend). Aisha decides to go to Mumbai with Shefali and Dhruv. Shefali thinks that Arjun loves her and Aisha and Shefali have a fight. Shefali tells Aisha of how she had been treating her. She realizes that she had been selfish and arrogant all along, and has mistreated her friends. Finally, she goes back to her best friend (Pinky) and apologizes for her actions. She realizes that she was in love with Arjun; but finds it difficult to express...

Aisha - Emma

She's incredibly beautiful and incredibly spoilt. Even more conceited than Miss Woodhouse herself. It is clear everything she does, she does to be admired. She wants to influence everybody's life and gets furious when something doesn't go the way she expected or someone stresses or notices her misbehaviour. She continuously quarrels with Anjur, her friend/neighbour, she has known all her life long ... 

Anjur - Mr Knightley

Anjur has his sensitivity and his "far-sightedness", but he is no Mr Knightley. He lacks his depth and his wisdom. He is more like a childhood friend, Aisha has always taken for granted, than an older, sensible, affectionate family friend. He has saved her from embarassing situations and still tries to protect her but... he shows off and boasts, which is not very "knightley".

Randhir is a funny character (Mr Elton?) and Shefali a sweet Harriet Smith,  Pinky an extravagant loyal girl friend, and Druhv a dashing Frank Churchill. But the original are so much better!
The problem with Aisha is the screenplay. It never gets deep enough to evoke any emotions in the audience. The film clearly misses the spark and ends up as an average product. However, not an easy task to live up toJane Austen's genius and wit.

It is a fun movie, even though, like Clueless, it's not going to go down as one of my favorites. Give me Emma 1996 the film, ITV Emma and, especially BBC Emma 2009, please!

FROM PRADA TO NADA - AUSTEN GOES TO LA, EAST LA

Sense and Sensibility has inspired this film released in the US in January 2011. From Prada to Nada  DVD has been released soon after. I wanted to see it, as I'm always very curious to anything Austen inspired coming out. I didn't expect an Oscar - worth movie and I was ok with it. I mean, I wasn't too disappointed. I got just what I expected.

The popularization of classics is something I can even appreciate. Provided that, to keep them to the masses involves at least respect for the original and, especially, does not completely  forget quality and decency.  

Was this film bad? Not bad, it was quite pleasant actually. Naive and romantic, light and delightful, full of clichés but bearable. Don't look for much Austen in it, though. Austen is much more than shallow comedy and romance. Maybe people who don't know anything about Sense and Sensibility can enjoy it a lot. Three out of five stars.

The story

Two sisters from Beverly Hills learn how the other side lives after their father dies unexpectedly, and they're taken in by their estranged aunt in East L.A. Nora  and Mary grew up in a sprawling mansion, so far removed from their Mexican roots that Mary refuses to even acknowledge her heritage. Then, in a flash, their father is gone, and they're both left without two pennies to rub together. They discover they have a half brother with an awfully greedy wife who wants to sell their house to pay their debts. Fortunately, Nora and Mary have their kind-hearted Aunt Aurelia (Adriana Barraza) to fall back on. Aunt Aurelia only lives a short distance away, but Boyle Heights is so steeped in Latino culture that it may as well be on another planet.

Unable to speak a word of Spanish and completely ignorant about their culture, Nora and Mary leave their comfortable world kicking and screaming. But the more time Nora and Mary spend getting to know their extended family, the more they begin to get a sense of what they've been missing by remaining locked in their ivory tower all these years. Before long, Nora and Mary begin to regard their Mexican heritage with a sense of pride rather than shame, and realize that all the money in the world can't buy the happiness of begin surrounded and supported by family (from http://www.allrovi.com )

The main characters

Elinor -  Nora Dominguez (Camilla Belle)

Camilla Belle as Nora

I've built my whole life on the only one thing I can control, which is my career... this is what Nora believes in, her shield against suffering. But, suddenly, her father dies and she's left alone with her sister, no money and a huge amount of debts. She dreams of becoming a brilliant lawyer and working for the civil service, helping poor people.

Edward and Nora

Edward Ferrars - Edward Ferris (Nicholas D'Agosto)

I've never liked Edward Ferrars much but I liked his counterpart here in this movie quite a lot. Nicholas D'Agosto portrays a tender, sensitive but, at the same time, self - confident young lawyer with a swooning smile. He immediately falls for Nora and wants to help her offering her a job in his firm. They hit it off at once and become a brilliant team together. If only Nora wasn' t so scared of her own feelings ...

Nicholas D'Agosto as Edward Ferris

Marianne -  Mary Dominguez (Alexa Vega)

Alexa Vega as Mary

"I love the colour red, my iPod is full, I don't wake up before 10.00 and no hablo espanol. I love poetry, pasta and Prada".  This is how she introduces herself to Rodrigo, the fascinating TA giving lessons in her course at college, for whom she immediately falls, right after his first impressive class about Garcìa Lorca. They have a brief but intense, passionate affair. But later on, while she thinks he's away in Mexico,  she discovers he is a liar and a rake. She'll run away in despair from the party where he is a guest too and will have a terrible car crash.

Rodrigo and Mary

Willoughby - Rodrigo Fuentes (Kuno Becker)

Kuno Becker as Rodrigo

If you are lucky enough to meet a TA like him at college, you won't skip a lesson! Even if you are spoilt, lazy, shallow Mary Dominguez. If only he wasn't that good a liar, if only he wasn't ...
He  is a rogue. I've always somewhat forgiven Willloughby, thinking he was really in love with Marianne but too ... penniless! But this Rodrigo here is unforgivable. Though very handsome.

Colonel Brandon - Bruno (Wilmer Valderrama)

Alexa Vega and Wilmer Valderrama

Well, actually, meeting him like this... you can't recognize any sign of Colonel Brandon's charm in this man. He's Bruno. He loves Mary at first sight but she treats him as a tramp, poor man. He is generous, patient, resourceful and wise. An artist. He doesn't hide any tragic romantic love in his past but he conquers Mary's love and trust  in the end.

Double very happy ending guaranteed!

This blogpost is part of my third task in the Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Challenge 2011 hosted by Laurel Ann at Austenprose. For further info about the challenge click here. 

My previous tasks:

1. Review Cathleen Schine, The Three Weissmanns of Westport

2. Review Beth Pattillo, The Dashwood Sisters Tell All

SCENTS AND SENSIBILITY - A NEW AUSTEN MODERNIZATION COMING OUT SOON

After From Prada to Nada, released in January 2011, another Austen modernization is going to be soon released in America theatres, Scents and Sensibility.  The first one is already available on DVD. But this is how I probably will see the latter, too! I'll have to buy DVDs to see both films loosely inspired to Austen's Sense and Sensibility on occasion of its bicentenary.  These movies rarely reach Italian cinemas.

Meanwhile, let's enjoy the official trailer which announces the release of 

Scents and Sensibility

COMING SOON!

SENSE & SENSIBILITY BICENTENARY CELEBRATION - Sense and Sensibility on film by Alexa Adams + Giveaway!

 After Jennifer Becton's Men, Marriage and Money in Sense and Sensibility, here's our second monthly issue for The Sense and Sensibility Bicentenary Celebration on My Jane Austen Book Club. February  is for Alexa Adams, author of the highly delightful, First Impressions. A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice and blogger at First Impressions  . She has chosen to write about Sense and Sensibility in Film .  Join  Alexa Adams in the discussion of the several different adaptations. 

GIVEAWAY!!!

Leave your comment and e-mail address to get the chance to win a region 1 DVD  (USA, Canada, Bermuda , U.S territories) of Sense & Sensibility 1995 starring Emma Thomson, Hugh Grant,  Kate Winslet , Greg Wise and Alan Rickman in the main roles. The name of the winner will be announced on 28 February. Open to readers from the areas mentioned in brackets above.Good luck!

I consider Sense and Sensibility to be one of Austen's novels best suited for film adaptation, an opinion premised largely in the fact that all four of the cinematic versions of it succeed in both entertaining and sticking to the story. This book doesn't seem to be a candidate for the kind of misinterpretation that Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey have been subjected to, the heroine of the former frequently being massively altered, while film makers cannot seem to resist the lure of the Gothic the latter inherently mocks. I have pondered what makes Sense and Sensibility so appropriate for the visual medium and have landed upon two notions: the balance of having two heroines that embody opposite personalities traits which, conveniently, also convey the story's theme, and the variety of settings the novel provides, each projecting a distinct emotional experience for our characters. 

These facets of the tale make it easy for film makers to translate it to the screen while staying true to form, be it in the matter of our earliest adaptations, the two mini-series produced by the BBC in 1971 and 1981, which only slightly deviate from the novel, or in that of the later versions, Hollywood's 1995 production and the BBC's 2008 mini-series, which embrace what Austen scholar Daniel R. Mangiavellano calls “adaptation as elaboration” in his 2008 essay, “A Thoroughly Elinor Sort of Way: Elinor's Sensibility in Masterpiece’s Sense and Sensibility” (Persuasions V. 29, No. 1). This means that these newer films not only include details just hinted at in the novel, but also create entirely new scenes premised in the film makers' individual interpretations of the story. For purists, this posses problems (Mangiavellano points to the opening scene of the 2008 film, in which Willoughby's seduction of Eliza is dramatized, as an example), but for those who find the slow, methodical pace of the BBC adaptations made in the 70's and 80's tedious, it is a strength: though a degree of accuracy is sacrificed, the result is a richer cinematic experience.

We all have our biases regarding these films (mine fully rest with the 1995 version), and I could use this opportunity to debate their relative merits, but I think it more in keeping with the nature of this bicentenary celebration to dwell on what all do well, like the vitally important aspect of properly casting our heroines. The earliest Elinors (Joanna David in 1971 and Irene Richard in1981) do such a good job of capturing the character's pragmatism that they were chosen to play two equally practical Austen creations, Mrs. Gardiner (1995 Pride and Prejudice) and Charlotte Lucas (1980 Pride and Prejudice). Their respective counterparts, Ciaran Madden and Tracey Childs, both capture Marianne's destructively passionate nature, the former putting more emphasis on her melodramatic tendencies while the latter focuses on her disdain for the lack of sensibility in others. 

Arguments abound about Emma Thompson's age appropriateness for the role of Eleanor in 1995, but most can agree that she performs it magnificently, as did Hattie Morahan in 2008. Both actresses display the passion Elinor buries within her, revealing that her sensibilities are equal to Marianne's, only kept in check. Kate Winslet (1995) and Charity Wakefield (2008) provide similar interpretations of Marianne, emphasizing her similarities to the modern teenager – unrestrained, determined, and self-centered – without sacrificing those qualities that make her so sympathetic to audiences. All four films play Elinor and Marianne against each other, just as Austen does, in order to strike that essential balance between the title characteristics, creating, by the end of the story, perfected heroines; Elinor is freed to indulge her sensibilities, while Marianne has learned to weigh hers with sense. 

Barton Cottage ( 2008 )

Norland (1995)

While the earlier films are both financially and technologically hampered, they still manage, like their successors, to tie the developing emotional status of our heroines to their changing locations. In the book, Norland Park symbolizes the security the Dashwood ladies loose upon their father's death. It is therefore presented on film as a solid, imposing edifice, conveying a sense of the wealth and stability that defined their lives up to this point. In comparison, Barton Cottage is very humble, but it is also picturesque, appropriately representing their fluctuating emotions and social status. In regards to the 1995 film, Austen scholar Sue Parrill, in her 1999 essay “What Meets the Eye: Landscape in the Films Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility” (Persuasions, No. 21), points to a deliberate “contrast between Norland and Barton Cottage, and scenery that would suggest the melancholy feelings of the Dashwoods, who have lost father, husband, lover, and home.” In both this film and the 2008 version, this effect is increased by making Barton Cottage far less 
comfortable than Austen portrayed it, for whom intimate knowledge with William Gilpin's theories regarding of the picturesque were sufficient to create this atmosphere without subjected the Dashwoods to actual physical discomfort. The 2008 film takes the element of environment even further, transplanting the cottage to the coast in order to take advantage of crashing waves and rocky promontories as a means of increase the emotional tension. 

We next find Elinor and Marianne transplanted to Mrs. Jennings' home in London in which, while commanding all the modern comforts, they are distinctly guests, corresponding to their alienation while in the capital, as enforced by their treatment in the hands of Mrs. Ferrars, John and Fanny Dashwood, and Lucy Steele. Appropriately, Mrs. Jennings home is always portrayed rather starkly. Despite its luxury, formality defines the space. Finally at Cleveland, where they are literally trapped influx, somewhere between London and home, the house and grounds are portrayed as combining the qualities of town, Barton, and Norland. This is where all our oscillating emotions begin to come full circle. The style of house invokes Norland, improvements such as a Grecian temple resembles the atmosphere of London, but the more wild landscape, where Marianne takes her walks, invokes Barton. This is best captured in the later films, as their budgets allowed, and the turmoil of the moment is further enhanced in both by rain, which not only adds to the sense of climax but also helps to rationalize Marianne's subsequent illness. It is Austen's masterful use of scenery that paves the way for the film makers' elaborations, and no matter how much each movie differs, all are grounded in the framework her locations create, making it nearly impossible to stray far from the novel's intentions.

Marianne and Elinor (2008)

I would love to write at length about all of Sense and Sensibility's attributes, particularly the novel's other characters, that have been brought to life on film. We have had so many marvelous Edwards, Brandons and Willoughbys. Similarly, the more minor players that provide so much texture to this tale (like Fanny Dashwood, Robert Ferrars, Mrs. Jennings, and Charlotte Palmer) have been phenomenally captured by magnificent actors, and I could analyze their different interpretations endlessly. 

Instead, I will point the interested to the reviews I have posted on my blog of all four films (links are below), as well as to my Sense and Sensibility Mashup, in which I composed my ideal cast, comprised of performers from each adaptation. I cannot emphasize enough how well-worth watching all the versions are, each invoking the Janeite's passion for the story, adding to its dimensions, and increasing  its accessibility to a wider audience. All have their triumphs and their problems, but what is paramount is that each succeed in that most important function of any literary adaptation: paying respectful and loving homage to a masterful work of fiction.     

Reviews -

1971 - http://alexaadams.blogspot.com/2010/08/sense-and-sensibility-1971.html

1981 - http://alexaadams.blogspot.com/2011/01/sense-and-sensibility-1981.html

1995 - http://alexaadams.blogspot.com/2011/01/sense-and-sensibility-1995.html

2008 - http://alexaadams.blogspot.com/2011/01/sense-and-sensibility-2008.html

Mashup -

http://alexaadams.blogspot.com/2010/08/sense-and-sensibility-mash-up.html

A lover of Jane Austen since her childhood, Alexa Adams is the author of First Impressions: A Tale of Less Pride and Prejudice and writes about Austen at her blog of the same name. Currently she is working on the sequel to First Impressions as well as a series of short stories, published serially on her blog under the title Janeicillin, in which she extends the ends of Austen’s novels by imagining events as they might have occurred between the proposals and the weddings. She lives in the Delaware Valley with her husband and two cats, and the whole family eagerly anticipates the arrival of their first child, a daughter, in June.