Sense & Sensibility

I have watched this adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense & Sensibility more than a dozen times since it was released, and it never fails to enthrall me. It has everything one would expect of a classic movie - a good plot[ thanks in large part to Emma Thompson's excellent screenplay], stellar casting, gorgeous sets, costumes and lush scenery of the entrancing English countryside. The story of Sense & Sensibility is at heart a warm and insightful portrait of two sisters and their relationship to each other, as well as their romantic interests and a powerful social commentary of society in regency England. Those who are familiar with Jane Austen's works will appreciate how perceptive an observer she was of society at large and remarkable in her capability to capture powerful human emotions on paper. The plot of Sense & Sensibility the movie revolves around the Dashwood sisters, Elinor & Marianne, who upon the death of their beloved father are forced to move [together with their mother and younger sister] to a cottage in the English countryside and live on a paltry 500 pounds a year [due to English law at the time where property passes down through the male line]. Elinor [played excellently by the talented Emma Thompson] is the older, and more wise [sensible] sister, who tries not to let her emotions rule her, in direct contrast to her younger, feisty sister Marianne [a gorgeous English rose, Kate Winslet] who is passionate, outspoken and open in displaying her emotions. Elinor falls for Edward Ferrars [an awkward yet deferential & handsome Hugh Grant] who due to a youthful indiscretion is unable to follow through on his attachment to Elinor. Marianne, on the other hand falls hard for dashing rogue Willoughby [Greg Wise], ignoring propriety and openly displaying her affections. The rest of the story deals with how the Dashwood sisters resolve their plight, and the story is made even more compelling by the other characters, who may be deemed minor roles, certainly add to the depth of the storytelling - Colonel Brandon, a retired officer, who though much older, harbors a deep affection for Marianne [played by pre-Severus Snape Alan Rickman], the callous sis-in-law Fanny Dashwood [Harriet Waller], the scheming Lucy Steele [Imogen Stubbs]and numerous other characters, who though secondary to the plot, are certainly memorable. Taiwanese director Ang Lee [of Eat Drink, Man Woman & Wedding Banquet fame] certainly proves his mettle here and manages to flesh out amazing performances from his cast, and delivers a gem of a movie, and a true classic.

Even though this version does not follow the book precisely, it is my favorite of all of the Jane Austen movies. Alan Rickman's performance is a tour de force. Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet are also amazing, as is Hugh Grant. The soundtrack is so gorgeous. It's such a satisfying ending as well, but all Jane Austen books have happy endings, even though they seem impossible to end happily. The casting is so spot on that I can hardly describe it. I can't think of anyone else playing Colonel Brandon, or Elinor, especially. I have seen other versions, and they pale in comparison. This has been one of my favorite movies since the first time I saw it almost 30 years ago. And, by the way, Emma Thompson wrote the script and won best screenplay for it.

Good movie good quality disc. My favorite movie!

“Sense and Sensibility” (1995) is one of the best film adaptations of Jane Austen, well scripted, well directed and well acted. But superficially at least, it had all the makings of a potential disaster. It was the idea of producer Lindsay Doran, who had developed a love for Austen and particularly this novel when she lived in England in the early 1970s. An Austen adaptation had not been filmed since 1940’s “Pride and Prejudice” and there was no current vogue for the author. I suspect her just being hired as a new producer at Sidney Pollack’s independent production company, Mirage Enterprises enabled its greenlighting. The screenplay was entrusted to an actress who had never written a screenplay. The chosen director had never heard of Jane Austen and his three films had been about Chinese and Chinese-American life and filmed mostly in the Chinese language. Fortunately the screenwriter was Emma Thompson, who was able to bridge the actor-screenwriter divide and create a script true to Austen’s world while making the usual adjustments that translation to the time limit of films demands. It took over four years to write it. She remains the only person ever to win an Academy Award in both writing and acting categories, the acting award being for “Howard’s End”. Choosing Ang Lee was taking a bigger chance, but Doran and Thompson saw understanding of family life and both warmth and humor in his films and hired him. Austen had a great sense of humor about her society and I think it was important that both the producer and screenwriter had begun in comedy and would not have allowed a stiff, humorless adaptation. The film has the usual demands that any Austen film makes. There are many characters, often related to each other and these relationships need to be understood to understand fully, what’s going on. Fortunately here, there are but five primary characters with the rest more peripheral but still affecting the plot in important ways. The two Dashwood sisters, Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (Kate Winslet), represent sense and sensibility. Though seemingly interchangeable now, the latter term meant a prizing of emotion and feelings over rationality. In this way it was the early stirrings of Romanticism, which would become full blown by the 1820s. Austen was suspicious of sensibility and here illustrates how it often leads to problems. Thompson had to be convinced to play Elinor, who is only nineteen in the novel, but I think the wisdom of her character would have seemed odd coming from an appropriately aged actress and suits Thomson perfectly. This was only Winslet’s second film, but her Marianne is just right. Thompson and Winslet play the Dashwoods similarly enough to be sisters and their differences in temperament enough to be unalike, but not so much as to become characures. At a certain moment, Elinore shows Marianne that she feels things as deeply as she, but understands the need for rules of conduct. (The third sister, a child, appears only rarely). The three male leads each woo the sisters to one degree or another. Hugh Grant had recently broken out internationally in “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and further developed his handsome and charming but reticent and occasionally stammering character here as Edward Ferrars. Edward instantly understands the seriousness of the Dashwood’s situation and is compassionate. He makes a good impression despite being absent from the screen for long stretches. Alan Rickman had been wanting to break away from the villainous roles in which he had been typecast since “Die Hard” and succeeded in creating a devoted, honorable man in Colonel Brandon. Greg Wise plays John Willoughby, an uncommonly handsome fellow who drives a fast carriage and carries a pocket volume of Shakespeare’s Sonnets on him at all times, the very portrait of a Romantic hero. Actor Greg Wise is perfect for the part (and also began a relationship with Thompson that resulted in their long marriage). Most of the supporting characters are done for comic effect, especially Mrs. Jennings (Elizabeth Spriggs) who with her son in law, Sir John Middleton (Robert Hardy) are the gossips and matchmakers of Devonshire. Harriet Walter is absolutely wicked in her snobbishness as Fanny Dashwood but hilarious when she receives a sudden shock. If you’re at all inclined, Jane Austen’s characters can be looked up online and I’m certain it would help sort them out and make it a more valuable experience, but be careful, some of them delve into the plot too much. The second problem is in understanding the intricacies of the Regency Period legal system. Austen wasn’t writing just comedies of manners but had a serious purpose in describing the effects of the legal system, especially on women. It’s virtually the theme of “Sense and Sensibility” where everyone is very subject to it. I can’t do justice to it here so here are the briefest points. Inheritance law generally bestowed a large estate on the eldest male heir. Even his younger brothers had to do with minor sums of money and often went into the military or clergy. This was a strong custom but could be overruled (think of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in “Pride and Prejudice”) but that was a rare thing. Women could inherit money as Emma Woodhouse had, making her much more independent than the usual Austen heroine. This is what makes Austen so serious. At any given time a chasm could open up under anyone due to the laws of inheritance. Such a situation happens here where the female Dashwoods lose Norland Park, the very epitome of an English Estate and are fortunate to get use of a cottage from a distant relation. Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones) was his second wife and his father had made his will to keep the estate in the male line by allowing Mr. Dashwood the use but not the ownership of the estate; he died before he could make much of this. (This is the first scene in the film so I’m not really giving anything away). It could almost be as bad on the men. Both Edward Ferrars and John Willoughby find themselves unable to do as they would really wish due to these laws and customs. Having an “Understanding” is also an important thing here. In this case it means an actual proposal of marriage, not an assumption. A proposal had legal standing and the force of law and breaking it could lead to scandal and a breach of promise lawsuit. Back to the film, at last. The film is shot in cool colors, often soft greens and grays, which help ground it in reality. A temptation would be to make it too pretty with storybook colors - which actually worked in Emma (1996) but that was done purely as a light comedy. Here the cool tones make everything very real looking, emphasizing that the consequences at stake here are serious. The clothing is perfect for the period, even the country dresses at the London ball. It has always perplexed me that women were so wise to throw away all those confining eighteenth century hairstyles and dresses and were finally comfortable, only to throw it away not long after for corsets and framework. The music is by Patrick Doyle, who had scored some of Kenneth Branagh’s films and is a good and never overwhelming accompaniment to the film. He wrote his own music entirely for the film, even the songs and dance music, where most film composers would have used actual music of the day, perhaps from “The Apollonian Harmony” or John Playford’s “The English Dancing Master”. But, likely as a challenge, he wrote convincing period music. This fills the first part of the film, but from Elinor and Marianne’s serious discussion onward, the music becomes Romantic influenced film score music. Overall this film wins on every count and ends just as Austen’s did (though it seems a bit tacked on here because there simply wasn’t time to add more development). Even if you are not an Austen fan the film is easy enough to understand and dramatically paced enough to make its two hours move quickly. The DVD is rather deluxe with audio commentary by director Ang Lee and Emma Thompson, deleted scenes and trailers.

I'm a Jane Austen fan, and this is turning into my favourite film of all time. It is beautifully cast, and delivered, bringing the original book to full life, but showing a detailed and sensitive understanding of the original text, so that the result is both true and impacting. I didn't understand why this book was Jane Austen's favourite before owning this film. Now I can see it is about second chances at love, that seemed like second choices to me before - like settling, and compromising, which was sad - but they don't seem so now. Alan Rickman, Kate Winslett, and Emma Thompson play their parts perfectly, and their work is deeply touching in all the right places.

Für Kauf-DVDs gibt es Regionalcodes. Für Europa ist es die 2. Die gesendete DVD hat Code 1,3,4 und kann in Deutschland nicht abgespielt werden. Man müsste ein Rip-Verfahren anwenden, was aber illegal ist.

It's one of my most favourite movies. It was great 15 years ago, and it is same wonderful now.

I wanted to watch it again after Alan Rickman died. I loved it even more on repeat viewing--noticed a few things I'd missed, like Hugh Laurie looking at Emma Thompson as it became clear to him what life would be like with a woman who was the complete opposite of his silly wife. Also noteworthy was Alan Rickman's grin and uniform in the wedding scene: suddenly he showed himself as the military man he was and instantly turned into a romantic hero, conjuring up all the girls who were a pushover for those soldiers in red coats. In other words, I approve of the director's modifications and additions to the original story, including the fleshing out Edward Ferrars' character by his interaction with Eleanor's and Marianne's little sister, who was invisible in the novel. Hugh Grant playing against type was marvelous. But the heart and soul of it were the fine performances by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet.

Despite the blurb stating that this DVD was compatible for UK and Europe, my DVD player rejected it as incompatible. I love this film. It's a shame I can't watch it!