| Sense and Sensibility | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Ang Lee |
| Produced by | Lindsay Doran |
| Screenplay by | Emma Thompson |
| Based on | Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen |
| Starring | Emma Thompson Alan Rickman Kate Winslet Hugh Grant |
| Music by | Patrick Doyle |
| Cinematography | Michael Coulter |
| Editing by | Tim Squyres |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | December 13, 1995 February 23, 1996 (United Kingdom) |
| Running time | 136 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $16 -16.5 million |
| Box office | $134,993,774 |
Sense and Sensibility is a 1995 British drama film directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay by Emma Thompson is based on the 1811 novel of the same name by English author Jane Austen. The film stars Thompson and Kate Winslet as the Dashwood sisters, along with Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman.
Producer Lindsay Doran, a longtime admirerer of Austen's novel, hired Thompson to write the screenplay. The actress spent four years going through numerous revisions, as she worked on the script inbetween other films as well as into production of the film itself. Whilst initially intending for another actress to portray Elinor Dashwood, Lee convinced Thompson to undertake the part herself. Sense and Sensibility contributed to a resurgence in popularity for Austen's work, and led to many more film and television adaptations in the following years.
The film received overwhelmingly positive reviews upon release, and many awards and nominations. It was nominated for eleven British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA Awards), winning the top award BAFTA Award for Best Film, with Thompson and Winslet both winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role and the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role award, respectively. Thompson earned her second Academy Award, this time for Best Adapted Screenplay, making her the only person, as of 2011, to have won a writing Oscar and an acting Oscar (Thompson won the Best Actress award for Howards End, in 1993). The film was also nominated for six other Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture.
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Mr. Dashwood (Tom Wilkinson) dies, his wife and three daughters – Elinor (Emma Thompson), Marianne (Kate Winslet) and Margaret (Emilie François) – are left with an inheritance consisting of only £500 a year, with the bulk of the estate of Norland Park left to his son John (James Fleet) from a previous marriage. John and his greedy, snobbish wife Fanny (Harriet Walter) immediately install themselves in the large house; Fanny invites her brother Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) to stay with them. She frets about the budding friendship between Edward and Elinor and does everything she can to prevent it from developing.
Sir John Middleton (Robert Hardy), a cousin of the widowed Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones), offers her a small cottage house on his estate, Barton Park in Devonshire. She and her daughters move in, and are frequent guests at Barton Park. Marianne meets the older Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), who falls in love with her at first sight. Competing with him for her affections is the dashing but deceitful John Willoughby (Greg Wise), whom Marianne falls in love with. On the morning she expects him to propose marriage to her, he instead leaves hurriedly for London. Unbeknownst to the Dashwood family, Brandon’s ward is pregnant with Willoughby’s child, and Willoughby’s aunt Lady Allen has disinherited him.
Sir John’s mother-in-law, Mrs. Jennings (Elizabeth Spriggs), invites her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer (Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie), to visit. They bring with them the impoverished Lucy Steele (Imogen Stubbs). Lucy confides in Elinor that she and Edward have been engaged secretly for five years, thus dashing Elinor’s hopes of a future with him. Mrs. Jennings takes Lucy, Elinor, and Marianne to London, where they meet Willoughby at a ball. He barely acknowledges their acquaintance, and they learn he is engaged to the extremely wealthy Miss Grey; Marianne is inconsolable. The clandestine engagement of Edward and Lucy also comes to light. Edward’s mother demands that he break off the engagement. When he refuses, his fortune is taken from him and given to his younger brother Robert (Richard Lumsden).
On their way home to Devonshire, Elinor and Marianne stop for the night at the country estate of the Palmers, who live near Willoughby. Marianne cannot resist going to see Willoughby's estate and walks a long way in a torrential rain to do so. As a result, she becomes seriously ill and is nursed back to health by Elinor after being rescued by Colonel Brandon.
After Marianne recovers, the sisters return home. They learn that Miss Steele has become Mrs. Ferrars and assume that she is married to Edward. However, he arrives to explain that Miss Steele has unexpectedly wed Robert Ferrars and is thus released from his engagement. Edward proposes to Elinor and becomes a vicar, whilst Marianne falls in love with and marries Colonel Brandon.
The film omits the characters of Lady Middleton and her children, as well as that of Ann Steele, Lucy's sister.[1]
Jane Austen's debut novel, Sense and Sensibility, had been adapted three times prior to the 1995 release, the last adaptation occurring in a 1981 serial.[2] Lindsay Doran, the president of production company Mirage Enterprises, was on a company retreat thinking of potential film ideas when she suggested the novel.[3] A longtime fan of Sense and Sensibility,[4] Doran had vowed in her youth to some day adapt the novel if she ever entered the movie industry.[5] She chose to adapt it in particular (rather than Austen's other works) due to the presence of two female leads.[6] Doran stated, "All of [Austen's] books are funny and emotional, but Sense and Sensibility is the best movie story because it's full of twists and turns. Just when you think you know what's going on, everything is different. It's got real suspense, but it's not a thriller. Irresistible."[3] The producer spent ten years looking for a suitable screenwriter[5] until she came across a series of comedic skits, often in period settings, that actress Emma Thompson had written.[7][8] A week after she and Doran wrapped production on Dead Again, the producer selected Thompson to adapt Sense and Sensibility.[3]
Thompson spent four years writing and revising the screenplay, both during and in between shooting other films.[5][9][10] On an episode of the popular quiz show QI, Thompson later revealed that she lost the screenplay on her faulty computer. When a repairman could not retrieve the file, she took the computer in a taxi to friend Stephen Fry, who spent seven hours retrieving the missing file. He is thanked in the end credits.[11] Thompson continued making revisions throughout production of the film, including changing scenes out of budgetary reasons, adding improvements to dialogue, and flexibly changing certain aspects to better fit the actors.[5] In possession of a screenplay, Doran next had to pitch the idea to various studios in order to finance the film, but found that many were wary of Thompson as the screenwriter and viewed it as too risky. Columbia Pictures supported Thompson's involvement, and agreed to sign as the producer and distributor.[3] However, Columbia initially wanted Thompson to hire a ghostwriter for the film.[12] Executive producer Sydney Pollack stressed that the film be understandable to modern audiences.[5] Thompson explained that Austen was just as comprehensible in a different century, "You don't think people are still concerned with marriage, money, romance, finding a partner? Jane Austen is a genius who appeals to any generation."[7]
"In some ways I probably know that nineteenth century world better than English people today, because I grew up with one foot still in that feudal society. Of course, the dry sense of humour, the sense of decorum, the social code is different. But the essence of social repression against free will - I grew up with that."
Despite not having heard of Jane Austen prior to filming,[14] Taiwanese director Ang Lee was hired due to his work in the 1993 family comedy film The Wedding Banquet, which he co-wrote, produced, and directed. Doran felt that his films, which depicted complex family relationships with social comedy, were a good fit with Austen's storylines.[15] She recalled, "The idea of a foreign director was intellectually appealing even though it was very scary to have someone who didn't have English as his first language."[7] The producer sent Lee a copy of Thompson's script, to which he replied that he was "cautiously interested."[16] Fifteen directors were interviewed, but according to Doran, Lee was one of the few who "knew where the jokes were" and told them he wanted the film to "break people's hearts so badly that they'll still be recovering from it two months later."[16] Doran also felt that Lee's involvement would have prevented the film from becoming "just some little English movie" that appealed only to "audiences in Devon" instead of to "the whole world."[17] Lee explained, "I thought they were crazy: I was brought up in Taiwan, what do I know about 19th-century England? About halfway through the script it started to make sense why they chose me. In my films I've been trying to mix social satire and family drama. I realized that all along I had been trying to do Jane Austen without knowing it. Jane Austen was my destiny. I just had to overcome the cultural barrier."[7]
Composer Patrick Doyle, who had previously worked with friend Thompson in the films Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, and Dead Again, was hired to do the music for Sense and Sensibility. He explained his musical score, "Sense and Sensibility was stifled; the music had to be suppressed to match what was happening onscreen. You had this middle-class English motif, and with the music you would have occasional outbursts of emotion."[18]
Thompson's hope was that Doran would cast Natasha and Joely Richardson, the daughters of Vanessa Redgrave, as Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. However, Lee wanted Thompson herself to play Elinor, to which the actress replied that at age 35, she was too old for the 19-year-old character. Lee then suggested Elinor's age be changed to 27, which would also have had the effect of making the reality of spinsterhood easier for modern audiences to understand.[9][15]
Actress Kate Winslet initially intended to audition for the role of Marianne but the director disliked her work in Heavenly Creatures, causing her to audition for the lesser part of Lucy Steele. However, the actress pretended she had heard the audition was still for Marianne, and won the part based on a single reading.[15] Thompson wrote the part of Edward Ferrars with actor Hugh Grant in mind, and he agreed to receive a lower salary in order to fit with the film's budget.[15] Grant's casting was met with criticism from the Jane Austen Society of North America, who felt that he was too handsome for the part.[7] Thompson met her future husband Greg Wise, who played John Willoughby, whilst filming. He briefly dated Winslet during the production, and the actress later set him up with Thompson after her divorce with Kenneth Branagh was completed.[19]
The film was budgeted at US $16[20] to $16.5 million,[21] the largest budget Ang Lee had yet received as well as the largest awarded to an Austen film that decade.[22] Sense and Sensibility was filmed at a number of locations in Devon, including Saltram House,[10][23] the village church in Berry Pomeroy,[24] Flete House,[25] and Compton Castle.[26] Settings in London included the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.[27] Additional scenes were filmed at Trafalgar House[28] and Wilton House in Wiltshire,[29] Mompesson House in Salisbury,[28] and Montacute House in South Somerset.[10]
Lee suggested Winslet read books of poetry and report back to him in order to best understand her character. He also had Thompson and Winslet live together to develop their characters' sisterly bond.[15] The director often had the actors do numerous takes for certain scenes in order to get the perfect shot. During filming Lee had the actors meditate and practice t'ai chi.[7][30] According to Thompson, the director became "deeply hurt and confused" when she and Hugh Grant made suggestions for certain scenes, which was something not done in his home country.[7][15] Lee ended up losing sleep because he felt his authority was being undermined,[31] though this was later resolved.[7] Other problems ensued; Kate Winslet got phlebitis, Thompson became sick with conjunctivitis,[7] and many of the sheep Lee wanted in every exterior shot[25] collapsed from heat exhaustion.[7]
For the scene in which Elinor learns Edward is unmarried, Grant was unaware that Thompson would cry through most of his speech; the actress told him, "'There's no other way, and I promise you it'll work, and it will be funny as well as being touching.' And he said, 'Oh, all right,' and he was very good about it."[32] Lee had one demand for the scene, that Thompson not turn her head towards the camera for even one second.[30] The rainy scene depicting Marianne's first encounter with Willoughby had around 50 takes with the actors becoming soaked under rain machines, leading Winslet to collapse from hyperventilation.[31] Thompson later recalled the director would "always come up to you and say something unexpectedly crushing", such as asking her not to "look so old."[31]
Sense and Sensibility was theatrically released on 13 December 1995.[33] It grossed US $42,993,774 in the US and US $92,000,000 in foreign markets for a worldwide box office total of US $134,993,774,[21] considered to be a box office success.[33] It had the largest box office gross out of the Austen adaptations of the 1990s.[22]
| Professional reviews | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (84/100)[34] |
| Rotten Tomatoes | (98%)[35] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Empire Online | [36] |
| The Chicago Sun Times | [37] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (B-)[38] |
On Rotten Tomatoes, 48 of 49 critics gave the film a positive review, resulting in a 98% approval rating.[35] In her review in the New York Times, Janet Maslin called the film "...grandly entertaining... a sparkling, colourful and utterly contemporary comedy of manners... Emma Thompson proves as crisp and indispensably clever a screenwriter as she is a leading lady."[39] In her work Jane Austen on film and television: a critical study of the adaptations, Sue Parrill praised the 1995 film, writing that with "a sterling screenplay, a high-powered cast, a talented director, and a delightful soundtrack, this film is a winner in all respects."[40]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film is "entertaining and amusing [and] enjoyable, civilized, yet somehow not as satisfying as Persuasion... because the earlier film looked simpler and more authentic, and this one seems a little too idealized."[37] In his review in San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle stated, "[This is] an exuberant, well-crafted film that gets the audience involved on a gut level even before the opening credits are over... Ang Lee might at first seem an unlikely choice to direct an adaptation from English literature. But he does it with the right balance of irony and warmth. The result is a film of great understanding and emotional clarity, filmed with an elegance that never calls attention to itself."[41]
Barbara Shulgasser of the San Francisco Examiner enthused, "What a glorious time is had by all in this wonderful adaptation of Jane Austen's novel... Ang Lee serves up this sweetmeat without fuss, without the super-seriousness of filmmakers awed by their literary material... [He] and Thompson create a world so believable in its absurd rigidity that we feel we have known these characters all our lives. We are unshakably interested in everything that happens to them. The movie is so intelligently wrought, and so full of good spirit that even those who have behaved badly are at the end given the chance to seem human and pained by their own weaknesses."[42]
Todd McCarthy of Variety observed, "Thompson's script manages the neat trick of preserving the necessary niceties and decorum of civilized behavior of the time whilst still cutting to the dramatic quick. But she and Lee have always kept an eye out for the comedic possibilities in any situation, assisted by a highly skilled cast of actors, which, down to the most briefly seen supporting player, collectively seems to understand the wit and high spirits of the approach. The choice of Lee to direct this so specifically British and period film, and his great success in doing so, will no doubt be the source of much wonderment. Although his previously revealed talents for dramatizing conflicting social and generational traditions will no doubt be noted, Lee's achievement here with such foreign material is simply well beyond what anyone could have expected and may well be posited as the cinematic equivalent of Kazuo Ishiguro writing The Remains of the Day."[43]
Sense and Sensibility received numerous accolades, including seven Academy Awards nominations and twelve BAFTA nominations. At the 68th Academy Awards, Thompson received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay,[44] making her the only person to have won an Oscar for both writing and acting (Thompson won the Best Actress award for Howards End, in 1993).[45][46] At the 49th British Academy Film Awards, Sense and Sensibility won for Best Film, Best Actress in a Leading Role (for Thompson), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (for Winslet).[47] The film also received awards and nominations at the 53rd Golden Globe Awards, the 1st Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards, and at the 2nd Screen Actors Guild Awards.[48][49][50] The film won the Golden Bear at the 46th Berlin International Film Festival.[51]
1995 saw a resurgence of popularity for Jane Austen's works, as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice rocketed to critical and financial success.[52][53] The two adaptations helped draw more attention to the previously little known 1995 film Persuasion, and led to more Austen adaptations in the following years.[54] The filming of Sense and Sensibility and other Austen adaptations led to a surge in popularity at many of the landmarks depicted.[29] When Sense and Sensibility was released in theaters, Town and Country released a six-page article entitled "Jane Austen's England", which focused on the landscape and sites shown in the film. A press book released by the studio as well as Thompson's published screenplay and diaries listed all the filming locations, helping to boost tourism. Saltram House for instance saw a 57 percent increase in attendance after the film was released.[55]
In addition, there were many marketing tie-ins for Sense and Sensibility. After its release, New Market Press published Thompson's screenplay and film diary.[56][57] British publisher Bloomsbury released a paperback edition of the novel containing film pictures and the cast's names on the cover, whilst Signet Publishing in the US printed 250,000 copies instead of the typical 10,000 a year; actress Julie Christie read the novel in an audiobook released by Penguin Audiobooks.[58] Sense and Sensibility shot up in book sales, ultimately hitting tenth place on the The New York Times Best Seller list for paperbacks in February 1996.[12] A 2004 author referred to the 1995 film as "the most popular of the Austen film adaptations."[59] Furthermore, the film is credited with helping make Kate Winslet a recognizable movie star.[15]
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