5/24/2023 0 Comments Whit stillman love and friendship![]() ![]() Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility remains the most gracious of Austens on film, but it’s no longer the funniest. Stillman, for his part, lets no opportunity for a laugh, however rueful, slip. But it’s Tom Bennett, so inspired and endearing as the most gormless of Austen suitors, who is the revelation here, finding exquisite possibilities for physical comedy amid all those impeccable words. Kate Beckinsale, an actress too few film-makers have thought to challenge over the years, turns out to be an optimum fit for Austen – all surface serenity masking Stanley-knife severity. Beneath its whipped-cream quippery, it shows a very real and ruthless understanding of why we pursue relationships – for a multitude of reasons quite apart from love, friendship or even a compromise of the two. A singularly literate comic voice in American cinema, he doesn’t work often enough as it is: we can ill afford to donate his gifts to someone else’s comedy of manners, right? Happily, I was wrong in Love & Friendship (Lionsgate, U), Austen’s brisk sense and Stillman’s wily sensibility make for about as perfect an arranged marriage as you could hope for.Ī quick, zesty take on Austen’s novella Lady Susan that adores and embellishes her language with equal care, Stillman’s film bridges the social and romantic politics of her era with ours. I admit my heart sank a little – only a little, mind you – when I first heard that Whit Stillman was making a Jane Austen adaptation. ![]()
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