Love & Friendship is finally the Austen movie she deserved
Mar 7, 2017 14:45:28 GMT
taranofprydain, Film Socialism, and 1 more like this
Post by Martin Stett on Mar 7, 2017 14:45:28 GMT
My title comes off as condescending, but would Lady Susan have it any other way?
I want to be clear from the outset: I'm a MASSIVE Jane Austen fan. I've read all six of her big novels. I read Lady Susan. I read Love and Friendship. I read her unfinished drafts of The Watsons and Sanditon (which was well on its way to being her best work, had she not died), and even The History of England. I am in love with this woman, and have been from the first time I grabbed Emma at random from a library shelf.
And as a fan, I've always been disappointed in what Hollywood takes away from her. The movie adaptations tend to focus on the "romantic" aspect of her novels, and while that focus does make for some good cinema, it never truly feels like the novels.
Because the novels have TEETH. They are vicious social satires that constantly surprise with their ruthless sarcasm and wit that tears apart the polite social order the characters are a part of. There are many more marks of Austen's genius, but this is the most important one that attracts me to her writing.
And it is this beautifully sick social satire that Whit Stillman brings in spades to Love & Friendship. Every character is scheming against each other and plotting behind each other's backs, and underneath the polite smiles (only thinly masking contempt and/or outright loathing in many cases), this movie is a bloodbath of snarky putdowns and subtle jabs at the 19th (and as humanity remains the same in all ages, the 21st) century society these characters inhabit.
In other words, it is everything I could ever wish for in an Austen movie.
I find it interesting that Stillman made such a great film out of the mean spirited and unfunny Lady Susan. But he's the only one that could rise to the challenge; by dropping the limiting epistolary format, we don't have to view the entire story through the nasty Susan's head, allowing us to enjoy the story much more because we don't have to be a part of that witch's psyche for the whole time.
As someone who has been crying for years that Stillman should make an Austen movie -- indeed, calling on him as the only writer/director that could do her style of comedy justice -- I am ecstatic that he created a work as wonderful as this. It is truly the greatest of all the Austen adaptations (my apologies to the miniseries of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth), and one of the flat-out funniest films I've seen in a long while.
I want to be clear from the outset: I'm a MASSIVE Jane Austen fan. I've read all six of her big novels. I read Lady Susan. I read Love and Friendship. I read her unfinished drafts of The Watsons and Sanditon (which was well on its way to being her best work, had she not died), and even The History of England. I am in love with this woman, and have been from the first time I grabbed Emma at random from a library shelf.
And as a fan, I've always been disappointed in what Hollywood takes away from her. The movie adaptations tend to focus on the "romantic" aspect of her novels, and while that focus does make for some good cinema, it never truly feels like the novels.
Because the novels have TEETH. They are vicious social satires that constantly surprise with their ruthless sarcasm and wit that tears apart the polite social order the characters are a part of. There are many more marks of Austen's genius, but this is the most important one that attracts me to her writing.
And it is this beautifully sick social satire that Whit Stillman brings in spades to Love & Friendship. Every character is scheming against each other and plotting behind each other's backs, and underneath the polite smiles (only thinly masking contempt and/or outright loathing in many cases), this movie is a bloodbath of snarky putdowns and subtle jabs at the 19th (and as humanity remains the same in all ages, the 21st) century society these characters inhabit.
In other words, it is everything I could ever wish for in an Austen movie.
I find it interesting that Stillman made such a great film out of the mean spirited and unfunny Lady Susan. But he's the only one that could rise to the challenge; by dropping the limiting epistolary format, we don't have to view the entire story through the nasty Susan's head, allowing us to enjoy the story much more because we don't have to be a part of that witch's psyche for the whole time.
As someone who has been crying for years that Stillman should make an Austen movie -- indeed, calling on him as the only writer/director that could do her style of comedy justice -- I am ecstatic that he created a work as wonderful as this. It is truly the greatest of all the Austen adaptations (my apologies to the miniseries of Pride & Prejudice with Colin Firth), and one of the flat-out funniest films I've seen in a long while.
), it's top notch... but I can't see anyone making a movie out of it. There's only so much you can do with a story that was written by a thirteen year old drunk on creativity, even if her sheer enthusiasm makes it enjoyable.
