Sense and Sensibility [DVD] [1996]

How can a romantic comedy about seeking marriage mates win the Berlinale, one of the most prestigious film festivals? Well, this splendid adaptation of a classic Jane Austen novel did just that in 1996, combining fabulous writing (and acting) of Emma Thompson and great directing of Ang Lee ("The Wedding Banquet", "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). Other performances are also first-class. Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman and Hugh Grant shine (personally, I've never seen a role to be so fitting for Grant, although "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "About a Boy" came close). The whole cast is flawless. When the film came out, even the self-proclaimed film saviour Quentin Tarantino could not help himself but quip: "Who the F... is Jane Austen?" Yes, this English author who lived 200 years ago wrote only romantic novels about girls (and men) who are in want of a spouse. But she achieved perfection in this very limited space (the novel "Pride and Prejudice" is probably the best). In this movie, the very human side -- the desire not to be alone, to spend a lifetime with the One -- is described with power. Finding the true love was the prime thing for the two Dashwood sisters. But, is it still not true for most of us, even in this cold, material world? Emma Thompson, already an Oscar winner for her leading role in "Howards End" (1992), won the Oscar for this film's adapted screenplay, becoming the first artist ever to achieve such a feat -- winning the Academy Awards for both acting and writing. Apart from saving all important aspects of the story, Thompson included very poignant and sharp moments in the script. When her character Elinor and Edward Ferrars (played by Grant) are on a cruise ride, she says, 'you inherit your money. We cannot even earn ours,' hinting at the situation of middle class women two centuries ago, when their fortunes depended heavily either on inheritance from father or property of husband -- and it was not imaginable they should go to work. A great social commentary. Beautifully shot, with delicate music score by Patrick Doyle, "Sense and Sensibility" is predominantly an entertaining film. But its social and human undertones are undeniable. It did win Berlin festival and the Golden Globe, but lost the Oscar race to "Braveheart". Maybe for the lack of great human topic that would rank it along "Schindler's List" or "The English Patient". Yet I feel that there was not the film in 1995 to deserve the big Oscar more than this one. If you have sense and sensibility, you will laugh and you will cry. This is a film to love.

Emma Thomson, Kate Winslett and Alan Rickman are superb in the Austin classic.

Charm, sensibility, peppered with sense and marvellous acting, a starry cast topped by Emma Thompson simply wonderful as Eleanor, so well supported by a pretty, light-hearted Kate Winslet as Marianne and a lovely turn as their mother from Gemma Jones. Hugh Grant is suitably clever and witty beneath a shy demeanour - a turn out of his usual romantic style! - and Alan Rickman is also clever and shy but totally different, as Marianne's suitor, competing with Greg Wise who captures and breaks Marianne's heart. This is the best version of Austen's novel and a simply super film. Every scene captivates whether it is waspish Harriet Walter, married to the girls' stepbrother (James Fleet) pontificating, or Robert Hardy and Elizabeth Spriggs as the jovial cousin and his stepmother, who offer the almost destitute Dashwoods a home in Devon, who bring fun and games and humour to the playing out of the story. I love this film and Emma Thompson's witty, lively script well won its Oscar. Recommended highly.

This is a charming and delightful film with rich characters and story. The cast including Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, and Hugh Grant is great. Thompson's Oscar-winning screenplay is a masterful adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, and Ang Lee's understated direction is superb. The picture quality of this disc is solid. The transfer looks like an older scan to my eyes and displays good sharpness and strong colors. Some mild filtering and ringing is present, but nowhere near excessive. Grain and finer detail aren't reproduced as well as they would be on a newer remaster, but this a very satisfying presentation and a notable improvement over the ancient DVD nevertheless. Audio is presented in DTS-HD MA 5.0 and sounds good to my ears (though I'm not much of an audiophile). Moving on to the extras, this Blu-ray includes the following (I'm listing them since they're not listed on the back cover): "Adapting Austen" (11 min) "A Sense of Character" (8 min) "A Very Quiet Man" (12 min) "Locating the World of Sense & Sensibility" (5 min) "Elegance & Simplicity: The Wardrobe of Sense & Sensibility" (4 min) 2 Deleted Scenes The 5 featurettes were produced in 2009 for Sony and to my knowledge have not appeared on any DVD release. These featurettes do not include new interviews with the film's talent. Instead, comments are culled from old on set interviews with the cast & crew. These have been upconverted & cropped to 16x9 and intercut with behind the scenes footage, stills, and film clips. The subject of each is mostly self explanatory, although "A Very Quiet Man" focuses on Ang Lee. Overall, these are well-produced featurettes that offer a good overview of the production, but I would've liked to hear new comments from Thompson, Winslet, Lee, and others. 2 deleted scenes from the DVD releases round out the extras and are presented in letterboxed widescreen and run for a total of 2 minutes and 44 seconds. Fans of the film will want to hold onto their DVD copies which include several significant extras not ported over for this Blu-ray edition. These include 2 commentaries (the first by writer/star Emma Thompson and producer Lindsay Doran, and the second by director Ang Lee and co-producer James Schamus), Emma Thompson's Golden Globe acceptance speech, and the film's theatrical trailer. Overall, I definitely recommend this release. As an American who was tired of waiting for Sony to release this in the States, this disc is completely region free and well worth importing!

We enjoy interleaving our repeated viewing of this version of the book, with the slightly earlier BBC production (with Irene Richard and Tracey Childs). Each has its strengths, and its weaknesses (such as which subset of characters has been left out by the screen writer). Viewed one after the other, we get a feel for the original story; but each viewed indiviually is still worthy of a five-star individual performance.

Perfect one for me then one for my mum

Great film

I suppose it makes perfect sense that if you want to make a 19th-century English romance novel into a superb film you hire an actress almost twice the age of the main character to not only play the role but also adapt the screenplay into a book and then hire a Taiwanese director to direct the film. You might say, yes, such things happen in Hollywood, but the success of "Sense and Sensibility" is due to what transpired in England, not Southern California. Having read the novel and the original screenplay, the largest share of credit goes to Emma Thompson, who deservedly received the Oscar for Best Screenplay Adaptation. Thompson began by dramatizing every scene in the novel, which resulted in 300 hand written pages to be followed by 14 drafts as the 1811 novel was crafted into the final script. The result was a script that manages to be not only romantic and funny, but also romantic and funny in the best Austen sense of both. After watching the film again I focus on three particular points, which I think best reveal the strength of Thompson's script. First, the entire introductory sequence, which induces us to like the Dashwood sisters because we are introduced first to their step-brother and his shrewish wife (credit for this particular sequence also goes to Film Editor Tim Squyres, who recut the scene so that we get all of one side and then the other instead of alternating back and forth as in the original script). Our sympathies cannot help but be with the plight of Elinor and Marianne. Second, the use of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 ("Let me not the marriage of true minds"), which Marianne and Willoughby share to their great mutual delight (except he gets a word wrong, in an elegant little bit of foreshadowing) and which Marianne repeats standing in the rain looking at Willoughby's new estate. Third, Austen has Elinor bolt from the room to cry outside during the happy ending but Thompson creates a wonderful moment by having her stay in the room and having the rest of her family flee. There are not too many scenes where you are crying and laughing at the same time, but Thompson certainly created one (and has the added virtue of relying on herself as an actress to nail the performance as well). All of these are marvelous examples of playing to the strength of the cinema to bring Austen's novel to the screen. The performances are first-rate, especially Kate Winslet as the passionate Marianne, Gemma Jones as Mrs. Dashwood and Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon (the look on his face when Marianne thanks him for rescuing her is so wondrously touching). Hugh Grant does find a way of slowing the delivery of his dialogue more than usual, but it does fit the overall pace of the film. The supporting cast is exactly what you come to expect from a British production with Elizabeth Spriggs stealing every scene she is in as Mrs. Jennings, Robert Hardy as Sir John Middleton, Hugh Laurie as Mr. Palmer, Oliver Ford Davies as Doctor Harris, and the enchanting young Emilie Francois as Margaret Dashwood ("They always kneel down"). On the darker side of the ledger we have Greg Wise as the less than honorable John Willoughby, and Imogene Stubbs as Lucy Steele and Harriet Walter as Fanny Dashwood vying for the main villainess role in the proceedings. No wonder Emma Thompson's performance as Elinor is almost lost in the proceedings, but she is the center around which everything resolves who has to keep it together when everybody around her is losing it (even when she first confesses her broken heart, she ends up consoling Marianne instead of the other way around). Ang Lee had already proven he could handle a tale of sisters in love when he directed "Eat Drink Man Woman." In "Sense and Sensibility" he has the script, the actors and the set design all working in his favor to create a sense of 19th century England. But there are a few moments when he uses the camera to great advantage; in particular the overhead shot of Marianne on her sick bed achieves a painting like quality and the tracking shot of Mrs. Jennings running down the street bearing the latest gossip. I first saw this film when visiting England and I was so caught up in the story that I had no idea who was going to end up with who. Actually, I was sort of rooting for Elinor to end up with Colonel Brandon since they were obviously the two finest members of their respective sexes in the proceedings. So the ending was as much of a surprise to me as it was to the Dashwoods, which is certainly something to be cherished. Obviously if you love this film it will lead you to other Austen adaptations (the film versions of "Emma" and "Persuasion" along with the BBC mini-series "Pride & Prejudice" immediately leap to mind), but hopefully it will also lead you to the original novels as well. Finally, Thompson published "The Sense and Sensibility: Screenplay & Diaries," which I would highly recommend after you have done both the film and the novel.

Una versió molt bona de la novel·la de Jane Austen. M'ha sorprès la capacitat de l'actriu Emma Thompson com a guionista. No és debades que va guanyar l'oscar al millor guió adaptat. La direcció d'Ang Lee i les actuacions fan de Sentit i sensibilitat un film preciós, intel·ligent i entranyable.

Blu-ray version sold on Amazon USA website where all the other format versions of the film were in English except this one which is in German or Dutch (?). In order to return to the product of I would have to pay the postage back to the Netherlands. Thanks for a lot Amazon!

Molto Buono.

Anfang des 19 Jhdt. stirbt Mr. Dashwood. Sein Landhaus sowie das dazugehörige Vermögen gehen, wie zur damaligen Zeit üblich, an seinen Sohn. Seine Witwe und seine drei Töchter erben nur ein kleines Einkommen. So ist es für die älteren Dashwood Schwestern notwendig möglichst schnell einen Ehemann zu finden, die einzige Option zur Armut die Frauen aus dieser Gesellschaftsschicht damals blieb! Elinor sagt dazu treffend im Film zu Mr Farras:"....sie werden ihr Auskommen einmal erben, wir können unseres nicht einmal Verdienen! Elenor verliebt sich in ihren Schwager Edward Farras, der wie man leicht erkennen kann, sich auch zu ihr stark hingezogen fühlt. Seine boshafte Schwester lässt, gegenüber Elinors Mutter jedoch sofort durchblicken das er enterbt werden würde wenn er eine arme Kirchenmaus ohne Geld und Verbindungen heiraten würde. Edward reist mit dem Versprechen ab die Dashwood Damen in ihrem neuen zu Hause, einem Cottage in Devonshire das einem Cousin Mrs Dashwoods, Sir John, gehört bald zu besuchen. Sir John und seine Schwiegermutter Mrs. Jennings versuchen nun die beiden Dashwoodschwestern zu verkuppeln. Col. Brandon und Mr. Willoughby werben um Marianne's Gunst und Elinor die immer noch auf Edward hofft erfährt unter dem Siegel der Verschwiegenheit, das dieser bereits mit Miss Steel verlobt ist. Was weiter passiert ansehen!!!! Es gibt nicht oft Filme die so gut gemacht sind wie Sinn und Sinnlichkeit vom Ambiente, dem Drehbuch und dem Zusammenspiel und der Qualität der Schauspieler! Die Verfilmung des Buches von Jane Austin ist wirklich gelungen auch wenn der Film Naturgemäß von der Handlung des Buches etwas abweicht. So sind im Film die Dashwoods am Beginn etwas reicher dargestellt. Die Frau von Sir John lebt im Buch noch, etc,etc. Das tut jedoch dem Film keinen Abbruch und es ist kein Wunder das dieser Film für 7 Oscars nominiert war und Emma Thompson für das Drehbuch den Oscar erhielt! Besonders zu Emfpehlen sind auch die Extras. Mindestens einmal sollten man sich den Audiokommentar von Emma Thompson und der Produzentin Lindsey Doran anhören, der sehr sehr lustig aber auch informativ ist! Eindeutige Kaufemfpehlung!