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Sense and Sensibility
作者Author  /  Jane  Austen  珍•奧斯汀

Sense and Sensibility

Jane Austen

 Opposite Sisters

 Early Productions

 Glorious Version

 Fine Acting Talent

 Ang Lee's Direction

 Sisterly Love

 Interesting and Fun Excerpts

 Poems in the Film

 Related Links and Sources

 

 Opposite Sisters

 

Although Sense and Sensibility was not the first novel Austen wrote, it was the first published, in 1811.  It is the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, one of whom has a bit too much sense while the other has a bit too much sensibility. One of the main themes of the story is finding the balance between sense and sensibility.

To tell the truth, when reading the novel or even watching the films, I often want to give both sisters a good shake!  I want to shake Elinor into being a little more open, and I really want to shake some sense into Marianne.  She is the far more annoying sister, and Austen found more room for satire in Marianne's over-abundant Romanticism than in Elinor's reticence.

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 Early Productions

  Two TV productions, one in 1971 directed by David Giles and starring Joanna David and Isabel Dean as Elinor and Marianne Dashwood.  The second was made in 1981 and was directed by Rodney Bennett and starred Irene Richard (who played Charlotte Lucas in the 1980 production of Pride and Prejudice) and Tracey Childs as Elinor and Marianne.  Neither of these productions are available today, and I mention them just to be thorough.

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 Glorious Version

 
 
The Dashwood girls as played by Kate Winslet, Emile Francois, and Emma Thompson.
Source: Homevideos.com, www.homevideos.com/romantic-movies/28.htm

The most famous version of Sense and Sensibility is the 1995 film directed by Ang Lee with an Academy Award-winning screenplay by Emma Thompson, who also played Elinor Dashwood.  According to Thompson, she worked on the screenplay for four years, finally going through 20 drafts in order to do Jane Austen proud.

And the film is quite funny, as well as moving.  It has consistently brought audiences to laughter and to tears.  Many don't expect humor from an Austen adaptation, but as Thompson has said, "People forget Austen is a comedian, she's a satirist and an ironist of the first order, and her wit is biting and it cuts very deep." (Emma Thompson Sanctuary)

Personally, I will never forget a line from Thompson's acceptance speech at the 1995 Academy Awards: she “noted that, before returning to Los Angeles for the ceremony, "I went to Jane Austen's grave in Winchester Cathedral to pay my respects and tell her about the grosses. I don't know how she would react to an evening like this, but I do hope she knows how big she is in Uruguay." (Bart)  To me, this quote showed how much love Thompson has for Austen.

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 Fine Acting Talent

   
Elizabeth Spriggs as Mrs. Jennings and Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Palmer.
Source: Homevideos.com, http://www.homevideos.com/romantic-movies/28.htm

In the film Thompson was surrounded with some of England's best talent, many of whom she'd worked with before.  Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman, and Hugh Grant rounded out the two lead couples. 

The supporting actors included long-time Thompson collaborators Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie as Mrs. and Mrs. Palmer (Laurie's part is small, but he is note-worthy as the husband just longing for some sense on the part of his wife and mother-in-law).

Also on hand are the wonderfully talented Imogen Stubbs as the nasty Lucy Steele, and Gemma Jones as Mrs. Dashwood.  Greg Wise played Willoughby, the man who steals Marianne's heart then casts her aside. 

 

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 Ang Lee's Direction

   
Alan Rickman as Col. Brandon and Kate
Winslet as Marianne Dashwood reading
The Fairie Queene.
Source: The Rickmanista Review. http://members.tripod.com/
~emma_on_line/sense.html


As fine as these actors all are, and as fine as Thompson's screenplay is, Ang Lee's direction adds much to the finished product.  As Janet Maslin notes in her New York Timesreview:"Mr. Lee is after something more broadly accessible, a sparkling, colorful and utterly contemporary comedy of manners. He achieves this so pleasantly that "Sense and Sensibility" matches the Austen-based "Clueless" for sheer fun. Not bad, considering that these characters respond to any awkward social circumstance by talking about the weather.

"But Mr. Lee and Ms. Thompson are not above winking at their audience over such musty, Regency-era conventions. Nor are they overly reverential about the text itself, which has been artfully pruned and sometimes modified to suit broader comic tastes. While it's not necessary to have John Dashwood (James Fleet) twitching so nervously at his father's deathbed, wincing over a promise to take financial care of his stepmother and half sisters, Mr. Lee often indulges in such bold strokes. In this case, it's as helpful a way as any of setting the story in motion."

In review"Sense, Sensibility And Eternal Entrapment", Lizzie Francke sees Lee as the perfect choice for Thompson's screenplay:"Lee, who directed such successes as The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink, Man Woman, was an inspired choice. His films offer astute observations on cultures bound by stifling social conventions and etiquette. In particular Eat Drink, Man Woman, which was about a widowed father who could express his love for his four daughters only by cooking them elaborate meals that they could not eat, seems like a rehearsal for Austen, which is full of characters who either fill up their world with empty patter or cannot explain themselves at all."

And it seems Lee pushed his actors.  Kate Winslet always did her own stunts, including falling down the hill and standing out in the cold English rain.  Here's a passage from Emma Thompson's production diary:

"10.20 pm. In bed with a herbal cushion from Kate. She fainted at 6 p.m. - so cold, so wet for so long. Alan [Rickman] found Ang [Lee] sitting on a box, his head low, his fists clenched.

Greg Wise as Willoughby. Source: Homevideos.com www.homevideos.com/romantic-movies/28.htm

“'I tortured her,' he moaned. 'Don't worry,' said Alan. 'You'll have the opportunity to do it to me soon.'

"Kate was sent flowers by the production and four bottles of Newcastle Ale [a very tasty type of English beer] from the ADs [assistant directors].  We warmed her up slowly in her caravan, her feet thrust into Greg's armpits. According to Paul (our paramedic) this is the best way of warming feet and she made a very good recovery. The hotel had built an enormous fire which we sat around with a glass."

 

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 Sisterly Love

  One thing that rings true in the film is the relationship between Elinor and Marianne.  Here's a story from Thompson's production diary that illustrates the real life bond between the two actors:

"Kate and I in right old state doing 'Dearest Papa' - frightening and too emotional, at least for this old bag. Too much motion slopping about anyway, never mind playing scenes about dead fathers and dying sisters. Kate was calling up some tears and I whispered, 'This will be over soon and we'll be parted.' We immediately both burst into loud sobs."

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 Interesting and Fun Excerpts

 

 

Emma Thompson as Elinor Dashwood.
Source: Homevideos.com, www.homevideos.com/romantic-movies/28.htm

From Emma Thompson's diary about the shoot, as published in People Magazine:

·       Thompson's impression of costar Hugh Grant (Edward) at first rehearsal: "Repellently gorgeous, why did we cast him? He's much prettier than I am."

·       Director Ang Lee's comment to Thompson on the first day of shooting: "Don't look so old." Thompson, 36, was playing a woman in her mid-20s.

Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant.
Source: Emma Thompson Sanctuary, http://www.muldermedia.com/emma/gallery/
stills/sense1.html

·       Subtlest special effect: In this pastoral romance, sheep seen in the background had wool permed to look fluffier.

·       Subtlest special effect scrapped as impractical: Thompson hoped to find trained trout for Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) to tickle and catch to impress Marianne (Kate Winslet).

·       Actor for whom craggy-faced, 40ish Alan Rickman was mistaken by daft tourist in Somerset: Tom Cruise

·       Taiwanese director Ang's comment during shoot: "The acting in England is much better than the food."

·       Thompson's diary entry on necking with costar: "Kissing Hugh very lovely. Glad I invented it."

·       Thompson on her appearance in ball scene: "Pulled boobs up as far as they'd go, but they are still disappointing." (Thompson, People)

 

 

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 Poems in the Film
  The poems quoted in the film are William Cowper's"The Castaway," William Shakespeare's"Sonnet 116," Edmund Spenser's The Fairie Queene, Book V, Canto 2, verse 39 and Hartley Coleridge's sonnet. The specific poems have been added by Emma Thompson when writing the screenplay.  In the book, Austen mentions that Willoughby enjoys William Cowper and Sir Walter Scott.

William Cowper's "The Castaway"          

Shakespeare's "Sonnet 116"

Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queene, Book V, Canto 2, verse 39.         

Hartley Coleridge Sonnet 

 

Cowper Poem 

The poem Edward Ferrars reads aloud to the Dashwoods (and whose reading is scorned by Marianne) is William Cowper's ”The Castaway,” (1799), a beautifully sad poem about a man lost at sea, but it can be read on another level, as well.  It can be said to describe the inner torment of a man lost to despair.

 

The Castaway

 

            Obscurest night involved the sky,

                The Atlantic billows roared,

            When such a destined wretch as I,

                Washing headlong from on board,

            Of friends, of hope, of all bereft,

            His floating home forever left.

 

            No braver chief could Albion boast

                Than he with whom he went,

            Nor ever ship left Albion's coast,

                With warmer wishes sent.

            He loved them both, but both in vain,

            Nor him beheld, nor her again.

 

            Not long beneath the whelming brine,

                Expert to swim, he lay;

            Nor soon he felt his strength decline,

                Or courage die away;

            But waged with death a lasting strife,

            Supported by despair of life.

 

            He shouted: nor his friends had failed

                To check the vessel's course,

            But so the furious blast prevailed,

                That, pitiless perforce,

            They left their outcast mate behind,

            And scudded still before the wind.

 

            Some succour yet they could afford;

                And, as such storms allow,

            The cask, the coop, the floated cord,

                Delayed not to bestow.

            But he (they knew) nor ship, nor shore,

            Whate'er they gave, should visit more.

 

            Nor, cruel as it seemed, could he

                Their haste himself condemn,

            Aware that flight, in such a sea,

                Alone could rescue them;

            Yet bitter felt it still to die

            Deserted, and his friends so nigh.

 

            He long survives, who lives an hour

                In ocean, self-upheld;

            And so long he, with unspent power,

                His destiny repelled;

            And ever, as the minutes flew,

            Entreated help, or cried, "Adieu!"

 

            At length, his transient respite past,

                His comrades, who before

            Had heard his voice in every blast,

                Could catch the sound no more.

            For then, by toil subdued, he drank

            The stifling wave, and then he sank.

 

            No poet wept him, but the page

                Of narrative sincere,

            That tells his name, his worth, his age,

                Is wet with Anson's tear.

            And tears by bards or heroes shed

            Alike immortalize the dead.

 

            I therefore purpose not, or dream,

                Descanting on his fate,

            To give the melancholy theme

                A more enduring date;

            But misery still delights to trace

            Its semblance in another's case.

 

            No voice divine the storm allayed,

                No light propitious shone,

            When, snatched from all effectual aid,

                We perished, each alone;

            But I beneath a rougher sea,

            And whelmed in deeper gulfs than he.

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William Shakespeare's ”Sonnet 116” 

This is one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnets, and during the course of the film, Willoughby and Marianne mention the title, so it makes it quite easy to recognize!  This is the poem Willoughby and Marianne take turns reciting the morning after her fall when he comes to visit.  Later in the film, when Marianne is out in the rain staring at his estate, she recites “Love is not love / Which alters when it alteration find”. 

The sonnet is famously about the unchangeable quality of true love, something Marianne believes in passionately.  But while Shakespeare is mentioned in Austen's text, it is not this lovely sonnet, it is Hamlet, which was going to be read by the family before Willoughby left so abruptly-

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

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Edmund Spenser, The Fairie Queene, Book V, Canto 2, verse 39. 

This is the poem that Col. Brandon reads to a convalescing Marianne.  She seems to approve of his reading, and this is the first evidence we have that Marianne is changing her opinion of the good Colonel.  I've modernised the spelling to make it easier to read.

 

Of things unseen how canst thou deem aright,

Then answered the righteous Artegall,

Sith thou misdeem'st so much of things in sight?

What though the sea with waves continual

Do eat the earth, it is no more at all:

Ne is the earth the less, or loseth ought,

For whatsoever from one place doth fall,

Is with the tide unto an other brought:

For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.

 

This is just a small section of a long poem--six books of 12 cantos each, and each canto had many, many verses.  This implies that Col. Brandon has been spending a lot of time reading to Marianne!

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Hartley Coleridge Sonnet 

This poem, ”Sonnet Number VII,” by Hartley Coleridge (son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the fathers of Romantic poetry in England), is read to Elinor by Marianne before they leave their father's home for the cottage in the country.   

Hartley Coleridge was born in 1797, and he did not publish poetry until he was in his early 20s.  Therefor, it is unlikely that the Dashwood girls (or Austen) knew his work, but the poem is “close enough” in terms of period, and it certainly represents Marianne's ideals.

 

Sonnet VII

 

Is love a fancy, or a feeling? No.

It is immortal as immaculate Truth,

'Tis not a blossom shed as soon as youth,

Drops from the stem of life--for it will grow,

In barren regions, where no waters flow,

Nor rays of promise cheats the pensive gloom.

A darkling fire, faint hovering o'er a tomb,

That but itself and darkness nought doth show,

It is my love's being yet it cannot die,

Nor will it change, though all be changed beside;

Though fairest beauty be no longer fair,

Though vows be false, and faith itself deny,

Though sharp enjoyment be a suicide,

And hope a spectre in a ruin bare.

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 Related Links and Sources
 

Janet Maslin, "In Mannerly Search of Marriageable Men," Film Review of Sense and Sensibility (13 Dec 1995). 

You have to register at the NY Times to see it, but it's free:

http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=&title2=SENSE%20AND%20SENSIBILITY%20%28MOVIE%29&reviewer=Janet%20Maslin&pdate=19951213&v_id=135551&reviewer=Janet%20Maslin

Bart, Peter."Kudos need oral surgery" Variety.com.  Posted 23 Jan. 2005.  18 Feb 2005. http://variety.com/2005/film/awards/kudos-need-oral-surgery-1117916739/

 “Biography," Emma Thompson Sanctuary: 18 Feb 2005. http://www.muldermedia.com/emma/background/biography4.html

Francke, Lizzie."Sense, Sensibility And Eternal Entrapment", New Statesman & Society, 23 Feb 96, Vol. 9:391, p 43.

Maslin, Janet. "In Mannerly Search of Marriageable Men," Film Review of Sense and Sensibility (13 Dec 1995).  New York Times On-line. 18 Feb 2005. http://movies2.nytimes.com/mem/movies/review.html?title1=&title2=SENSE%20AND%20SENSIBILITY%20%28MOVIE%29&reviewer=Janet%20Maslin&pdate=19951213&v_id=135551&reviewer=Janet%20Maslin

Thompson, Emma, Production Diary Quotes, qtd in Admiring Kate Winslet.  18 Feb. 2005. http://www.admiringkate.com/SenseAndSensibility.htm

-----."The Sense And Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries," Excerpts.  People Magazine, 12 Feb 96, Vol. 45:6, pp38-40.

 

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