NAFCH – North American Friends of Chawton House.

Duchess of Devonshire Gossip Guide-18th century.

So we took the title from a juvenile short story to give it that Austen sound. Sense and Sensibility was supposed to be called Elinor and Marianne. Austen had sort of shifted as she went along from character names to imposing noun names for titles. Her nephew, when he published it in 1871, put the title Lady Susan on it. *In the above cited interview, Stillman explains the title change:

The Real “Love and Friendship” can be read here:.

You can read the manuscript with transcription here: (left)_board.html.

An interview with Stillman at Vanity :.

Arnie Perlstein at his Sharp Elves Society blog:.

At least there are no zombies to worry about…Īnd when can we see it? Maybe an April release?Ĭhloë Sevigny (l) and Kate Beckinsale (r) It has nothing to do with Lady Susan of course – but whatever the reason for the title shift,* by all accounts it is a terrific film, with a Heroine just like other of Austen’s delicious “baddies” – Lady Susan the queen of them. Now if you know Austen’s Juvenilia, you know that “Love & Freindship” is one of her funnier over the top pieces (my favorite line: “run mad as often as you chose, but do not faint….”).

Just wait until you see him discovering peas for the first time.Just posting here all the reviews that have been piling in from Sundance – we have been waiting all year for this film – from the very first announcement that Whit Stillman was going to film Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, but bizarrely calling it “Love & Friendship.” Starring Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny.

He’s so adorably dumb that you wonder why Lady Susan’s long-suffering daughter is so reluctant to marry him. His Sir James Martin, fabulously wealthy and even more fabulously thick, is an absolute star.

She gave her all the best lines.įrom Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History: 25 of the best books ever written by womenĮach character is introduced as they would have been at the start of an 18th century novel – they appear on screen, looking at the camera, with a brief description of who they are written underneath. It might be set in the late 1700s, but there’s something about Lady Susan’s free and easy sexuality that it makes her resonate as a heroine in the modern age, despite being a villain in the source material.Īlthough, if you ask us, Austen always had a soft spot for her too. Love & Friendship (and Lady Susan) is filled to the brim with devious plotters, frantic parents and nice but dim rich people.īeckinsale, a once-promising actress whose career was thoroughly derailed by various vampire and werewolf shenanigans is back as Lady Susan, and she’s bloody marvellous.ĭry, witty and utterly unscrupulous, she’s the film’s driving force and you can’t help but root for her selfish schemes to succeed. It’s basically a film populated entirely by Wickhams, Mr Collins’ and Mrs Bennets.

Jane austen love & friendship