
Meanwhile, Lady Susan has another suitor in her sights, Lord Manwaring, described simply as “a divinely attractive man.” The love triangulations are many: Lady Susan wants to marry off her daughter Federica to Sir James, a daft wealthy suitor (Bennett) at the same time, Lady Susan is seducing Reginald DeCourcy, her sister-in-law’s young brother (Samuel), while Federica also has a crush on the handsome gentlemen. But once the always scheming, delightfully arrogant Lady Susan’s machinations take shape and audiences get used to the film’s rhythms, Love and Friendship becomes a charming and relatable look at romantic entanglements. And the quickly spoken period dialogue-and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it asides and put-downs-are initially a challenge to catch. It’s a lot of information and characters to sort out in a short amount of time. Alicia Johnson, Lady Susan’s friend an American Loyalist exile, from Hartford in the Connecticut” (Chloe Sevigny) and “Sir James Martin, wealthy young suitor of Frederica Vernon & Maria Manwaring, a bit of a ‘Rattle’” (Bennett), and so on. For example, there’s “Lady Susan Vernon, a beautiful young widow in straitened circumstances” (Beckinsale), “Mrs.
#Love and friendship full movie 2016 series
With a literary flair, Love and Friendship introduces some of its many ‘dramatis personae’ with a series of portraits, accompanied by defining characteristics written out on screen. With winning turns from British actors Kate Beckinsale, Xavier Samuel, and Tom Bennett, among others, European audiences will also be curious to check it out. release before going straight to the streaming platform, where Austen and indie fans are sure to discover it. Just prior to its Sundance premiere, Roadside Attractions announced it would partner with Amazon Studios for a U.S.

Stillman’s script is filled with sharp wit, much of it deployed superbly straight-faced by Beckinsale’s Lady Susanįor those seeking postmodern irony, look elsewhere: Stillman is ever faithful to the tone and tenor of his source material, producing a refined and very witty comedy of manners that Austenites should be pleased with.


Whether debutants in New York City or landed gentry in England, Stillman is perfectly at home, delivering the same dry humor and tender observations about the affairs of the highest echelons of society. With Love and Friendship, Stillman’s adaptation of an unpublished 18th century Jane Austen novella, he has done exactly that. In Whit Stillman’s debut film Metropolitan (1990), the American director told a droll, skillfully scripted tale of love and friendship among a group of young uppity, upper-class Manhattanites that seemed like it could have taken place 200 years before.
