Taglines: Lose your heart and come to your senses.
Sense and Sensibility movie storyline. When Mr. Dashwood dies, he must leave the bulk of his estate to the son by his first marriage, which leaves his second wife and their three daughters (Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret) in straitened circumstances. They are taken in by a kindly cousin, but their lack of fortune affects the marriageability of both practical Elinor and romantic Marianne.
When Elinor forms an attachment for the wealthy Edward Ferrars, his family disapproves and separates them. And though Mrs. Jennings tries to match the worthy (and rich) Colonel Brandon to her, Marianne finds the dashing and fiery John Willoughby more to her taste. Both relationships are sorely tried.
Sense and Sensibility is a 1995 British-American period drama film directed by Ang Lee and based on Jane Austen’s 1811 novel of the same name. Actress Emma Thompson wrote the script and stars as Elinor Dashwood, while Kate Winslet plays Elinor’s younger sister Marianne.
The story follows the Dashwood sisters, members of a wealthy English family of landed gentry, as they must deal with circumstances of sudden destitution. They are forced to seek financial security through marriage. Actors Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman play their respective suitors. The film was released on 13 December 1995 in the United States and on 23 February 1996 in the United Kingdom.
Producer Lindsay Doran, a longtime admirer of Austen’s novel, hired Thompson to write the screenplay. The actress spent five years drafting numerous revisions, continually working on the script between other films as well as into production of the film itself. Studios were nervous that Thompson – a first-time screenwriter – was the credited writer, but Columbia Pictures agreed to distribute the film. Though initially intending to have another actress portray Elinor, Thompson was persuaded to take the role.
Thompson’s screenplay exaggerated the Dashwood family’s wealth to make their later scenes of poverty more apparent to modern audiences. It also altered the traits of the male leads to make them more appealing to contemporary viewers. Elinor and Marianne’s different characteristics were emphasised through imagery and invented scenes. Ang Lee was selected as director, both due to his work in the 1993 film The Wedding Banquet and because Doran believed he would help the film appeal to a wider audience. Lee was given a budget of $16 million.
The film was budgeted at $16 million, the largest Ang Lee had yet received as well as the largest awarded to an Austen film that decade. In the wake of the success of Columbia’s 1994 film Little Women, the American studio authorised Lee’s “relatively high budget” out of an expectation that it would be another cross-over hit and appeal to multiple audiences, thus yielding high box office returns. Nevertheless, Doran considered it a “low budget film” and many of the ideas Thompson and Lee came up with – such as an early dramatic scene depicting Mr. Dashwood’s bloody fall from a horse – were deemed unfilmable from a cost perspective.
Production of Sense and Sensibility was scheduled for fifty-eight days, though this was eventually extended to sixty-five. Filming commenced in mid-April 1995 at a number of locations in Devon, beginning with Saltram House (standing in for Norland Park), where Winslet and Jones shot the first scene of the production: when their characters read about Barton Cottage. As Saltram was a National Trust property, Schamus had to sign a contract before production began, and staff with the organisation remained on set to carefully monitor the filming.
Production later returned to shoot several more scenes, finishing there on 29 April. The second location of filming, Flete House, stood in for part of Mrs. Jennings’ London estate, where Edward first sees Elinor with Lucy. Representing Barton Cottage was a Flete Estate stone cottage, which Thompson called “one of the most beautiful spots we’ve ever seen.”
Sense and Sensibility movie trailer.
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Directed by: Ang Lee
Starring: Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Tom Wilkinson, Harriet Walter, Elizabeth Spriggs, Gemma Jones, Isabelle Amyes, Emilie François
Screenplay by: Emma Thompson
Production Design by: Luciana Arrighi
Cinematography by: Michael Coulter
Film Editing by: Tim Squyres
Costume Design by: Jenny Beavan, John Bright
Set Decoration by: Ian Whittaker
Art Direction by: Philip Elton, Andrew Sanders
Music by: Patrick Doyle
MPAA Rating: PG for mild thematic elements.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: December 13, 1995 (United States), February 21, 1996 (United Kingdom)
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