Lucem House Monday Matinee - Sense and Sensibility 30th Anniversary

Emma Thompson stars in and provides the screenplay for this adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel. Thompson plays Elinor, the eldest of sisters who are reduced in means when their father dies and his estate passes on to his son from his first marriage. They are soon accepted into their new society, each finding romance, but with some pain along the way.

Following his shrewd and understated observation of social and familial codes in his films The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), Taiwan’s Ang Lee was a bold but inspired choice of director for this adaptation of Jane Austen’s tale of the Dashwood sisters – sensible Elinor (Emma Thompson) and the more romantically inclined Marianne (Kate Winslet) – looking for love in reduced circumstances after losing their country estate on the death of their father.

A movie with the pleasures of a golden age studio picture of the kind made by William Wyler. It was the second half of Emma Thompson’s Oscar double – she won her first one in 1993 for acting in Howards End – and she is still the only person in Academy Award history to win for acting and writing.

Also starring Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, the film won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as three BAFTAs.