What's the best Jane Austen movie adaptation?
Thursday, March 5, 2020 at 8:21AM 
Jane Austen is one of the most celebrated authors in the English language. Fittingly, many of her works have been adapted into films. This year, we got another Emma, which to many felt like an improvement upon the previous major adaptation of the novel, the one starring Gwyneth Paltrow and a desperately funny Toni Collette.
But which Austen cinematic adaptation is the best of them all? For clarity's sake and a vague sense of fairness, modernized versions of the author's storylines were disqualified from this race for the title of best Jane Austen movie. So, don't expect Clueless to make an appearance despite its genius. Of course, even without Amy Heckerling's 90s teen classic, it was difficult to whittle down the list of films enough to name the three best...
LOVE & FRIENDSHIP (2016)
Speaking of modernizations of Austen, Whit Stillman started his career by reimagining Mansfield Park into a tale of Manhattan elites, Metropolitan. Throughout the years, he'd come to reference the great British author in various screenplays, but a straightforward version of one of her books only materialized in 2016. Love & Friendship is based upon the epistolary delights of Lady Susan and required quite the feat of adaptation from the American director.
From a merry collection of gossipy correspondence, Stillman wove a tapestry of narrative threads that coalesce into a fitting conclusion the novel doesn't quite possess. He did it all while maintaining Austen's biting humor and satirical edge, always keeping in mind that the players of the tale are as contemptible as they are loveable.
Lady Susan herself is the best example of such a dynamic, being both a perfidious social manipulator and the sort of diva we can't help but adore. Kate Beckinsale (an expert Austen actress) breathes life into the character and manages to give what's probably the best performance of her career. Plus, she's hilarious and modern while suggesting period specificity. Just like the entirety of this delightful feature.
PRIDE & PREJUDICE (2005)
I don't know how many times I've read Pride & Prejudice. For years, it was a personal tradition to enjoy Jane Austen's book during summer holidays, spending hot afternoons losing myself in the lovely affairs of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy. I recall those joyful moments, laughing and swooning at Austen's prose, learning of love while the warm sun kissed my face and cicadas filled the air with their symphonies.
Few film adaptations of this novel have captured the pleasures I felt back then, more interested in recording the plot's minutia rather than the swell of feeling it can provoke. Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice is the exception, sacrificing historical accuracy and rigorous fidelity to make a more sensorial and sensual version of the literary classic.
With languid camera movements and Dario Marianelli's lilting score, Keira Knightley gazing at marble nakedness and Donald Sutherland's fatherly warmth, this Pride & Prejudice is both erotic and funny, hypnotizing and exhilarating. The 1995 TV version is certainly more accurate and faithful to the original text. However, this 2005 flick feels like Austen's masterpiece.
SENSE & SENSIBILITY (1995)
Whit Stillman's Love & Friendship is like the sweetness of a well-delivered insult and Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice is a summer afternoon spent reading a beloved book. Ang Lee's Sense & Sensibility, on the other hand, is the warm embrace of a longtime friend. I've watched it more times than I can count, Emma Thompson's screenplay is printed on my mind and its sounds are like a perpetual companion, always ringing in my ear even when I haven't revisited the film in months.
Still, the film is always ready to surprise, a new detail of utter loveliness becoming evident with each rewatch. Sometimes it's the precision of Tim Squyres cutting that most delights me, while the actors might steal the show on another revisit. Everything works, like the well-oiled machinery of a Swiss clock, as exact as it is beautiful.
That said, no technical ingenuity or mechanical exactitude can account for all this masterpiece's strengths. There's something ineffable about its wonder, be it the chemistry of such unlikely pairs as Winslet and Rickman, the familial bonds that feel so strong between its women or the joy of watching period-appropriate sheep parade over a bucolic tableau. It's a dream of a movie, that's what it is.
Sense & Sensibility is my choice for best Jane Austen adaptation, but I'd love to know which one is yours. Are you besotted by Pride & Prejudice, delighted by Love & Friendship, or seduced by the wit of Clueless?
Reader Comments (36)
Pride and Prejudice is one of my all time favourites so that takes the cake for me, but Sense and Sensibility is a close second. The only thing that knocks it down a peg is the Winslet/Rickman stuff actually. I just never can truly buy that Marianne would settle for him.
My "favorite" would probably be the 1995 adaptation of Persuasion, my personal favorite Austin novel. It's a very good film all around but Amanda Roocroft especially is remarkable, I think the greatest performance in an Austin film. Would have been a major contender on my 1995 best actress ballot, which is saying something considering how insanely stacked that year was. It also has a perfect supporting cast nailing arguably trickier roles than in S&S.
"Best" would probably be the Ang Lee S&S and the Joe Wright P&P. IMO I think Lee does not get the credit he deserves as a director on that movie and while Thompson does get credit I think it's under discussed how smart her work is there and how she arguably improves in some ways upon the novel, which is maybe the Austin I like least among her major ones.
1995 was also the year of the Ehle/Ferrell P&P and Clueless. It was the year of Austin! All great adaptations.
Peter -- I love Persuasion, both the novel and that '95 adaptation - which was made for TV, but screened in theatres for its American release. However, I do wish it was more interestingly shot. The costumes do a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to bringing some visual interest into that production. I often feel like the wonderful actors are doing overtime, translating the novel's themes when the filmmaking refuses to do so in any form. Still, it's a good adaptation.
Of all her novels, Persuasion is the one I'd love to see revisited on the big screen. It's a brilliant character study and I feel like it could be a wonderful showcase for any actress lucky enough to nab the role of Anne Elliot.
I adore Whit Stillman, and Beckinsale was just right in that part, but for the way "Best" is usually understood I'd pick the Ang Lee.
Claudio-I agree I think, it's been a while since I watched it. I love the book so I look more favorably towards the film because I think as a piece of adaptation it's actually pretty great. It whittles it down the essentials without making it feel slight or "lesser' by comparison. And I personally like the sparseness and the starkness of it in comparison to S&S.
I do think largely my love is based on Roocroft who I was so moved by the first time I saw it that whatever deficiencies the movie has were largely ignored by me at the time. There is a scene at a concert where she abruptly breaks out of character to prevent Ciaran Hinds from leaving that gave me a surprisingly visceral jolt of real anxiety and suspense.
Subjective as always but I remembered really liking Mansfield Park with the luminous Frances O'Connor as Fanny Price, with Patricia Rozema as director. I like the quiet effervescence of O'Connor and how she lit the landscape she's in and on. It has a really interesting cast as well especially Harold Pinter as Sir Thomas Bertram Sr.
I prefer the 1940 Pride and Prejudice. Even Greer Garson is excellent.
Ang Lee's S&S is the only movie that I keep permanently on my laptop.
Emma Thompson's version is as good as it gets.
Emma's
My favorite adaptation is Emma Approved, Bernie Su's YouTube adaptation resetting the story to modern times with Emma being a matchmaker filming for a documentary about her life and work.
My favorite traditional adaptation is the 2005 Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley.
Ang Lee's S&S is my favorite, but it's very closely followed by Rozema's Mansfield Park. I know, I know: it takes liberties with the original that annoy the hardcore Austenites. But Frances O'Connor is magnificent (such an underrated actress!) and the rest of the cast is splendid.
Some of the others are quite good... but these are the only two I have on DVD.
*Amanda Root is her name. Amanda Roocroft is the soprano. Whoops
S&S, but I haven't seen Pride and Prejudice since it came out.
I was absolutely in love with P&P. Still am. But all three films here are damn awesome.
It is thisclose but today I'd go with Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice because the flinty spark between Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFayden's couple makes their dynamic slightly more involving than the sweet but sedate one between Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant.
But it's really a coin toss because I love them both.
I don't agree that Marianne settles for Colonel Brandon. He's no Willoughby but while Willoughby might be a buck he's also a cad and bounder who only brought her heartache. She just matures enough to realize that his is the kind of love and respect that makes a lifetime and its his kindness and care she falls for. That is amply demonstrated by Alan Rickman's brilliant performance. How he didn't enter the award conversation I don't understand.
joel6: If we're talking about Rickman? Yeah. I'd nominate him 4 times. Of those 4 noms, though?
4. Lead Actor, Truly Madly Deeply (4th)
3. Supporting Actor, Sense & Sensibility (4th)
2. Supporting Actor, Dogma (4th, but 1999 Supporting Actor is RIDICULOUS. This would be a Silver in most years and a medalist in all but 2. But this year? With Tom Cruise's Frank T.J. Mackie, Stephen Root's Milton Waddams, and Sam Rockwell's Wild Bill to contend with? This has to settle for 4th. How critics didn't notice and fight for Rickman at his warmest, however, will always be an eternal enigma.)
1. Supporting Actor, Die Hard (Winner)
Keira should have won the Oscar for Pride & Prejudice. It's one of those beautiful performances (and films) that continues to grow, even after many rewatches.
Well, if I can’t choose CLUELESS, then LOVE & FRIENDSHIP. But let it be know. That CLUELESS is better.
Joe Wright's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is much favourite! Such a glorious looking film. Kiera Knightley and Donald Sutherland's performances are great too.
I'm a sucker for Austen adaptations, but "Sense & Sensibility" gets my vote. I really liked the new "Emma." and if we're voting for sexiest male love interest, I would offer Johnny Flynn for consideration. He's not conventionally attractive and actually looks like he could be a villain in a Guy Ritchie movie, but Knightley's bad boy looks combined with his decency just made me swoon.
joel6: Rickman might not have been in the conversation when it came to the Oscars, but he was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor.
Kate Beckinsale is full of shady goodness in L and F.She would've been on my ballot.
Greer Garson is a delight in Pride & Prejudice!! It's a shame tt she rarely does comedy.
Its strange tt she is nom in 1939, n 1941 thru to 1945, but misses out on this witty performance in 1940. Else she wld've been nom for 7 consecutive yrs!! An academy record!
1940 version stagy, static, performers too old - 1995 series is boxy, TV style production values, and overlong. Pride & Prejudice (2005) for me! I re-watch it regularly: Superb performances, cinematography, script, music, much more. Perfect ending!
^Forget to mention it's the beautiful U.S. ending with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen in the moonlight; UK ending finishes with Donald Sutherland in his study laughing like a loon.
No way any straight period adaptation can improve upon the 1940 version with Greer Garson and Olivier. Only Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility belongs in the same league. (And Clueless, of course.)
Doctor Strange, thank you for mentioning Mansfield Park - I haven’t seen it in years but I remember being bowled over by Frances O’Connor. I really wish her career had taken off in the way her talent deserved.
But S&S for the win.
Lovely writting - as always - from Claudio. Although I wonder, is there any Jane Austen' adaptation made before the 90s worth watching? I love the 30s, 40s and 50s, which are decades I'd love TFE explores more, and I'm not aware of any adaptation in that period.
Mark -- You should try seeing the 1940 version of Pride & Prejudice with Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. It's not one of my favorites, but Garson's quite good in it.
Overall Pride and Prejudice the 1995 series and for film Love and Friendship, that just captured the right tone so well.
I’m a die-hard fan of Joe Wright’s version and I agree that Keira is absolutely brilliant as Lizzie Bennett. I’m happy people is remembering PERSUASION, for me the best from director Roger Michell and, yes, Amanda Root is excellent as the leading lady. I’m very curious about the new Emma, even if I have no problem with the previous adaptation starring Paltrow
All in for Joe Wright/KK version of Pride and Prejudice.
What a cast!
The 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice is a thing of beauty--terrific production values, great supporting cast, and Garson and Olivier at their peak comic ability. I will always resent the 2005 movie, as I blame it for wiping out the memory of this lovely gem from the past. Sigh. If Greer had gotten the Oscar nom for it, just think--seven nominations in a row. What a wonderful thought.
Favourite Austen heroine: Emma Thompson in S&S
Favourite Austen hero: Ciaran Hinds in Persuasion
Top four:
Sense and Sensibility (Thompson)
Pride and Prejudice (Knightley)
Persuasion (Root and Hinds)
Mansfield Park (O’Connor)
I liked Laurence Olivier’s interpretation of Darcy in the Greer Garson/ Olivier version of Pride and Prejudice. He played Darcy as if he had a slight speech impediment that he was extremely self conscious about (he stuttered when excited?). So he kept himself apart and tried not to say much. I thought, no wonder other actors respected Olivier so much, if he was always finding new and inventive ways of interpreting a character.
My favourite Jane Austen adaptations:
1. Emma (Romola Garai)
2. Pride and Predjudice (Colin Firth)
3. Mansfield Park (Jonny Lee Miller)
4. Sense and Sensibility (Dan Stevens)
5. Northanger Abbey (Felicity Jones)
6. Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightley)
7. Persuasion (Ciaran Hinds)
8. Sense and Sensibility (Kate Winslet)
9. Bridget Stone's diary ( Colin Firth)