Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman, 2016)

[domino harvey]

Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny to appear in Stillman's next film, Lady Susan adaptation Love and Friendship

[Professor Wagstaff]

Love & Friendship Trailer

[hearthesilence]

I enjoyed this quite a bit - it's easily the most amusing thing I've seen this year (moreso than the very uneven Hail Caesar!). To be clear I've never read the source material, but it played like a perfect fit for Stillman.

[D50]

Behind the scenes of Love & Friendship.

[D50]

...To be clear I've never read the source material, but it played like a perfect fit for Stillman.

If you do, make sure you read Lady Susan (which the film is adapted from) and not Love and Friendship. It's only 80 pages, and the Kindle ebook is free on Amazon.

[What A Disgrace]

Blu-ray review
No commentary.

I wonder if there's any possibility Criterion could release this film later, though I rather doubt it.

[domino harvey]

A masterpiece of classic Stillman wit. I've heard from some disappointed viewers that you couldn't detect much Stillman in the material, which is utter nonsense. The sheer control of dialog and words is often awe inspiring, and all of the performers rise to the material. So many big laughs here, and the wonderfully manipulative lead perf by Kate Beckinsale nicely echoes her definitive portrayal of Flora Poste decades earlier. Between this and Damsels in Distress, Stillman is showing a great proclivity for new and exciting ways to creatively portray idiocy, and if there was any justice in the world, Tom Bennett would be nominated for an Oscar for his scene-stealing "Rattle"

For those interested, Stillman has adapted his own adaptation into a novel (which also includes the original Lady Susan, with new in-character annotations written by Stillman), so that seems the easiest and best way to explore the source material for those interested

[MichaelB]

A masterpiece of classic Stillman wit. I've heard from some disappointed viewers that you couldn't detect much Stillman in the material, which is utter nonsense.

You have only to read the original to back this up. It may be Jane Austen, but she was just as capable of producing comparatively unformed juvenilia as any other major writer, and much of the best dialogue is clearly down to Stillman.

[swo17]

A masterpiece of classic Stillman wit. I've heard from some disappointed viewers that you couldn't detect much Stillman in the material, which is utter nonsense. The sheer control of dialog and words is often awe inspiring, and all of the performers rise to the material. So many big laughs here, and the wonderfully manipulative lead perf by Kate Beckinsale nicely echoes her definitive portrayal of Flora Poste decades earlier. Between this and Damsels in Distress, Stillman is showing a great proclivity for new and exciting ways to creatively portray idiocy, and if there was any justice in the world, Tom Bennett would be nominated for an Oscar for his scene-stealing "Rattle"

For those interested, Stillman has adapted his own adaptation into a novel (which also includes the original Lady Susan, with new in-character annotations written by Stillman), so that seems the easiest and best way to explore the source material for those interested

Just watched this too and cosign, especially about Tom Bennett.

SpoilerShow

Which of the twelve commandments to get rid of...

I saw a note at the end "Buy the soundtrack, and the novel, wherein Lady Susan receives her vindication." I guess that's the adaptation to which you refer.

[domino harvey]

Yes, the full title of Stillman's novel is Love & Friendship: In Which Jane Austen's Lady Susan Vernon Is Entirely Vindicated. It is narrated by the nephew of James Martin, the incredibly named Rufus Martin-Colonna de Cesari-Rocca, so you can guess where some of the unreliable narrative thrust originates. I'll weigh in more fully once I finish it

[Emilio]

One of the best films I saw this year.

[beamish13]

This was inarguably the best American film to be in theaters during the incredibly moribund summer of 2016, and I can safely assume that I won't see anything better this year.

[Michael Kerpan]

I had thought I had weighed in with praise for this already (early in the summer sometime) --but if so, my post is buried away in some other thread. A very good film, made from a very minor Austen story.

[swo17]

Yes, the full title of Stillman's novel is Love & Friendship: In Which Jane Austen's Lady Susan Vernon Is Entirely Vindicated. It is narrated by the nephew of James Martin, the incredibly named Rufus Martin-Colonna de Cesari-Rocca, so you can guess where some of the unreliable narrative thrust originates. I'll weigh in more fully once I finish it

I finally read this book, which gave me a better sense of what Stillman was doing here with his film. Basically, you have Lady Susan, one of Jane Austen's lesser known works, which is a short series of letters between various characters in which you are able to gradually piece together the ill reputation of the titular society lady. What Stillman's book presupposes is that Lady Susan was real, and that Jane Austen was in fact a slighted, fame-seeking old bitty who stirred up scandal in order to gain literary accolades. The book tells the events of the film from the point of view of a minor character--a small child at the time that the story unfolds. (I believe this element of narration is unique to the book though I may have simply forgotten it being in the film.) The narrator repeatedly takes Lady Susan's side and calls Austen's author vindictive and unfair, though the joke is that he is just as clueless as Sir James Martin's "Rattle," and only serves to reinforce the character traits that Austen originally envisioned. (This extends to the annotations included with Austen's short story, which follow about a third of the early letters until the narrator eventually throws his hands in the air and gives up.) Stillman adds a modern touch of absurdity and a keen grasp of doofusism to Austen's wit and social insight, and the result works rather well I think, simultaneously treating Austen's legacy with both reverence and irreverence. Just be aware that there is a lot of crossover between the book and the film.

[bottled spider]

I'm definitely interesting in reading the two novels having seen this in the theatres this summer. The Austen and Stillman books and the DVD will make some easy Christmas present ideas this year.

I adored the young curate. His enthusiastic and wholly unexpected paean on 'Honour thy mother and father', and its restorative effect on Frederica, was one of my favourite scenes.

[knives]

This was utterly brilliant and hilarious (as said above the expression of idiocy in this film is a sight to behold). Though the most pleasing thing was the brilliant use of the aesthetic which reminded me very much of Rohmer's period pieces particularly The Lady and the Duke. The humour is leaned on more heavily here, but the use of literary and silent conventions to breed new ones in sound cinema is omnipresent everywhere. Even something as simple as the fourth commandment scene seems to be trying to rewrite shooting convention in a backward fashion.

Also the Martindale idiot gives one of the best performances of last year and it is a shame he didn't get more attention. Even frame with him had me hollering. I also thought that Beckinsale and Sevigny were brilliant both dramatically and in comedy (the whipping scene early on might just be the most perfect comedy of manners scene imaginable).