![]() She is a widow with beauty and a distinguished name, but no financial means, thus entitled to sympathy and in need of money: a dangerous combination. Lady Susan is the scandalous heroine, to whom Kate Beckinsale gives something predatory yet enigmatic, dressed very becomingly in full mourning black. With its wistful witticisms, its airy contrast of town and country, Love & Friendship somehow feels like an undiscovered Oscar Wilde play. Stillman uses arch intertitles as a kind of visual archaism, almost like a literary silent movie, to introduce his characters and to flash up on screen the contents of letters. It reinvigorates the cliches, the breeches, buttons and bows, and proves you don’t need zombies to restore this writer’s carnivorous appetite. Here is a Jane Austen film that feels like a coolly measured theatrical chamber piece, rather than something from the full Hollywood orchestra. ![]() It also has a young woman talking about earning her living by taking a job: that’s a worst-case scenario that does not come to pass, but even mentioning it is interesting. ![]() Naturally, it takes place in a world where money is supremely important, but it is also a story in which women are permitted to be older, cleverer and better-looking than the men they wish to ensnare. It’s a racier, naughtier piece of work than you might expect.
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