Whit Stillman’s new Irish co-produced drama Love & Friendship has found great critical favour following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film currently stands at 100% on the popular review aggregation site RottenTomatoes.
[quote cite=”http://nypost.com/2016/01/24/whit-stillman-brings-metropolitan-flair-to-jane-austen/” title=”Kyle Smith – New York Post”]”Love & Friendship” is a most particular pleasure.[/quote]
[quote cite=”http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/love-friendship-sundance-review-858759″ title=”Todd McCarthy – Hollywood Reporter”]Cheeky in its approach as well as spirited and good-natured.[/quote]
[quote cite=”http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/love-and-friendship-review-sundance-jane-austen-1201687362/” title=”Justin Chang – Variety”]A supremely elegant and delicately filigreed adaptation of Jane Austen’s epistolary novella “Lady Susan.”[/quote]
[quote cite=”http://www.craveonline.com/entertainment/946257-sundance-2016-love-friendship-wit-whit” title=” William Bibbiani – CraveOnline”]A lovely and intricate web with a seductive spider at the center, played deftly by Kate Beckinsale.[/quote]
[quote cite=”http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/love-and-friendship-review/5099248.article” title=”Anthony Kaufman – Screen International”]Whether debutants in New York City or landed gentry in England, Stillman is perfectly at home, delivering the same dry humor and tender observations about the affairs of the highest echelons of society.[/quote]
[quote cite=”http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/sundance-review-whit-stillmans-love-friendship-starring-kate-beckinsale-and-chloe-sevigny-20160124″ title=”Noel Murray – The Playlist”]Sharp insight, coupled with the amusing way that the heroine phrases her quips, make “Love & Friendship” pleasurable to watch even when it all starts to feel like too much about too little. [/quote]
[quote cite=”http://lwlies.com/festivals/love-friendship-first-look-review/” title=” David Jenkins – Little White Lies”]With his ebullient and scaldingly droll latest – a superlative screwball adaptation of Jane Austen’s novella ‘Lady Susan’ – Stillman may have finally located an ensemble of characters who exist in their own time.[/quote]
As can be gathered from the quotes the film is based on Stillman’s adaptation of the Jane Austen novella Lady Susan, and sees Stillman reteam with his Last Days of Disco stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny. Xavier Samuel, Stephen Fry, Emma Greenwell, Jemma Redgrave, James Fleet, and Morfydd Clark also star in the period drama.
The novella on which the film is based is an early complete work that Austen never submitted for publication, that describes the schemes of the main character, the widowed Lady Susan, as she seeks a new husband for herself and one for her daughter.
Filming took place in Ireland in February and March of last year, with Katie Holly and Kieron J. Walsh of Blinder Films onboard as producers. Love & Friendship is a Westerly Films production in association with Blinder Films, Chic Films, Revolver Films, the Irish Film Board, Arte and the Netherlands Film Fund.