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Writer's pictureJennifer Abella

Austen in the news

Jane Austen’s been in the news a lot in the last few weeks. Here’s why:

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” has a 43% rating on Rottentomatoes.com, a site that aggregates movie reviews.

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For all the blood and guts, “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” is surprisingly faithful to Austen’s beloved 1813 novel (minus the combat). But the genre mashup never quite meshes.
Sally Phillips raises a giggle as Mrs Bennet, and Matt Smith is gamely gormless (“Oh, fuddle”) as Parson Collins. … Yet torn between Austen and the undead, [director Burr] Steers seems unsure how straight to play either element, blunting comedy, horror and romance alike. The result lacks bite.”
The pity of it is that there’s a very good version of Austen in here somewhere.

Speaking of PPZ: How do Austen’s descendants feel about the movie?

 

Meanwhile Whit Stillman’s film “Love and Friendship” has mostly positive reviews:


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With his love of fine clothes and finer diction, Whit Stillman proves an unsurprisingly intuitive fit for Austen, but he also knows just how to give her pointed social satire an extra stab of wink-wink postmodern drollery without breaking the spell.
Love & Friendship is not a romantic comedy dressed in breeches and ruffles. It could just as well have been called Money & Coercion.
Stillman has made what might be the most purely droll film of his career, and while each nibble-sized scene bursts with sweetness, its pleasures remain ephemeral.

 
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And in other movie adaptation news...


Oscar-nominated actress Charlotte Rampling will play a Lady Denham in an adaptation of “Sanditon.”



On stage: A review of a revival of Sense & Sensibility, off-Broadway.




 

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And for laughs: Where do Austen heroes rank as potential Valentine’s dates?


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