Sense and Sensibility
Year: 1995
Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Emma Thompson , Alan Rickman , Kate Winslet , Hugh Grant , James Flett, Harriet Walter, Gemma Jones, Elizabeth Spriggs, Robert Hardy , Greg Wise, Hugh Laurie , Imelda Staunton, Imogen Stubbs, Emile Francois.
Set Locations:
Southern England: Shot at Montacute House and village in Somerset and Wilton and Mompesson Houses in Wiltshire.
This 1995 production of the classic English novel by Jane Austen of the same name was directed by Ang Lee. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay and took the lead role in the film. The all-star cast included Hugh Grant, Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman to name but a few of the well known names gracing this very British film.
It tells the tale of young women hampered by their financial and class situation as they try to make ends meet and find suitable marriage. First published by Jane Austen in 1811, the story focuses on how relationships were affected by the class structure in England at the time. Love was seldom allowed to cross these class boundaries and often caused many problems if it did.
Emma Thompson plays Elinor, one of the three daughters left financially inconvenienced by their father's death and at the mercy of stepson John and his wife Fanny. Elinor secretly falls for Fanny's brother Edward but Edward's mother has her heart set on Edward marrying a woman of a higher social stratum than Elinor. Edward is also rather cold towards Elinor when he meets her due to his feeling awkward about their class difference, which she often mistakes for a lack of affection towards her.
There are many picturesque locations to be seen in the film and all are well worth a visit. Marianne (Elinor's sister) and Brandon's wedding was filmed at Berry Pomeroy Church, Berry Pomeroy in Devon . Combe Magna in the film is actually Compton Castle , Marldon near Paignton in Devon. Also in Devon is Efford House in Plymouth , which is used for Barton Cottage in the film, and Mothecombe House in Holbeton , which provided the interior shots of Mrs. Jennings' London House. The outside of the house is actually a different dwelling entirely, Mompesson House at Salisbury in the county of Wiltshire.
Barton Park is actually Trafalgar Park in Salisbury . Norland Park is used to represent Saltram House in Plympton , also near Plymouth. Another very popular tourist destination in Wiltshire, Wilton House, also features in the film. Nearby Montacute House in Montacute, Somerset acts as Cleveland.
The Old Royal Naval College and National Maritime Museum at Greenwich in London is another destination popular with visitors that features in Sense and Sensibility, as does Somerset House at The Strand. The studio shots were filmed at Shepperton Studios, Shepperton , Surrey.
Fans of Jane Austen will also wish to visit her last resting place at Winchester Cathedral , Jane Austen's House Museum in Chawton, near Alton in Hampshire, and the Jane Austen Centre in Bath.
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