Widely considered to be one of England’s greatest writers, Jane Austen died at the age of just 41, but had she not done, she would have been celebrating her birthday today, which feels like a good reason to reflect not only on her contributions to literature but on the cinematic legacy to which that literature has contributed. All these films are currently available for you to watch at home, and they range from direct adaptations of her work to more creative takes, as well as films inspired by her life and her creations. We hope that you find some of them inspiring.
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| Becoming Jane |
Becoming Jane - ITV X, Brit Box, Apple TV
A common theme in Austen’s work is the liberties which characters take in imagining the lives of others, and the author herself is at the sharp end of this in Julian Jarrold’s somewhat outré take on Jon Spence’s biography. It centres on what most Austen scholars believe to have been a real life romance of sorts between Jane and Irish lawyer Tom Lefroy, though contemporary sources suggest that his influenced her rather more on the matter of repressed emotion and did not give way to the passionate embraces on display here. nevertheless, if taken with a pinch of salt, this is an enjoyable film with good work from Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy in the leading roles. Laurence Fox is as dull as you’d expect but Maggie Smith is her reliable self and the film never takes itself too seriously.
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| Emma |
Emma - Amazon, Google Play, Rakuten TV
Probably the author’s most popular work, Emma has been adapted multiple times for cinema, perhaps most famously through the filter of a 1980s high school in Clueless. Autumn de Wilde’s 2020 take received two Oscar nominations for aspect of design and looks like nothing so much as a tray full of desserts, all crisp sugar wafers and delicate meringues, pastel colours under bright sunlight. This, of course, neatly sums up the charmed world which its heroine (played with requisite wit by rising star Anya Taylor-Joy) has created for herself, blotting out the messiness of real life and the mess she is creating as she meddles in the romantic lives of everyone around her – all the while failing to notice the opportunity to make something of her own. It’s dreamy and light but not without bite.
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| Mansfield Park |
Mansfield Park - Amazon, Apple TV
Stripped down and spare, shorn of the usual feminine trappings associated with cinematic takes on Austen, this is an adaptation which Canadian director Patricia Rozema has taken firmly in hand. As a result, the politics and social critique beneath the surface are much more visible, as is the vigour of its characters. Frances O’Connor plays heroine Fanny not as the shy little thing the author took her for but as a strong-willed individual whose struggle to command her own fate by no means indicates a lack of will. She is a woman of little means who is essentially reliant on charity until she finds a husband, yet she is unwilling to do so due to her attachment to a young man who has no prospects but the priesthood. Romantic angst is balanced by an awareness of the darker historical backdrop against which the story plays out.
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| Love And Friendship |
Love And Friendship - Netflix, Disney, BFI Player
Amber Wilkinson writes: Sometimes there's a suggestion with adaptations that they should be preserved, like Regency vegetables in aspic, but Whit Stillman shows just how good an adaptation can be when it is given additional flourishes in keeping with the original source. He helps Austen's epistolary novel to flow more smoothly with the addition of characters, including a delightful woman whose job is to "pack and unpack" to his tale of a manipulative widow (Kate Beckinsale) who is determined to angle her daughter (Morfydd Clark) into marriage. Beckinsale's Lady Susan is a triumph of scripting and portrayal as her sharp-witted anti-heroine schemes away, blissfully unaware of her own failings. Tom Bennett also steals every scene he is in as the bumbling Sir James, whose consideration of peas on a plate is particularly delightful - "How jolly, tiny green balls!"
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| Austenland |
Austenland - Starz, Lionsgate, Amazon
Amber Wilkinson writes: Not a Jane Austen adaptation but deliberately framed around the author's familiar themes, this sweet-hearted pastiche got a bit of a critical mauling on release, but it has its plus points. Among them is Keri Russell, who plays a Jane Austen enthusiast, whose house is a very shrine to the novelist. She jumps at the chance to go on an English theme holiday to Austenland, only to discover that her "copper" package doesn't come with the crinoline she was hoping for as she becomes branded "Miss Erstwhile" and finds herself stuck in the servants quarters - far from those with the platinum package. The comedy certainly lacks Austen's subtlety but Jerusha Hess fares better in the romance department, thanks to plenty of help from Russell's charming portrayal, as we will her to find true love with either the sexy Aussie handyman (Bret McKenzie) or the aloof Henry Nobley (JJ Feild).
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| Pride And Prejudice |
Pride And Prejudice - Netflix, Amazon, Google Play
The energy and grand cinematic vision of Joe Wright makes this adaptation of the celebrated novel a solid piece of entertainment whether or not you’re a fan of Austen’s work more generally, and rarely has there been a better bit of casting in a story of this sort than Keira Knightley as heroine Lizzie (the two would work together again on Atonement and Anna Karenina). Not a big star at the time, she approaches the role with confidence and shows us the strength of character behind the famous wit. There’s a freshness and vitality about all the performance (except perhaps Matthew MacFadyen’s slightly gauche Mr Darcy, though he resembles the man in the novel rather better than the popular idea of the character). Look out for Donald Sutherland and the young Carey Mulligan in support.
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| Pride And Prejudice And Zombies |
Pride And Prejudice And Zombies - Chili, Amazon, Google Play
Donald Munro writes: It wouldn't be much of a stretch to think that some adaptation of the classics of English literature can be po-faced and self important, and ripe for parody. Pride And Prejudice And Zombies lays into these films with abandon. It lampoons the settings, the cinematography and the character interactions with deadpan absurdism. The joke goes deeper than just the visual as it plays with many of the themes common to these films: class prejudice, sexuality, and the characters’ restricted roles in society. This bodice-ripper is Troma with production values.
