Janeites - Reading Lady Susan (and Love and Freindship)

[PerspicaciaTick]

I took myself off to the cinema on my own yesterday to see the very, very wicked Lady Susan in "Love and Friendship". I had a lovely time, she is such an absolute bitch and the cast were great. Not a perfect film but very enjoyable. The most fun I've had watching a Jane Austen adaptation in years.

In fact it was enough to inspire to dig out my rather dusty and unloved copies of Lady Susan and also Love and Freindship. I intend to spend this evening alternately fainting and running mad.

Anyone else very glad that this film has been made?

I'm looking forward to seeing this film. I did wonder if Kate Beckinsale was too cosmetically enhanced to look believable in the role.

Kate Beckinsale is great. She looks lovely, get gowns are gorgeous (loved the colour progression over the film) and she is very believable. She delivers her lines with a lot more conviction and panache than the rest of the cast and rightly so.

Will be interesting to see Kate B in a proper acting role after so many years. She went from being a really good actor to becoming a Hollywood Barbie after her second marriage.

Looking forward to seeing this, has great reviews. Kate Beckinsale was good in Emma years ago, agree she was promising then all but disappeared. Beautiful woman.

Good to hear she puts in a good performance Perspicacia. I'd almost forgotten that she could act as she seems to have spent the last decade posing on red carpets as a tanned and botoxed Hollywood bot. But she was on Graham Norton last week and was very clever and witty. Hopefully this will be a career resurgence for her.

I must admit to having had almost zero awareness of KB (knew the name that was about it) and am rather wondering why I've not noticed her before (probably due to a lost decade of animated kids films).

She was married to the lovely Michael Sheen, then met Len Wiseman and moved to America to become a Hollywood Barbiedoll posing in bikinis with "Mrs Wiseman" written across the bottom! It was as if she had a complete personality change.

Just re-read Lady Susan in preparation for the film. KB was brilliant as Emma - one of the best Austen adaptations ever.

Didn't love the book though. I found the letter form grating, and it all quite repetitive. Wonderfully cutting though, and the woman was an absolute genius, so it was interesting to see this as a stage in her development as a writer.