Georgia Oakley's Sense and Sensibility stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles as Dashwood sisters
Georgia Oakley's adaptation, which AP describes as the first Sense and Sensibility directed by a woman, casts Esmé Creed-Miles as Marianne opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones as Elinor. AP says the film opens in theaters on Friday, while El País lists Friday, 23 October for Spanish cinemas.
Casting the Dashwood sisters
Daisy Edgar-Jones has been cast as Elinor, the elder and more sensible Dashwood sister, and Esmé Creed-Miles plays Marianne, the more romantic one. AP reports that the two actresses had known each other since they spent a formative summer in Yorkshire as teenagers, making an indie film called Pond Life. Director Georgia Oakley, who studied Austen in school, said the film would depend on the pairing of its two leads. She described finding actresses who would look believably like sisters as a pressurized situation.
The film, as I saw it, would kind of live or die by the relationship between those two actors.
At the chemistry read, the pair worked through a scene in which the reserved Elinor finally tells Marianne that she is also heartbroken over a man. Edgar-Jones said the two of them fit into their roles at once.
We just slotted straight into the roles.
Following the 1995 film
Trouw places Oakley's film against Ang Lee's 1995 version, which starred Kate Winslet as Marianne and Emma Thompson as Elinor. Trouw recalls that the earlier film won the Golden Bear in Berlin and an Oscar for Thompson's screenplay. Die Welt, which notes that thirty years separate the two versions, contrasts Thompson's witty romantic comedy, seen from above, with Oakley's approach, which tells the story from inside the sisters' relationship. George MacKay plays Edward Ferrars and Frank Dillane plays John Willoughby, according to Trouw, while AP also lists Herbert Nordrum among the male leads without giving a role.
Creed-Miles has described the bond between the actresses in simple terms.
Daisy feels like family to me.
The look and the tone
IndieWire's review, published on 13 October, says the film sits closer to Barry Lyndon than to glossy modern remakes, with natural light and unvarnished period detail. The review credits Arnaud Potier as cinematographer and Roger Goula as composer. Trouw describes a modest drama shot with natural light and a handheld camera, not a tightly staged costume drama. Trouw also says Oakley aimed the film at a new generation raised on the Normal People adaptation, in which Edgar-Jones starred. IndieWire notes that Oakley previously directed Blue Jean, a Thatcher-era Newcastle lesbian romance.
Release timing
AP's preview says the film opens in theaters on Friday. A Spanish listing published by El País gives Friday, 23 October as the date for its release in cinemas across Spain, in a selection of theaters nationwide. Because the film has not opened yet, the coverage so far consists of previews and an early review.