AVQ&A: What's your favorite Jane Austen adaptation?
Not so Clueless: These Jane Austen adaptations live up to their literary inspirations.
What’s your favorite Jane Austen adaptation? A diverse range of films and television series have sought to bring the author's timeless stories to life on screen. Emma (2020) and its chemistry between Anya Taylor-Joy and Johnny Flynn have been praised for their snarky, sweet, clever, and quirky lead. Ang Lee's Sense And Sensibility (1995) is lauded for its perfect union of filmmaker, screenwriter, and cast, capturing the internal conflicts and emotional struggles of the characters.
Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995) is a high-water mark of the trend of contemporary adaptations, capturing the frothy elements of gossip and romance that readers have loved in Austen's work. The 1995 Persuasion adaptation is considered the most underrated Austen adaptation, featuring a mature, bittersweet story of loss and regret with a pair of gorgeously understated performances.
Love & Friendship (2016), a Whit Stillman adaptation of Austen's posthumous epistolary novella Lady Susan, is acidic, frank, deceptively elegant, and almost too clever for its own good. Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) remains a nostalgic pick, with its high-school production of Pride And Prejudice and healthy publishing industry.
Written by urgent.news from The A.V. Club's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
