Sense and Sensibility (1995) on Netflix
Henry Dashwood's death sends his estate by law to John, his son from a first marriage. His widow and three daughters lose their home. Elinor and Marianne must marry for money.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.7/10137,990 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
Henry Dashwood's death leaves his estate, Norland Park, to John, his son by an earlier marriage, and Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters with little money. John and his wife Fanny move in, and Fanny's brother, Edward Ferrars, comes to stay. Elinor and Edward become friends, and Fanny disapproves. Mrs. Dashwood's cousin, Sir John Middleton, offers the family a cottage on his estate at Barton Park in Devonshire, where they are frequent guests. Marianne meets Colonel Brandon, who admires her, and is drawn to the dashing John Willoughby. Mrs. Jennings, Sir John's mother-in-law, tries to match Colonel Brandon with Marianne.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Sense and Sensibility (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A computer failure nearly lost the entire screenplay. Thompson rang her friend Stephen Fry, who spent seven hours recovering the documents from the machine while she had tea with Hugh Laurie, who happened to be at Fry's house.
- Thompson wanted the sisters Natasha and Joely Richardson as Elinor and Marianne, and told Ang Lee that at thirty-five she was far too old for nineteen-year-old Elinor. Lee and Columbia wanted her anyway, and his solution was to make Elinor twenty-seven.
- Kate Winslet was steered towards the smaller part of Lucy Steele because Ang Lee disliked her work in Heavenly Creatures. She turned up pretending she had heard the audition was still for Marianne, and won that role on a single reading.
- Marianne's rescue in the rain took about fifty takes on a hillside under rain machines, and Winslet eventually collapsed with hypothermia. Later in the shoot she got phlebitis in her leg, developed a limp and sprained her wrist falling down a staircase.
- Ang Lee had Thompson practice tai chi to loosen her acting, and soon other cast members were meditating on pillows on the floor. He set Winslet books of poetry to report back on, and made the two actresses live together so the sisterly bond would be real.
- Thompson's win for the screenplay made her the only person ever to hold Academy Awards for both acting and writing, having taken Best Actress for Howards End in 1993.
- The film turned its locations into destinations. Saltram House, which stood in for Norland Park, saw visitor numbers rise by 57 percent, and membership of the Jane Austen Society of North America grew by half in 1996.
