Sense & Sensibility Collector's Set (Sense & Sensibility 2008 / Miss Austen Regrets / Persuasion 2007) | 
 enlarge | Studio: BBC Warner
Category: DVD
List Price: $49.98
Buy New: $34.10
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Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 1192
Format: Box Set, Collector's Edition, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Number Of Items: 3
Running Time: 267
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5.5 x 1.7
MPN: 1000037335
UPC: 883929011476
EAN: 0883929011476
ASIN: B0012Q3T6I
Theatrical Release Date: February 3, 2008
Release Date: April 8, 2008
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Product Description
1) Sense and Sensibility From acclaimed writer Andrew Davies (BBCs Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth) comes this enchanting new adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel about love and marriage. Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve when she falls in love with the charming but unsuitable John Willoughby ignoring her sister Elinor's warning that her impulsive behavior leaves her open to gossip and innuendo. Elinor sensitive to social convention struggles to conceal her own romantic disappointment even from those closest to her. Will the sisters learn that sense must mix with sensibility if they are to find personal happiness in a society where status and money govern the rules of love? 2) Miss Austen Regrets A biopic unraveling the secrets of the elusive author based on Jane Austen's actual letters and diaries. 3) Persuasion Anne Elliot fell deeply in love with the handsome young naval officer Frederick Wentworth at the age of nineteen. But with neither fortune nor rank to recommend him Anne was persuaded to break off her engagement. Eight years later Anne has lived to regret her decision. She never stopped loving Wentworth and when he returns from sea with fortune and rank she can only watch as every eligible young woman in the district falls at his feet.Running Time: 269 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/BBC UPC: 883929011476 Manufacturer No: 1000037335
Amazon.com
Lush, dramatic, and beautifully acted, the BBC's three-part miniseries Sense & Sensibility captures the languid urgency that resonates throughout the Jane Austen novel on which it is based. The miniseries begins with a seduction scene: As a young girl cautiously gives herself to a man, she asks, "But when will you come back?" He answers ominously, "Soon... very soon," and gallops off into the night. We know what she does not--that he will not return for her. But viewers do not learn until the end who the couple are, and how their actions set off a chain of events. It is inevitable that this period piece will be compared to the 1995 big screen adaptation that starred Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant, and won Thompson an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. To its credit, this later version stands up incredibly well, with actors whose looks match Austen's written description. And due to a longer running time than the film version, there is more attention paid to detail and minor characters. Sense & Sensibility focuses on the longings of the Dashwood sisters Elinor (Hattie Morahan) and Marianne (Charity Wakefield). After their wealthy father dies, leaving his entire estate to their milquetoast half brother John (Mark Gatiss), Elinor, Marianne, their younger sister Margaret (Lucy Boynton), and their mother are left penniless. John and his shrew-like wife Fanny move into the manor, making the Dashwoods feel like unwanted guests. It is only after Fanny's handsome and kind brother Edward Ferrars (Dan Stevens) arrives for a visit that Elinor feels happy again. Marianne, too, has attracted the attention of two suitors: serious and shy Colonel Brandon (David Morrissey) and dashing Willoughby (Dominic Cooper). Learning that the 35-year-old colonel is interested in her, a stunned Marianne says, "You do realize that it will be impossible for me to speak to him again." Her actions are that of a little girl, running away and hiding when he comes to call on her. But her feelings for Willoughby are real: the kind of love a girl feels for the first time. The differences in the sisters' choices, actions, and secrets set the tone for an era when a perceived impropriety could ruin a woman's reputation and her family's standing in a community. Filmed in England with good use of aerial shots, the production has a sweeping feel that adds a distinct flavor to the drama. As with many Austen novels, the heroines in Sense & Sensibility go through many misunderstandings before their happily-ever-after ending. But that ending leaves viewers satisfied that things turned out just the way that they should. Austen fans will be delighted with the second disc in this set: Miss Austen Regrets is a perfect companion to the miniseries, starring Olivia Williams stars as the author, and Greta Scacchi--who could easily pass as Williams' real-life sibling--as Austen's sister Cassandra. The film takes a bittersweet look at Austen's life and hints at what could have been had she married one of her suitors. Smart and headstrong, Austen refuses to cave into society's notions of what a proper woman should do. While her famous heroines all paired up with dashing gentlemen, Austen found that the loves of her life were her written creations. --Jae-Ha Kim On the third disc of this set is the sumptuous production design and first-rate acting in the 2007 Masterpiece Theatre version of Persuasion. Sally Hawkins is controlled and moving as Anne Elliot, the quietly heartbroken but sensible heroine who was "persuaded" (read: forced) to turn away her true love but still carries an unseen torch for him. Hawkins's performance is genteel yet steely, and the quiet strength of the entire production. Hawkins looks alternately quietly lovely and sadly pinched--as one might expect the long frustrated Anne to look. Other highlights include a post-Buffy Anthony Head, as Anne's clueless, blustery father, Sir Walter. Head gets to turn on his deft comic talent here in ways most American audiences have not yet seen him; he's clearly enjoying himself immensely, blustering about "my shrubberies" and other trivial affairs. The cinematography is lush (several breathtaking tracking shots are used, especially early on), as are the period costumes. The production was filmed exclusively on location, and the reality of the sets enforces the story. Some fans may prefer the 1995 Amanda Root version, for the casting of Ciaran Hinds as Capt. Wentworth, but this later effort is a worthy entry in the Austen film oeuvre--and Rupert Penry-Jones is a dreamboat in his own right. As the wistful Anne says, on behalf of all women, "We do not forget you, so soon as you forget us." --A.T. Hurley
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| Customer Reviews: Read 40 more reviews...
 Spectacular September 8, 2008
Persuasion is my new favorite Jane Austen! I can't get enough of Frederick Wentworth. These movies are extremely well done. The acting is superb, the stories are easy to follow, and the scenery is an added bonus. And don't miss "Miss Austen Regrets" on the "extras" disc of Sense and Sensibility, it is just as good as the other two movies. If you are a Jane Austen fan, you'll want to be sure to have this set in your collection.
 Must We Work So Hard to Explain Her Genius? September 7, 2008
If someone were to come to me and proclaim a plan of creating a biographical screenplay of which I was to be the main character, I should publicly acknowledge the compliment and then privately wonder, "Wherever are they going to find their material?" My life, which is largely and satisfyingly routine, does not provide the fodder for sweeping melodrama. In order to create the tumult of an engaging film, most of my personal history and personality would simply have to be confabulated. Which is what these filmmakers openly admit doing in the creation of the biographical screenplay, "Miss Austen Regrets," a film depicting the final years of Austen's life, from her famous rejection of the Bigg-Withers proposal to her death.
The Austen we see in this film is just what we in the early twenty-first century would envision as the ideal proto-feminist: outspoken, sarcastic, prone to raising eyebrows with smart, sassy comments that buck the current social order. Ever the archetypal unhappy artist, the actress's (Olivia Williams) face is drawn with worry and portent through much of the film, and she expresses some kind of angry chip on her shoulder through cutting remarks to others. She is often tipsy and her behavior borders on silly. Sprinkling her conversation with direct quotes from her novels makes the dialogue appear artificial during scenes that were meant to be poignant. (After a few such scenes, I began to feel cued as the viewer, "Hey, this part is moving.") A woman who did not suffer fools would not have wanted to appear as one. While viewing the film, I couldn't help thinking that Austen would have had a great time creating a comic anti-herioine of this make-believe Jane.
With only her novels and the remaining letters to her sister, it is hard to accurately recreate the life and personality of Jane Austen. But we do have a few facts about her that were strangely missing or misrepresented in the work. We know that she liked to flirt, but most probably within the bounds of Georgian social convention. We know that lack of money worried her, but she had a lot of family support and a sense of shared fate with her mother, sister Cassandra, and later a friend, Martha Lloyd, who came to live with them at Chawton Cottage. Mrs. Austen may have been a bit of a pill, but to portray her as a battle-axe is possibly unjust. An accomplished needlewoman, we know that Jane loved fashion and frippery. Yet she is dressed in a plain, if not downright ugly, wardrobe. No matter one's politics or purse, when invited to meet royalty, a woman who loves fashion does not wear such a horrible brown frock as she did to meet the Prince Regent. The film closes with the wedding reception of Jane's niece Fanny, whose romantic life we also follow during the film. Towards the end of the evening, Fanny leaves her own wedding reception to seek out Cassandra, who is sitting in a small building a considerable distance from the main house and its festivities. A crying Cassandra is burning Jane's letters. What should have been moving instead felt manipulative. Would the upright, correct Cassandra choose such a time to burn letters? No, Cassandra would have been in her proper place, celebrating with her friends and family, and not drawing attention to herself on her niece's special day. Considering Austen's own dedication to verisimilitude, that closely detailed work on her famous "two inches of ivory", I find this film strangely sloppy in its believability.
Jane Austen was not necessarily a stranger to love, but I hardly think that she ran the romantic gamut. Must we, her fans, work so hard to explain her genius? Is Shakespeare accused of being a blackguard because he wrote of them so convincingly, and with such rapier wit? Does authorial brilliance demand direct experience of every plot twist? Being an Austen fan, I wanted to like this movie, but I never became comfortable with her characterization, or the nature of her relationships, romantic or familial. I simply do not imagine Jane Austen drained of so much dignity and full of so much wine.
Austen fans do watch. We're not able to help ourselves. Expect the unexpected, but do not expect that we, her fans, are any closer to knowing the real Jane Austen. Her past still lies safely in that inscrutability that her sense of privacy decreed.
 Good, Not Great September 1, 2008
Note: This review is for those very familiar with Austen's work. If you are NOT a nut about Sense & Sensibility, this is an excellent introduction to her work, and the production is a very enjoyable, modern take on the story set in Regency England. A
That said, Austen aficionados: B+
I haven't actually gotten to see the Persuasion disc yet, but was a little disappointed by Sense & Sensibility. I thought the story went "off topic" a bit too much, sensationalizing parts of the story that Austen left out, such as the dual between Colonol Brandon and Willoghby (read the story again, you'll find a passing reference to it in Vol II). In turn, it left out some key scenes and background, particularly the relationship Elinor has with the Miss Steeles prior to going to London. I would have been more satisfied with a truer version of the story, similar to what Andrew Davies did with Pride and Prejudice in 1995.
Faults aside though, the casting in this version is superb and the acting does the characters justice. One of the faults I always found with the Emma Thompson version done in the late '90s was that the ages of the actors missed pretty widely from the actual ages in the book. Although Emma Thompson did a great job acting the part, I never believed she was 19 (which is Elinor's age in the book). The actors match the characters very well both in look and portrayal; I can feel the tension between Elinor and Edward.
In the extras, the interview with the producer and the screenwriter was a great addition. It allowed me to better understand the thought process around why some parts of the story were altered the way they were, and enhanced overall enjoyment of the production.
Great Collection for a Worthwhile Price August 31, 2008
I love all things Jane. This version of Sense & Sensibility is a worthy successor to what everyone keeps referring to as the "Hugh Grant" version. The actors are closer in age to the characters as written by Jane Austen. Persuasion is filmed and acted beautifully, until all the running about at the end. And Miss Austen regrets does a lovely job of telling Jane Austen's life story. I wouldn't necessarily get these films instead of other films -- but if you're collecting them all (like I have) -- this is a great way to do so.
it can't get any better than this August 22, 2008
This is by far, the best sense and sensibility, ever. Yes better than the version with Hugh Grant. The acting, casting, visual aspects of the film are far superior. This would have made a worthy film
The latest collect of JA dvds are in all - the very best.
miss austen regrets, is far better than Becoming Jane. and the compentary that follows now replaces my casette of the life of Jane Austen.
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