Sense and Sensibility

Ang Lee’s first feature outside Asia grew out of a script producer Lindsay Doran proposed in 1989 and Emma Thompson spent 5 years writing. Thompson had not planned to play Elinor: at 35 she thought herself too old for a character of 19, and agreed only after Lee suggested raising Elinor’s age to 27. Kate Winslet was not called in for Marianne at all. Lee disliked her work in Heavenly Creatures and had her read for the smaller part of Lucy Steele; she turned up as though the audition were still for Marianne, and took the part on a single reading. Lee had the two live together so the sisterhood would hold. Marianne’s rescue in the rain took around 50 takes under rain machines, and Winslet collapsed on set with hypothermia. At the 68th Academy Awards it drew 7 nominations and won once, for Thompson’s adapted screenplay, while Lee was not nominated for directing. At the 49th BAFTA ceremony it won best film, best actress and best supporting actress, then took the Golden Bear at the 46th Berlin film festival. A good fit if you want the argument over who inherits to take up at least as much room as the courtships. Not for anyone waiting on the duel of the novel; Thompson cut that scene out of the script.