Emma Thompson, "The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film"

This engaging and beautiful book includes the complete Academy Award-winning script and Thompson's own diaries detailing the production of the film, reviewed by Stanley Kauffmann in The New Republic as "vivid, funny, and gamy." 88 photos including 36 in color.

From the Inside Flap
Bringing Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility to the screen has been a labor of love. Vividly described by the producer, Lindsay Doran, in her Introduction, the process has taken fifteen years to come to fruition. In Emma Thompson, Doran found her ideal scriptwriter, since Emma Thompson already had a lifelong passion for the novels of Jane Austen and a natural gift for writing, which Doran first recognized when she caught reruns of a comic British television series that Thompson had written. With characteristic rigor and determination, Emma Thompson set about the job, between acting in many films and picking up an Academy Award en route.

The script took her five years to complete. It is unusual for an actress to write a screenplay. It is even more unusual that she should also publish a detailed domestic account of the making of the film in which she played a leading role. Directed by Ang Lee, the Columbia Pictures film also stars Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant. Emma Thompson's diaries, which take us from preproduction to the wrap party, answer the questions everyone asks about filmmaking, and provide a clear and often hilarious picture of what it is really like to be part of a film crew living the kind of intense communal life found on board large sailing ships, and yet just as subject to weather, digestive tracts and moods. This rare perspective, together with sumptuous photographs, makes this an irresistible book for all those interested in movies and the making of a great film.

Amazon.com Review
Emma Thompson spent five years translating Jane Austen's work to the screen. Fans of the film will treasure this beautiful volume that includes her screenplay, diaries of the writing and the filming, and many gorgeous color pictures from the film.

From Booklist
This first book by Academy Award-winning actress Emma Thompson contains both the screenplay of the Jane Austen novel and the diary she kept during the long months of filming. Thompson labored over the screenplay for five years, and the resulting treatment of what many consider Austen's weakest novel is strong, well written, and enjoyable to read. Fans of the movie as well as of Austen will enjoy perusing the screenplay, and the accompanying photographs of the cast and set are striking. The last section of the book is dedicated to Thompson's diary, which is fairly brief, written in sharp, witty style, and alternately hilarious and morose. Thompson's musings and witticisms are often very funny and ultimately provide a clear, definitely unglamorous documentary of life on a movie set. An interesting introductory piece by producer Lindsay Doran details the 15-year odyssey that finally saw the film to fruition.

Tags: JaneAusten, Cinema, Filmmaking, Screenplay

Josephine Ross, "Jane Austen: A Companion"

Janet Todd (ed), "Jane Au...he Works of Jane Austen)"

Sue Birtwistle & Susie Con...g of Pride and Prejudice"

John Sutherland & Deirdre ...zbook (World's Classics)"

Daniel Pool, "What Jane A...neteenth-Century England"

John Sutherland, "Who Bet...ction (World's Classics)"

Kristine Hughes, "The Wri...cy and Victorian England"