The new trailer for Love & Friendship, director Whit Stillman’s Jane Austen-based film, has arrived. And, yes, Chloe Sevigny can tackle Jane Austen, in case her presence seemed out of place. Watch her alongside Kate Beckinsale and Xavier Samuel; the latter will never not be Robin Wright’s boy toy in Adore to me, but I digress.
IMDb debuted the trailer, which tells of Lady Susan and her mission to find her daughter, Federica, a rich husband. Her pick is a simple, simple man. Based on the footage and the reviews from the film festival circuit, what seems to make this project is the sassafras that is Beckinsale in the role. Watch how she strips those around her of their dignity with her wicked way with words:
Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios teamed up to release the film, which will make its debut in theaters before hitting Amazon’s streaming platform. Stillman told Collider during the Sundance Film Festival that Love & Friendship was his “off and on project.”
I worked on it by myself, then there was a young producer in London who began to help, but I stayed working on this. Essentially alone all these years, I would show it to certain casting agents, and they really liked it but I couldn’t help but think it wasn’t quite ready. Cannes 2013, that was where I really presented it. The time the Amazon pilot bought us was really helpful in terms of setting up production, getting the different financing pieces together, all that. And then, when we started doing the casting and dealing with the actors doing scenes, I’d gotten into the habit of doing more new writing and new material and changing stuff as we shot or got close to shooting.
Also featured in the cast are Morfydd Clark, Emma Greenwell, Tom Bennett, James Fleet, Jemma Redgrave, Justin Edwards, Jenn Murray, and Stephen Fry. Love & Friendship will open the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival on April 21st.
Beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon visits to the estate of her in-laws to wait out the colourful rumours about her dalliances circulating through polite society. Whilst ensconced there, she decides to secure a husband for herself and a future for her eligible but reluctant daughter, Frederica. In doing so she attracts the simultaneous attentions of the young, handsome Reginald DeCourcy, the rich and silly Sir James Martin and the divinely handsome, but married, Lord Manwaring, complicating matters severely.
