Love & Friendship — Trailer

source:   loveandfriendshipmovie.com, youtube.com

added: Wed, Mar 23rd '16

Kate Beckinsale, Chloe Sevigny, and writer-director Whit Stillman, the team behind the 1998 cult film "The Last Days of Disco," have reunited to turn one of author Jane Austen's earliest works, "Lady Susan," into a new period comedy of errors, called "Love & Friendship."

The film's newly-released trailer shows Beckinsale as Lady Susan Vernon, an outspoken, flirtatious, and now-penniless widow who's desperately trying to attach herself to her brother-in-law's wealthy family by marrying off her half-witted daughter (played by Morfydd Clark, of "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies") to an affluent man for whom she doesn't particularly like, much less love.

Meanwhile, Sevigny plays Lady Susan's closest confidant, Alicia Johnson, who herself is stuck in a loveless marriage with an insipid man (Stephen Fry), who is defined as "too old to be governable and too young to die".

Co-starring Xavier Samuel, Tom Bennett, Emma Greenwell, and Justin Edwards, "Love & Friendship," which premiered to strong reviews at Sundance this year, will open in theaters on May 13. And because the film was also acquired by Amazon Studios, it will be available for streaming at a later date.

synopsis:
Set in the opulent drawing rooms of eighteenth-century English society, Love & Friendship focuses on the machinations of a beautiful widow, Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale), who, while waiting for social chatter about a personal indiscretion to pass, takes up temporary residence at her in-laws’ estate. While there, the intelligent, flirtatious, and amusingly egotistical Lady Vernon is determined to be a matchmaker for her daughter Frederica -- and herself too, naturally. She enlists the assistance of her old friend Alicia (Chloe Sevigny), but two particularly handsome suitors (Xavier Samuel and Tom Bennett) complicate her orchestrations.

Adapting Jane Austen's unpublished early novella Lady Susan, Whit Stillman returns to the Sundance Film Festival (where his Metropolitan premiered in 1990) in top form with his latest comedy of manners. Kate Beckinsale excels in her role as the deliciously devious Lady Vernon and delivers each line with relish. With exquisite period detail and a script teeming with bon mots and witty dialogue, Love & Friendship is a rare --and rarified-- treat.

 

directed by   Whit Stillman

starring   Kate Beckinsale, Chloe Sevigny, Morfydd Clark, Stephen Fry, Xavier Samuel, Tom Bennett, Emma Greenwell, Justin Edwards

release date   May 13, 2016 (in theaters)