Film and Film

Only watching the film is not enough to know written works.

"Sense and Sensibility" Ang Lee, 1995

Oscar in 1996 for best adapted screenplay

It is 15 years ago that this film received the Oscar Award, a very particular recognition for this category of best adapted screenplay, in the case of a literary work, adapted by the talented actress Emma Thompson, who in 1992, had already received this award as best actress in "Howards End", and now presented as a screenwriter, also showing a great talent confirmed by the delivery of the coveted statuette in this new role; Jane Austen, a famous English writer of late 18th century and early 19th Centuries, made the version for cinema and two centuries later is currently more read and admired in United Kingdom.

It is significant, for example, that the six novels that she wrote, all have been adapted to film or television and in the latter case, by the chain of British television BBC, due to the big audience they get. Paradoxically, his work outside their country is not so well known, and his fame, today, is due more to the television series of the BBC, which has been seen around the world.

This is a good opportunity to comment and refute the wrong thesis that it is not necessary to read books; that only watching the film is enough to know written works. It must be borne in mind that a literary film adaptation is transfer the art written in words to another one, the visual art and only with images, and that is a substantial change from the original, and therefore, whoever wants to know the writer needs to read the original text. This does not mean that at least in such adaptation the main theme can be kept although the literary style cannot be preserved.

What was said above, is what happens with Jane Austen, who throughout her work basically reflected the society who lived, full of conventions and behavior imposed, governed by the so-called "social values" of the moment, where hypocrisy is deployed wherever, forcing everyone to lead a false life and full of appearances, according to the social label established by that time, and the popularity of the writer should be based on that, because although the forms have changed the background remains the same and everyone behaves artificially, subject to the rules of the time and especially to the "what will they say".

But one thing is the novel, its author and the predominant theme, and quite another thing is the accomplished film. Sometimes are based on the mistaken belief that if you have successful novel is already assured the success of the developed film, so that if there is failure it is because a bad adaptation took place, and if there is a success, it is because of the choice of the novel and the author, as in this case; a very false statement talking about cinema.

The merit of the film “sense and sensibility", besides the discussed topics, and the award-winning screenplay, is mainly due to the visual work in its implementation and its product, of the director Ang Lee, who with a great precision in the composition of both interior and exterior images (in both cases the film requires a different treatment in the film composition and Lee demonstrates his great talent) impregnates the development of the film of various emotions, understanding that the drama is visual, and scene by scene, sequence by sequence, they respond to this criterion expressing basically with the film image, delivering different situations to the protagonists, in a very studied filmic composition, where no approach or angle is done randomly or carelessly, on the contrary, his dedication and care at all levels, gives this particular delicacy preserved across the development of the story and many of his touching stories.

There is no guarantee in spite of the prestige of the literary work on which the film is based, if it is a bestseller or a recognized figure in the world of letters, as in this case of Jane Austen, this explains, for example, why the stiff and pastiche of the last adaptation for cinema of "Pride and prejudice," which does not provide much and implies wrongly, that only because of the name of the author, everything is ready.

That is the way Ang Lee demonstrates all his talent, with his direction, taking the image as essence of cinema and as media to narrate visually. There is no coincidence that by keeping this style and developing it further in "Dragon and Tiger" (2000) he has received the Oscar for best picture and again in 2005, Academy Award for best director with "Brokeback Mountain" controversy. As you can see great talent of the director, of the screenwriter in its version for cinema, of the actors, and the visual work of this tape, are more than enough reasons to remember the fifteen years of "Sense and Sensibility".