By Lindsey Bahr, Film Writer
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) --Whit Stillman, one of our best chroniclers of the modern leisure class, has gone back to the 18th century in "Love & Friendship," an effervescent comedy about a deviously ambitious social climber.
The film premiered Saturday night at the Sundance Film Festival.
In the film, Stillman's "Last Days of Disco" stars Kate Beckinsale and Chloรซ Sevigny have traded their early '80s sequins and Lacoste for bustles and petticoats. Beckinsale is Lady Susan Vernon, recently widowed and on the prowl for status, money and comforts, while Sevigny plays a married American all too willing to associate with the notorious Lady Susan.
We enter the story when Lady Susan takes up an extended visit at the estate of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Catherine Vernon (Emma Greenwall). There she begins a flirtation with Catherine's younger brother, Reginald De Courcy (Xavier Samuel). No one is particularly keen on the developing relationship between Lady Susan and the young Reginald De Courcy, and that sentiment is especially exaggerated when her neglected and marriage-aged daughter, Frederica (Morfydd Clark), shows up too.
These are only half the players in the game, and it's fun to watch them scheme and spread rumors and make deliciously biting remarks about their supposed friends and family for a brisk 92 minutes.
Overall, the film is a charming lark, and a definite departure for Stillman as he evolves here beyond his famously precise, formal language which is usually applied to a more modern setting, whether it be early '80s discos or present day dorm rooms ("Damsels in Distress"). Stillman seems a perfect fit for Victorian comedy and the language and customs of Austen, and it works well, although it does have the effect of burying some of Stillman's distinctiveness.
"It's very early Jane Austen. She was in a very funny mode when she wrote this," Stillman said before the Festival. "It's not very sentimental."
Unlike many Sundance features, "Love & Friendship" had a deal in place with Amazon prior to its premiere — it'll also get a theatrical run from Roadside Attractions. And it's worth checking out whether you're an Austen devotee, or just a fan of crackling dialogue and diabolical social situations.
Like an airy-light macaroon, "Love & Friendship" is a lovely, sweet wisp of a film that evaporates as soon as the credits roll.
Local school staple “Lost on a Mountain in Maine” from 1939 hits the big screen nationwide
Most Maine schoolchildren know about the boy lost for more than a week in 1939 after climbing the state's tallest mountain. Now the rest of the U.S. is getting in on the story.
Opening in 650 movie theaters on Friday, "Lost on a Mountain in Maine" tells the harrowing tale of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who spent nine days on Mount Katahdin and the surrounding wilderness before being rescued. The gripping story of survival commanded the nation's attention in the days before World War II and the boy's grit earned an award from the president.
For decades, Fendler and Joseph B. Egan's book, published the same year as the rescue, has been required reading in many Maine classrooms, like third-grade teacher Kimberly Nielsen's.
"I love that the overarching theme is that Donn never gave up. He just never quits. He goes and goes," said Nielsen, a teacher at Crooked River Elementary School in Casco, who also read the book multiple times with her own kids.
Separated from his hiking group in bad weather atop Mount Katahdin, Fendler used techniques learned as a Boy Scout to survive. He made his way through the woods to the east branch of the Penobscot River, where he was found more than 30 miles (48 kilometers) from where he started. Bruised and cut, starved and without pants or shoes, he survived nine days by eating berries and lost 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
The boy's peril sparked a massive search and was the focus of newspaper headlines and nightly radio broadcasts. Hundreds of volunteers streamed into the region to help.
The movie builds on the children's book, as told by Fendler to Egan, by drawing upon additional interviews and archival footage to reinforce the importance of family, faith and community during difficult times,... Read More