LOVE & FRIENDSHIP is an adaptation of the young Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan, believed to have been written in the mid 1790s when it is also set. Whit Stillman reunites Beckinsale with Chloë Sevigny after the 1998 film The Last Days of Disco. Sevigny plays Lady Susan’s friend and confidante Alicia Johnson, with Stephen Fry as her husband, the “very Respectable” Mr. Johnson.
In partnership with The Fan Carpet I attended the premiere of Love & Friendship and got the chance to get some input regarding the film from quite a number of the attending talent such as Kate Beckinsale, Morfydd Clark, Whit Stillman, Kelly Campbell, Jenn Murray, Emma Greenwell and James Fleet.
Beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) visits 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 (Morfydd Clark). In doing so, she attracts the simultaneous attentions of the young, handsome Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel), the rich and silly Sir James Martin (Tom Bennett) and the divinely handsome, but married, Lord Manwaring (Lochlann O’Mearain), complicating matters severely.
