Going to the cinema is more of a winter activity but recently it has been so wet in London that I went to see Love and Friendship, a film written and directed by Whit Stillman.
(He was born in 1952 in Washington DC and his father served in President Kennedy’s administration.) He bases the film around an early Jane Austen book, Lady Susan, and does a pretty good job under the circumstances. It engaged me on a number of levels. First it is a witty, well-acted piece of period comedy/drama. Secondly, it is all shot on location in Ireland: in Dublin, Donabate and at Newbridge – the Cobbe house in Co Dublin. I recognised Samuel Dixon’s bird pictures on a bedroom wall, as my sister gave them to me as place mats made by the Irish Georgian Society.
Next, it has a good cast of period actors and includes a cameo appearance by Stephen Fry, no doubt to boost box office takings. Now two remarkable aspects of the film. It cost $3 million to make – that’s chickenfeed these days. The entire film was shot in just twenty-seven days in February and early March 2015. Many of the scenes are shot outside apparently in fine weather, most unusual for Ireland at any time of year. Finally the music is beautiful. It is a mixture of new compositions by Mark Suozzo and Benjamin Esdraffo supplemented with pieces by Handel, Purcell, Mozart and Vivaldi. It is played with the proper lushness that real movie-music should have by the Irish Film Orchestra.
Two more things struck me. The dialogue sometimes slips out of the 18th century into the 21st and ivy is rampant, smothering the trees on the Newbridge estate. If you cannot see the film, at least take a look at the trailer.
https://youtu.be/KhvyupqNhL8
Stillman’s first film, ‘Metropolitan’ is well worth a look. Set in New York between Christmas and New Year it chronicles the life and loves of a group of young New Yorkers. I think it cost about $20,000 to make and Stillman borrowed friends apartments as locations. He wrote the (very funny) script and used a mainly amateur cast.