Emma (1996)
Directed by Douglas McGrath
Emma Woodhouse is a congenial young lady who delights in meddling in other people’s affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings, and her relationship with gentle Mr. Knightley.
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3 films that influenced Emma
What critics say influenced Emma
"Emma," starring Kate Beckinsale ("Cold Comfort Farm") as the meddlesome heroine of Austen's 1816 social comedy, is scheduled for 5 p.m. and again at 9 p.m. Sunday on A&E.
She came to the role well prepared, after playing another socially self-assured comic figure in the recent film ''Cold Comfort Farm.''
But this new "Emma," guided by Kate Beckinsale ("Cold Comfort Farm") as a more willful, more snippy and therefore more believably callow Emma, is truer to the detective spirit of the novel and satisfying in more significant ways.
The 2 1/2-hour film is produced by Sue Birtwistle and written by Andrew Davies , the same team that adapted Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" for British television and A&E a year ago.
This “Emma” has been adapted for TV by Andrew Davies and produced by Sue Birtwistle (the duo behind 1996’s splendid “Pride and Prejudice” on A&E;).
"Persuasion," "Pride and Prejudice" and "Sense and Sensibility" have all been turned into successful screen ventures in the past two years.
The screenplay by Andrew Davies (who also did the wise television adaptations of ''Pride and Prejudice'' and ''Moll Flanders'') does a deft job of letting viewers pick up the social cues that Emma misses.
By now the secret that the movie is based loosely on Jane Austen's Emma is out.
For her Beverly Hills-set fairy tale, writer-director Heckerling consciously reimagines Jane Austen's Emma as the high-school adventure of fifteen-year-old Cher (Silverstone).
If you gave up on writer-director Amy Heckerling after Look Who's Talking and its sequel, this 1995 comedy--improbably but cleverly adapted by Heckerling from Jane Austen's Emma--might get you interested again.
Coincidentally, Alicia Silverstone made "Clueless" in 1995 at about the same time that Gwyneth Paltrow made a film version of Jane Austen's "Emma."
A contemporary reworking of Jane Austen's Emma that is part pop satire and part teen comedy, Clueless shows its unevenness early, overcomes some flaws through vivacity and likability, then runs out of steam during the second half.