Sense and Sensibility review – blue-chip cast decorates Emma Thompson’s pleasurable Austen adaptation

Thirty years later, this richly enjoyable film is back with its quality lineup including Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant alongside Thompson herself Emma Thompson won a screenplay Oscar for this buoyant, vibrant, richly enjoyable adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel. Released in 1995, it was directed by Ang Lee and is a movie with the pleasures of a golden age studio picture of the kind made by William Wyler. It was the second half of Thompson’s Oscar double – she won her first one in 1993 for acting in Howards End – and she is still the only person in Academy Award history to win for acting and writing. With marvellous lightness and gaiety, Thompson found a response to Austen’s comic register, expertly marrying it up to the romance, and 1995 now looks like the golden age of Austen adaptation, having also seen the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle Pride and Prejudice on television and Amy Heckerling’s Emma-homage Clueless at the movies. Thompson paid due attention to Austen’s unique and toughly real...

Makeup review secret life of a drag-artist banker underpins tender friendship tale

The story of an unlikely friendship between a city type and a haughty Frenchman has moments of genuine pathos but doesn’t quite feel real

This low-key, low-budget portrait of an odd-couple friendship takes a while to get going, and never fully hits its stride – though it has its moments. Director Hugo André plays chef turned food blogger Sacha, a fastidious Frenchman living in London who rents a room in a house. His new landlord and flatmate is city banker Dan (Will Masheter), who seems to slot neatly into the stereotype of macho finance bro. But Dan turns out to have a secret life, dressing up in glittery glam frocks and feather boas, transforming into alter ego Danielle.

A friendship of sorts develops between the two men, throwing up a couple of nice scenes. When Dan cooks soup, picky gourmand Sacha looks appalled in the way that only a Frenchman can at the claggy dollop of peanut butter slopped into his bowl. There’s a real sweetness, too, in Masheter’s performance as Dan begins to live more openly, tiptoeing into the world of cabaret – and, if nothing else, watching his self-expression blossom is a reminder of how sinister the anti-drag laws are that are currently sweeping the US.

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