Highly praised “Sense and Sensibility” gets an anniversary upgrade
- Bill Kelley III
- Oct 9
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 19
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Suitor John Willoughby (Greg Wise) escorts Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet) on a countryside walk near Barton Cottage, a small home where Mrs. Dashwood lives after being evicted from their home, Norland Park. (2) Mrs. Dashwood (Gemma Jones) and her daughters and her daughters, Elinor (Emma Thompson), Margaret (Emilie Francois) and Marianne, arrive at their new home.
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“SENSE AND SENSIBILITY: 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION”
4K Ultra HD; 1995; PG for mild thematic elements; Digital copy via Amazon Prime Video (4K), Apple TV (4K), Fandango Home (4K), Movies Anywhere (4K), YouTube (4K)
Best extra: “Adapting Austen” featurette
THIS NEW anniversary edition marks the second appearance of the elegant and stylish “Sense and Sensibility” on Sony 4K UHD. Jane Austen’s often-forgotten first novel was written in the late 1790s but wasn’t published until 1811. At the time, Austen wasn’t even credited. It merely said, “By A Lady,” on the title page.
Much of the classic tale follows the two older Dashwood sisters: Elinor, played by 36-year-old actress/screenwriter Emma Thompson, and the younger romantic Marianne, played by Kate Winslet (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Titanic”). The available bachelors include Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman), and John Willoughby (Greg Wise).
The striking adaptation from Thompson (“Howards End”), and Taiwan-director Ang Lee (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Life of Pi,” “Brokeback Mountain”), which was his first English-language film. It ended up on more than 100 10-best lists and received seven Academy Award nominations, with Thompson winning an Oscar for her screenplay.
(1) After the death of Mr. Dashwood, his wife and three daughters are left a meager £500 a year to live on. The rest of the estate, Norland Park, is left to his son John ( James Fleet) from a previous marriage, and his wife Fanny (Harriet Walker). The two families have a tense dinner at Norland Park. (2) Fanny’s brother Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant) plays sword fighting with Margaret. (3) Marianne plays mournful music after the death of her father, also aware that she won't be able to take the family piano to their new home. (4) Oldest daughter Elinor and Edward go for a horseback ride. (5) Center, Cousin Sir John Middleton (Robert Hardy), the Dashwood family members and friends attend a picnic at Colonel Brandon’s (Alan Rickman) Delaford estate. (6) John Willoughby gives Marianne a wild carriage ride, shocking her family and the community.
VIDEO/AUDIO
This new 4K version has been updated with Dolby Vision grading and encoded onto the larger 100 GB disc, versus the first edition on a 66 GB disc. Now, the visuals have more breathing room – 20 to 25 Megabits per second more, while the HDR10 peak brightness and average nit levels are nearly identical to the first 4K disc.
The original 35mm camera negative (1.85:1 aspect ratio) was scanned and remastered in 4K half a dozen years ago for the Columbia Classic 4K Ultra HD Collection: Volume 2, which also housed five other treasured films. The result then was remarkable, placing “Sense and Sensibility” as the No. 2 Best 4K TRUE mastered disc of 2021 from High-Def Watch, right behind Daniel Craig’s last performance as James Bond in “No Time to Die,” which had been captured with 65mm IMAX and 35mm film stock. The Austen adaptation topped the No. 3 selected 4K, “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which had been meticulously restored by Paramount Pictures.
The HDR color palette for “Sense and Sensibility” features some of the richest greens you’ll ever see, with superb facial clarity, as the natural film grain dances across the screen from the imagery of cinematographer.
The audio was also upgraded with a new eight-channel Dolby Atmos soundtrack in 2021, and carried over for this edition, with its romantic orchestrations and vocal solos by soprano Jane Eaglen.
EXTRAS
The 4K disc houses all of the bonus features, including two commentaries.
The best track is with the delightful Thompson and producer Lindsay Doran. Thompson spent five years adapting Austen’s novel, confessing the first week of filming was rough. The young director didn’t know how to handle his all-English cast – especially when Thompson and co-star Grant started to make suggestions after several takes during an outside scene. This type of collaborative conversation from actors is considered taboo in Asian cinema, but Lee eventually warmed up to their approach.
The second commentary with Lee and co-producer James Schamus.
(1&2) Mrs. Jennings (Elina Spriggs) invites Elinor and Marianne to her home and then takes the sisters to London to attend a ball. (3) Marianne is heartbroken when she discovers John Willoughby is now engaged to the wealthy Miss Grey. (4) Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) is secretly in love with Marianne. (5) Fanny Dashwood and the impoverished Lucy Steele (Imogen Stubbs) are great friends ... until Lucy says she and Edward have been secretly engaged for the past five years.
Additional featurettes:
“Adapting Austen” (11 mins.) Doran details her love for Austen’s novel, which she first read in the early 1970s while living in England. “I “loved it. It’s my favorite book,” she says. Early on, she always thought of it as an obvious movie, and once she became a movie producer, she searched for more than a decade to find the right writer. She demanded it to be written in the Austen style and language, plus it would have to “make me really laugh,” she said.
“A Sense of Character” (8 mins) pinpoints the key characters and the actors who play them.
“A Very Quiet Man” (12 mins) specifics on how Doran searched for a director who could bring a mixture of satire and romance to the adaptation. Executive producer Sydney Pollack (“Out of Africa,” “Three Days of the Condor”) suggested NYU film school grad Ang Lee to helm the production. His first two films out of the gate, “The Wedding Banquet” (1993) and “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994) had received back-to-back Oscar nods for Best Foreign Language film.
“Locating the World of Sense and Sensibility” (6 mins), the production was filmed where the story actually took place in Devon, in Southwest England.
“Elegance & Simplicity: The Wardrobe of Sense and Sensibility” (4 mins), costume designers decided to keep the clothing simple, especially for the Dashwood sisters’ high waistline dresses, popular for country life in the late 18th century.
“25th Anniversary Reunion: Back to Barton Cottage” (28 mins) is full of stories from the past, captured via Zoom (eight small screens) during COVID-19, with the director, the producer, and the cast, including Thompson, Winslet, Greg Wise, Imelda Staunton, Imogen Stubbs, and Myriam Francois.
Deleted scenes (3 mins) two scenes: Mrs. Dashwood comforts Elinor, and True Love’s kiss.
Deborah Brown from Empire Magazine says it best, “It’s a beautifully-crafted, witty, moving film likely to overcome even the stiffest Austen prejudice.”
If you love cinematic filmmaking and British romance, this is a perfect change-up from all of the bullets and explosions that dominate most 4K releases.
— Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer
(1-4) Still distraught, Marianne walks in a torrential rainstorm to look at Willoughby’s wealthy new residence and becomes deathly ill. Elinor nurses her back to health, and they take a walk to Colonel Brandon's estate, the picturesque Mothecombe. (5) A gift from Colonel Brandon is delivered to the Barton Cottage.
Wedding Day
SPECS:
100 GB disc
TRUE 4K mastering
35mm film stock captured with spherical lens, 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Video bitrate: Varies from 55 Megabits per second to 80-plus Mbps. A running time of 136 minutes
HDR10 maximum light level: 1001 nits
Max frame average light level: 235 nits
Box office: $43 million domestically, and worldwide $134 million, with a production budget of $16 million. Finished as the No. 24 box office film of the year. “Toy Story” was No. 1 at $375 million box office.
Academy Awards: Nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actress, and won for Best Writing, Screenplay based on Material previously published
Rotten Tomatoes: Top critics’ 95 percent, Moviegoers 90 percent
Metacritic: Critics 84 percent, User score 8.3