Pride and Prejudice / Sense and Sensibility / Shakespeare in Love Ben Affleck

Triple bill of popular period films. ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (2005) is an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen. When wealthy Mr Bingley (Simon Woods) and his friend, the dashing Mr Darcy (MacFadyen), arrive in a small Hertfordshire town, Mrs Bennett (Brenda Blethyn) sees it as the perfect opportunity to marry off her eligible daughters. But when Elizabeth Bennett (Knightley) meets Mr Darcy, their equally headstrong natures get in the way of true love. In ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (1995), Emma Thompson stars in, and provides the screenplay for, another Austen adaptation, this time directed by Ang Lee. Thompson plays Elinor, the eldest of the Dashwood sisters who are reduced in means when their father dies and his estate passes on to his son from his first marriage. They are soon accepted into their new society, each finding romance, but with some pain along the way. Also starring Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman. ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (1998) is a Tom Stoppard-penned comedy which won seven Oscars. In late 16th century London, the theatre’s most promising young playwright, Will Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), is suffering from writer’s block. Rose Theatre owner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) is desperate that Will’s new play – tentatively entitled ‘Romeo and Ethel the Pirate’s Daughter’ – be finished, whilst a new cast member, Thomas Kent, is equally eager to make his stage debut. Kent has a secret however: ‘he’ is actually Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow), merchant’s daughter and fiancee of Lord Wessex (Colin Firth). Adopting a disguise to enter a trade forbidden to women, matters become complicated when Will falls for her in her more conventional garb. It may take the intervention of Queen Elizabeth (Judi Dench) herself to make sure the course of true love runs smoothly and that the show goes on.