Today in History, December 13: Box-office hit Sense and Sensibility hits US cinemas

Adapted from Jane Austen's 1811 novel, 1995's Sense and Sensibility was marketed as a "chick flick".

The box-office hit had all the right ingredients: frustrated love; a quick-witted, comic script; and an all-star cast, including 90s juggernaut Hugh Grant, fresh from the success of Four Weddings and a Funeral.

But this re-imagining of Austen's novel — released in US cinemas 30 years ago today — was more than just a bubbly romance.

Lauded by many as one of the top Austen films of all time, it won Golden Globes for best drama and best screenplay, and an Oscar for best adapted screenplay.

And it was notable for other reasons too.

British powerhouse Emma Thompson — currently having a moment in Apple TV's Down Cemetery Road — starred in the film and wrote its Oscar-winning screenplay between acting projects over five years. 

Thompson remains the only person to have won an Academy Award for both writing and acting (for the earlier Howards End of 1992) — an achievement cementing her status as an industry great.

It was also, arguably, the film that catapulted Taiwanese director Ang Lee firmly into the mainstream, after the success of what is now known as the Father Knows Best trilogy, comprising Pushing Hands (1991), The Wedding Banquet (1993), and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994).

The quest to be married

Although the film takes significant liberties with Austen's storyline, Lee's Sense and Sensibility was one of several 1995 productions that sparked a new wave of British period dramas, including the BBC's Pride and Prejudice TV series with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, and is also said to have caused a spike in the sale of Austen's novels.

The film follows the fortunes of the Dashwoods, a wealthy English family whose father has died suddenly, leaving most of his estate to his eldest son, John. The family's three daughters, Elinor (Thompson), Marianne (played by a pre-Titanic Kate Winslet) and Margaret Dashwood, are each left with only a meagre inheritance. This makes finding a husband the top priority for Elinor and Marianne.

After John and his overbearing wife Fanny move into the family estate, Fanny's brother Edward Ferrars (Grant) comes to stay, and Elinor rapidly falls for his gentle nature and good humour. But she later finds he is engaged, and her hopes of a union are dashed.

As the eldest sister, the rational but caring Elinor borders on spinsterhood, so it's both a romantic blow and a hit to the security of her future.

Before Elinor's disappointment, Mrs Dashwood and her daughters accept the offer of a modest cottage on the estate of a kindly cousin, Sir John Middleton. And during a regular visit to his home, they meet Colonel Brandon — played by young and dapper Alan Rickman — who falls for the beautiful and passionate Marianne immediately.

Marianne, however, becomes taken with the dashing John Willoughby (Greg Wise) when he rescues her from a storm after she injures an ankle and carries her to safety. They quickly become attached, and everyone believes they will be married. But of course, it isn't to be.

Emma Thompson's set diaries

Without entirely ruining the plot for those who haven't had the chance to watch the movie, fortune eventually favours the sisters, mirroring the book's ending — but not before a good dose of heartache for both.

Much has been written about the 1995 film over the years, including academic analyses of its explorations of class and gender, and the way the film's elaborate costumes are used to communicate status.

Thompson's own diaries of filming were also published as a book, along with her screenplay and, although admittedly part of the film's marketing push, are frank and hilarious.

She talks of the off-screen camaraderie between herself and Winslet, and of Lee's warmth and generosity, paired at times with brutal feedback. The daily minutiae of life on set are also detailed — from working in the rain to treating "incipient thrush" with goat's yoghurt donated by Winslet.

Of her one kissing scene with Grant, which ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor in keeping with the book, Thompson wrote:

Kissing Hugh was very lovely. Glad I invented it. Can't rely on Austen for a snog, that's for sure. We shoot the scene on a hump-backed bridge. Two swans float into shot as if on cue. Everyone coos.

'Get rid of them,' says Ang. 'Too romantic.'

The film's producer, Lindsay Doran — also known for Dead Again (1991), The Firm (1993) and Sabrina (1995) — sought Thompson out as the screenwriter in 1990 on the strength of the actor's writing for a series of TV skits.

"I knew that Emma had never written a screenplay before, but there was enough sense of storytelling even in those two- and three-minute sketches to indicate that writing a full-length script wouldn't be too difficult a leap," wrote Doran, in the forward of Thompson's book.

As a driving force behind the project, Doran also recruited Lee as the director, after admiring the humour and romance that his guidance brought to The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman.

The critics' darling

It was a canny decision, as the film grossed $US135 million ($203 million) from a budget of $US16 million, and was lauded by critics.

Of Lee and Thompson's hiring, Variety magazine's Todd McCarthy wrote at the time that "both potentially long-shot bets have paid off in spades".

"She and Lee have always kept an eye out for the comedic possibilities in any situation."

The New York Times's Janet Maslin described Lee's creation as a "sparkling, colourful and utterly contemporary comedy of manners" that matched the Austen-based Clueless (released in the same year) for "sheer fun".

And the film still makes "best of" lists and has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97 per cent in 2025.