“Sense & Sensibility:” Norland Park and Barton Cottage

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on JANUARY 10, 2010

When I was 13, I picked up my first Jane Austen novel–Pride & Prejudice. After that, I was hooked. I bought the Penguin collection of all of her books (the set with orange paperbacks in a box) and didn’t stop until I read them all. These days I’m a fan of the film versions that have been made of Austen’s books, too.

Emma Thompson won an Oscar in 1995 for her screenplay of Sense & Sensibility, and with good reason–it brought the story alive for us in a way no other version had. When the movie opens, we meet the Dashwood sisters–Elinor (Emma Thompson) and Marianne (a young, pre-Titanic Kate Winslet)–who have grown up at Norland Park, where they have known nothing but wealth, security, and privilege.

Norland Park:

Saltram House, the largest country house in Devon (U.K.), was used as the location of Norland Park. It was built in 1743 but expanded on over the generations. It has belonged to theNational Trust since 1957 and is open to tourists. (Photo and information found here.)

We don’t see much of the exterior in the movie–we just get glimpses of it like the one above.

In The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen’s Novel to Film, Thompson wrote that after filming a sequence that involved a flock of sheep, Ang Lee swore that he would never again use the animals on a movie set. Ten years later, he went on to directBrokeback Mountain (2005), in which the main characters were sheep herders (IMDb).

Marianne (Winslet) is an accomplished pianist who plays dramatically, with feeling, as suits her personality:

An awkward dinner with their stepbrother and his horrible wife Fanny, who is truly insufferable (Jane Austen could write insufferable characters better than anyone!):

Fanny shows her brother Edward (Hugh Grant) around the library and explains her plans to change just about everything about the grand old house when she is mistress of it:

The movie changed Emma Thompson’s life in more ways than one. She met Greg Wise on the set (he played Willoughby, the man who broke Marianne’s heart) and married him in 2003. They have a daughter named Gaia together.

This treehouse on the grounds of Norland Park is one of my favorite “houses” in the movie. I love it! Elinor’s little sister Margaret likes to hide out here:

Elinor and Edward (Hugh Grant) stroll the grounds around Norland Park (and we get another glimpse of the exterior of Saltram House):

When Elinor and Marianne’s father dies, British law dictates that everything go to his male heir. Their older half-brother takes over Norland Park and the Dashwoods–including their mother and younger sister–are evicted. They are given shelter by a generous cousin in Devonshire, and they move into a humble cottage on his property.

Barton Cottage in Devonshire:

Moving to the cottage is not easy. The Dashwood women must suddenly adapt to life without a house full of servants doing everything for them. It’s not all bad, though. As Fanny (Harriet Walter) says in the movie:

“Ooh, a cottage! How charming. A little cottage is always very snug.”

Efford House is the name of the actual cottage used for film. You can rent it for your next holiday! For information and photos of how it looks today, visit the Flete Estate website.

Colonel Brandon (Alan Rickman) is so struck by Marianne (Winslet) that he sends her a pianoforte to practice on.

If you haven’t seen the BBC “Sense & Sensibility” miniseries that came out in 2008, I highly recommend it. They can fit so much more of the story into a miniseries than a two-hour movie can. The casting is great, and the cottage used for the miniseries is pretty wonderful, too.

Emma Thompson spent years writing the screenplay for the movie, and it went through countless revisions. The first draft came to 350 hand-written pages.

For the movie, she reportedly wanted sisters Natasha and Joely Richardson to play Elinor and Marianne, but director Ang Lee insisted that Thompson play Elinor instead. Since she was too old to play a 19-year-old girl, the character’s age was changed to 27. At the time, Thompson was 36, so it was still a stretch (as many movie critics pointed out).

Colonel Brandon reads poetry to Marianne on the front lawn as she recuperates from an illness that nearly killed her:

Do you recognize Gemma Jones, who plays Mrs. Dashwood (their mother)? In 2001 she played Bridget’s mother in Bridget Jones’s Diary.

(Speaking of which–did you hear that they’re making a third Bridget Jones movie? Let’s hope it’s better than the second. The third movie will be based on Helen Fielding’s newspaper column, since there is no third novel in the series.)

Do you have a favorite Jane Austen movie? I watch the 1995 version of Persuasionwith Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds when I’m up for a good cry. I pull out Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam when I want a good laugh.

But Pride & Prejudice has to be my favorite. The 1996 miniseries with Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy is a classic and the favorite of most Austen fans, but I have to admit that the 2006 movie with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfayden is the one I watch over and over again. How about you?

Visit my TV/Movie Houses page for links to all the others I’ve featured, from Jane Eyre to Howards End.

You might also like:

Kate Winslet’s English Cottage in “The Holiday”

Howards End: An Ivy-Covered Cottage in the Country

For Sale: The London Townhouse from Howards End

LinkWithin

Howards End: An Ivy-Covered Cottage in the Country

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Howards End is a movie for people who love houses. Its name comes from an old cottage in the country owned by the wealthy Wilcox family. Vanessa Redgrave plays Ruth Wilcox, who inherited Howards End from her brother, and she has a deep, emotional attachment to it. When the movie opens, she’s walking around the house and admiring it.

Ruth’s last wish when she dies is scribbled on a piece of scrap paper on her death bed: Howards End should go to her new friend, Miss Margaret Schlegel. Her husband Henry and children are understandably baffled by this request, and a little angry. Why would she leave the house to someone outside the family? Her daughter Evie rips the paper up and tosses it into the fire.

Emma Thompson plays Margaret Schlegel, who befriended Ruth Wilcox in her final days. She doesn’t know that the house was supposed to be hers, but she falls in love with it anyway–and with the widowed Henry (Anthony Hopkins).

Peppard Cottage in Oxfordshire (England) became Howards End for the film.

Howards End is based on the classic novel by E.M. Forster, who also wrote another favorite of mine, A Room with a View.

The story explores the relationships among three families who belong to distinctly different social classes in the early 1900s. The Wilcoxes are wealthy Victorian capitalists; the Schlegel sisters are forward-thinking philanthropists who talk about issues like suffrage and helping the poor; and the Basts are the poor, working-class couple that the Schlegels try (unsuccessfully) to save.

Leonard Bast, who is unemployed and desperate, comes to Howards End in search of younger sister Helen Schlegel (Helena Bonham-Carter). Bast was played by Samuel West, who you may recognize from movies like Persuasion (as the wily Mr. Elliot who is not as charming as he seems!) and Jane Eyre (as St. John in the 1996 version). Here he is, walking through the front door of the cottage:

When Helen sees him, she is shocked. So is he. He didn’t know she was pregnant:

In this scene in the dining room, the Wilcox family discusses their mother’s death-bed request and argues about how to handle it.

The upstairs landing:

In one scene, Emma Thompson mistakenly refers to Helen as “Helena,” which is the actress’s real name. Here’s Helen in the front parlor:

This was Merchant Ivory Productions’ third gorgeous adaptation of a Forster novel (following A Room with a View and Maurice). It was filmed in 1992.

Derek of Derek M Design sent me this aerial photo of the house (via Google Earth). As he says, from this overview you can see that the house is much larger in real life than it appears in the film:

Derek also wrote a post about the real Peppard Cottage with some current photos and stories about how it looks today that you have to see: Peppard Cottage Revisited.

UPDATE: You can take a tour of the London townhouse that the Schlegel sisters lived in at 6 Wickham Place here. It’s now on the market, so we can compare how it looked in the movie in 1992 to how it looks today after an extensive renovation.

Check out my TV/Movie Houses page for links to the rest that I’ve featured, from Brideshead Revisited to Father of the Bride.

You might also like:

For Sale: The London Townhouse from Howards End

“Sense & Sensibility:” Norland Park and Barton Cottage

Can You Name the 10 Oscar-Nominated Films These Houses ...

LinkWithin

Castle Howard: the Star of “Brideshead Revisited”

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on APRIL 6, 2009

Welcome to another Movie Monday, when I feature the beautiful homes used in television and film. With due respect to the fine actors in the 2008 version of “Brideshead Revisited,” the hauntingly beautiful Castle Howard was the true star of the movie for me. Castle Howard is considered to be one of the grandest private residences in England today. Brideshead novelist Evelyn Waugh visited it and is said to have used it as his inspiration for the ill-fated home in his book. I couldn’t take my eyes off it and was always peering around the actors, trying to get a better look at the walls and statues and staircases behind them.

Emma Thomson as Lady Marchmain

Here are some of the photos I took from the movie of the castle, which is a castle in name only since it was never used for a military function. This great arch is just the beginning of the long drive to the castle:

When they drive over the hill, through the arch, Charles Ryder sees Castle Howard for the first time. “You LIVE here?” he asks his friend Sebastian.

The Great Hall’s painted arches and dome are pretty spectacular for a family home:

Photo by David Foster

Julia (Hayley Atwell) brings Charles (Matthew Goode) to Brideshead, where he’ll spend the summer with the family. Charles comes from a modest background and is quickly seduced by the family’s privileged lifestyle:

The home has its own private chapel. In this scene, Charles Ryder, who is an atheist, watches the devoutly Catholic family reciting their evening prayers:

The movie was so dark it was hard to get a good look at the chapel. I found an amazing photo gallery of the home by a photographer in the U.K. named David Foster, who was allowed access by the Howard family to these rooms. You can see much more detail of the chapel in his photo:

Foster also photographed a bedroom that is much clearer than anything I could get from the movie:

The turquoise drawing room:

The china landing:

The Long Gallery:

The Crimson Dining Room:

The Temple of the Four Winds, one of the two “garden buildings” on the estate, where the characters spent a lot of time hanging out and drinking:

The grounds are extensive. Castle Howard sits on 10,000 acres. When you go for a picnic in the garden, it’s best to bring servants to carry your refreshments for you:

The family gathers in the patriarch’s bedroom as he dies. Despite living “a life of sin” outside the Roman Catholic Church, he accepts a priest’s last rites and makes a sign of the cross. Evelyn Waugh said he witnessed something similar when one of his friends died, and the experience inspired him to write the novel (as a former English major, I feel obligated to share literary trivia like this with you):

The Great Fireplace:

By David Foster

The house looks so dark and cold in the movie that it almost gave me chills to look at (you can see it looks much brighter and warmer in the photos by Foster). Brideshead seemed more like a museum or old church than a home–which is somewhat the point of the film.

When the war starts, the British army takes over Brideshead. I’m always fascinated by how the great homes became military headquarters during war time. The movie shows the soldiers carefully covering all of the priceless paintings and statues as they took it over:

Ironically, Charles is stationed there during the war–the house he had once been willing to do almost anything to have:

The famous Atlas fountain:

The Rose Garden (another lovely photo by David Foster):

I love learning about the history of houses. Castle Howard took about 100 years to build, beginning in 1699, and the Howard family still lives there (much of the home is open to the public for tours, however). This picture of the home was published in 1819:

The 1981 Brideshead television miniseries that Jeremy Irons starred in was filmed at Castle Howard, too. To watch a clip from the miniseries that offers some beautiful views of the stately home and its grounds, click here.

You can visit Castle Howard’s official website for more information or David Foster’s online gallery to see more photos.

(I’m joining Fifi’s Fashionable Fridays blog party today. Check out what everyone else is talking about!)

If you’re hooked on houses from movies and TV shows, click here to see the list of the ones I’ve featured before or to suggest ones you’d like me to feature in the future. The most popular so far? The houses from:

• The Family Stone
• Gone with the Wind
• Brothers & Sisters
• Entire list

We’re traveling while the kids are on Spring Break this week, but I’ll check in whenever I can get my hands on some Internet access (wish me luck!). While I’m gone, don’t forget to enter the Not So Big House book giveaway at HomeDigz. Every time you leave a comment at HomeDigz between now and April 15, you earn another entry!

You might also like:

“Twilight” Revisited: The Contemporary House Used for the ...

A House to Kill For in “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”

“Sense & Sensibility:” Norland Park and Barton Cottage

LinkWithin

Tagged as: