“Entertain, but also, give the viewer something to think about.”
Source: The Film Testament
“I can't say I remember this bit in the book,' she commented when he was finished and she was sweeping an applicator along his collarbone and pressing it lightly into the hollow beneath.
'They call it “artistic licence”. '
'Not just the producers trying to shoe-horn in a scene involving you in a wet shirt?'
'Why would they want that?' There was a soft gleam of white teeth as his lips parted in a smile.”
“I ask Laurie if it's possible to get trained fish. Lindsay says this is how we know I've never produced a movie.”
Source: The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film
“One thing I’ve learned: people love a camera, and when I’m filming, they see it, not me, so whenever I need to, I can quietly disappear behind my trusty shield.”
Source: Love, Hate & Other Filters
“I seem finally to have stopped worrying about Elinor, and age. She seems now to be perfectly normal -- about twenty-five, a witty control freak. I like her but I can see how she would drive you mad. She's just the sort of person you'd want to get drunk, just to make her giggling and silly.”
Source: The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film
“Our first point of discussion is the hunt. (...) My idea is to start the film with an image of the vixen locked out of her lair which has been plugged up. Her terror as she's pursued across the country. This is a big deal. It means training a fox from birth or dressing up a dog to look like a fox. Or hiring David Attenbrorough, who probably knows a few foxes well enough to ask a favour.”
Source: The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film
“Jane reminds us that God is in his heaven, the monarch on his throne and the pelvis firmly beneath the ribcage. Apparently rock and roll liberated the pelvis and it hasn't been the same since.”
Source: The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film
“(On period costume posture coaching:)
"We all stand about like parboiled spaghetti being straightened out.”
Source: The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film
“Sense and Sensibility signs litter Devon -- arrows with S & S on. Whenever Ang [Lee] sees a B & B sign he thinks it's for another movie.”
Source: The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film
“Edward finds Elinor crying for her dead father, offers her his handkerchief and their love story commences. Ang [Lee] very anxious that we think about what we want to do. I'm very anxious not to do anything and certainly not to think about it.”
Source: The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film