Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship. Bernard Walsh / Amazon Studios / Roadside Attractions
Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship. Bernard Walsh / Amazon Studios / Roadside Attractions

Whit Stillman and Kate Beckinsale put a new spin on Jane Austen in Love & Friendship



The last time writer-director Whit Stillman worked with Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny was eighteen years ago. The film was The Last Days of Disco, his 1998 tale of two friends navigating the Manhattan club scene in the early 1980s.

While Beckinsale (Underworld, Pearl Harbor) and Sevigny (American Psycho, TV drama Big Love) went on to enjoy distinguished acting careers, Stillman stalled, not making another movie until 2011's campus comedy Damsels In Distress.

Now comes Love & Friendship, which marks both a reunion and a sparkling return to form.

"It feels like I'm back from the dead," he says, wryly. Based on Jane Austen's 'unfinished' novella Lady Susan, it is a witty comedy-of-manners that offers Beckinsale her best character role in years.

She plays the recently widowed Lady Susan, a savvy socialite who imposes herself on her in-laws as she searches for new husbands for herself and her wallflower-daughter Frederica (Morfydd Clark).

“This is a fairly irreverent and atypical Jane Austen from what people are used to,” says Beckinsale. “[It’s a] different window onto what you expect from Jane Austen women. It’s not romantic.

“She’s a really quite major anti-hero and gets away with everything, which is very unusual for the period. If there is a sexually rapacious woman in literature of the time, she usually ends up dying of something — burnt alive. That’s what we’re used to.”

Armed with an acerbic tongue, Lady Susan is certainly different from Austen's better-known heroines, such as Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennet or Mansfield Park's Fanny Price.

“She lives on her wits and she’s very, very smart,” says Beckinsale. “That was one of those things — it was very difficult for women, who weren’t necessarily furnished with a fabulous education or walking into a fulfilling job. This is someone who is very bright and using her wit to dig herself out of holes and get ahead. And it was quite nice to see that.”

Stillman agrees.

“I like her because she gets the ball in the air, she gets things going, she makes things happen,” he says.

He began reading Austen in college after picking up a copy of Northanger Abbey. While he didn't like it — telling people Austen was overrated — his sister persuaded him to read Pride and Prejudice and he relented. Ever since, he's devoured her work. Characters in his 1990 debut film, Metropolitan, even make references to Austen.

In Beckinsale, Stillman had the perfect partner on the project.

“I think she was totally self-confident with the material,” he says. “I’ve grown up with Jane Austen, have my opinions on her and I’m not shy about saying them, and I think [Beckisale] has, too. So we were the two people that were steeped in this material and we could talk about it in this way.”

This is not Beckinsale's first brush with Austen — she starred in a 1996 TV movie of Emma and, a year earlier, took the lead role in the Austen-inspired comedy-drama Cold Comfort Farm.

“I just think she writes brilliant women — every romantic comedy every written is ripping off one of her novels at some point,” says Beckinsale.

“She’s definitely got the measure of that whole romance. But her female characters are flawed, on the whole, and interesting.”

With Lady Susan relatively unknown compared with her more famous works, the attraction to Love & Friendship was even greater.

“We’re the first people to have played these characters,” says Beckinsale. “To be groundbreaking in Jane Austen is pretty exciting.”

Starring alongside Beckinsale is Chloë Sevigny, who plays Lady Susan’s American confidante Alicia Johnson.

“She’s such a unique person,” says Beckinsale, “interesting, cool and has her own very particular style.”

While Sienna Miller was briefly considered for the lead, Stillman knew that ideally, he wanted his Last Days of Disco stars back together.

“It was always in my head that it might be a Chloë-Kate reunion,” he says. “They work very well together. They play very well together.”

Certainly, they make a fine team in the film, gossiping and scheming, as Lady Susan tries to manipulate social situations to her advantage.

"They're a little bit more simpatico," says Beckinsale, comparing them with the characters they played in Last Days of Disco. "They're partners in crime. My character in Love & Friendship is ... much more expert and she's not got Chloë in her crosshairs at all, so she doesn't get the bad side of it."

Lady Susan was written in 1794 but never submitted for publication by Austen. It was published in 1871, long after the author's death in 1817, and it will be intriguing to see how Austen scholars react to Stillman's adaptation.

The director reckons there are lots of “big Austen fans” who have never read the book, which gave him “licence” to change things — not least adjusting the text from its epistolary form — it is presented as a series of documents — to a more traditional narrative.

“I assume she would’ve done the same,” he says. “So in a sense, we were trying to do what she might’ve done.”

Love & Friendship is in UAE cinemas from May 19

artslife@thenational.ae

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

SERIE A FIXTURES

All times UAE ( 4 GMT)

Saturday
Roma v Udinese (5pm) 
SPAL v Napoli (8pm)
Juventus v Torino (10.45pm)

Sunday
Sampdoria v AC Milan (2.30pm)
Inter Milan v Genoa (5pm)
Crotone v Benevento (5pm)
Verona v Lazio (5pm)
Cagliari v Chievo (5pm)
Sassuolo v Bologna (8pm)
Fiorentina v Atalanta (10.45pm)

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)

On sale: Now

The Sand Castle

Director: Matty Brown

Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea

Rating: 2.5/5

German intelligence warnings
  • 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
  • 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
  • 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250 

Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

Vidaamuyarchi

Director: Magizh Thirumeni

Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5

 

Last 10 NBA champions

2017: Golden State bt Cleveland 4-1
2016: Cleveland bt Golden State 4-3
2015: Golden State bt Cleveland 4-2
2014: San Antonio bt Miami 4-1
2013: Miami bt San Antonio 4-3
2012: Miami bt Oklahoma City 4-1
2011: Dallas bt Miami 4-2
2010: Los Angeles Lakers bt Boston 4-3
2009: Los Angeles Lakers bt Orlando 4-1
2008: Boston bt Los Angeles Lakers 4-2

The bio

Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.

Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.

Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.

Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.

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Emergency

Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.

SPECS

Mini John Cooper Works Clubman and Mini John Cooper Works Countryman

Engine: two-litre 4-cylinder turbo

Transmission: nine-speed automatic

Power: 306hp

Torque: 450Nm

Price: JCW Clubman, Dh220,500; JCW Countryman, Dh225,500

Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
  • Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
  • Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
  • Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
 
 
if you go
How to avoid crypto fraud
  • Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
  • Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
  • Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
  • Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
  • Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
  • Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
  • Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
ITU Abu Dhabi World Triathlon

For more information go to www.abudhabi.triathlon.org.