LOGAN – If you like romance in ornate 18th Century costumes with oh-so polite and witty phrasing, then the Utah Theatre is the place for you to get your fill in September.
The hub for classic movies will be offering a Jane Austen film fest all this month.
Jane Austen was an English writer known primarily for six novels, which tended to lampoon British landed gentry at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Her plots often explored the dependence of women on marriage in their frantic pursuit of favorable social standing and economic security. Austen’s use of social commentary, realism and biting irony have earned her acclaim among critics and scholars for more than two centuries.
While Austen’s novels have seldom been out of print since her death in 1817, she has enjoyed a rebirth in popularity since the 1990s thanks to film adaptations of her works and recent biographical movies.
The Austen salute will lead off with the biopic Becoming Jane on Wednesday, Sept. 4.
The 2007 film is a romantic biography of Jane Austen starring Anne Hathaway, recalling the author’s early life and longtime relationship with Thomas Langlois Lefroy, played by Scottish actor James McAvoy
The film, which opened to mixed reviews, will be screened at 7 p.m. that evening.
Next in line at the Utah will be the movie that ignited the rebirth in modern Austen interest, the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility.
Brilliantly adapted by the renowned English actress Emma Thompson from Austen’s 1811 novel, its story follows the Dashwood sisters Elinor and Marianne who must seek upper-class marriages to overcome their family becoming impoverished.
Ms. Thompson portrays Elinor and Kate Winslet is her young sibling, opposite Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman as their unlikely suitors.
Sense and Sensibility will be shown at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6 and Saturday, Sept. 7.
The Jane Austen film fest will continue with Mansfield Park, a comedy drama based on Austen’s 1814 novel of the same name.
The film departs from the original novel in several respects, including the addition of the looming issue of abolition in the British Empire.
The film, which stars Hayley Atwell and James D’Arcy, will be screened at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11 and Thursday, Sept. 13.
An adaptation of one of Austen’s lesser known novels, Northanger Abby, will be shown for one night only on Wednesday, Sept. 18.
The relatively recent British made-for-television production stars Felicity Jones as Catherine Moreland, a young girl whose active imagination begins to confuse real life with her favorite Gothic romances.
Probably the most familiar film adaptation of a Jane Austen novel to American audiences is the delightful Emma released in 1996.
The comedy in period costumes stars Gwyneth Paltrow in the title role of an early 19th Century woman who is so busy matchmaking for her friends that she nearly misses her one chance at true love.
Emma will be screened at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 20 and Saturday, Sept. 21.
The film fest will conclude with Austen’s beloved Pride and Prejudice.
The 2005 drama emphasizes the author’s themes of realism, romanticism and family obligations against a backdrop of issues tied to marriage, morality and misconceptions.
The film stars the exquisite Keira Knightley as Austen’s best-known heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, opposite the then largely unknown Matthew Macfadyen as the elusive Mr. Darcy.
Pride and Prejudice will be screened at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 25 and Friday, Sept. 27.
The Utah Theatre is located at 18 West Center Street in the theatre district in downtown Logan.