Sense and Sensibility

England in the late 1700s. Following the death of his father, John Dashwood inherits the family estate. However, he must provide adequately for his father’s second wife and her three daughters. John’s callous and avaricious wife thwarts this duty and watches with suspicion as her brother Edward embarks upon a relationship with the eldest Dashwood daughter, Elinor. Meanwhile, the second-eldest daughter, Marianne, falls in love with the happy-go-lucky John Willoughby. Both relationships are thrown into deep crises and the young women must find their way through the vale of tears before fate’s just intervention... Adapted from the novel by Jane Austen, Ang Lee directed his fourth feature as a glamorous actors’ film with gorgeous landscapes. A film which not only retains the spirit of the novel but at the same time develops its contemporary relevance: the conflicts between sense and sensibility, honesty and fidelity. The film won the Golden Bear in 1996. With Sense and Sensibility, the Berlinale is honouring actor Alan Rickman who died on 14 January 2016.