20 Best Indie Movies Of 2016

Given director Whit Stillman’s fondness for cinematic comedy of manners it makes sense that he’s one day turn his attention to the grand dame of literary social parody, Jane Austen.

Adapted from her epistolary novel Lady Susan, written when Austen was in her late teens but not published until fifty years after her death, Love & Friendship stars Kate Beckinsale as a wry, calculating and upwardly mobile widow attempting to marry herself and her timid daughter off to suitably wealthy husbands.

Co-starring a host of talents from both sides of the pond including Chloë Sevigny as Beckinsale’s conniving American confidante Alicia Johnson and Stephen Fry as her disapproving husband, the movie went on to earn critical acclaim worldwide and made $19.6 million at the box office. Not too bad for a period comedy made on a relatively small budget of just $3 million.