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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 JULY 2016 38 This Week IN CINEMAS TODAY Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 Independence Day (12A) 10:20, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 The Secret Life Of Pets (PG) 10:00, 12:15, 14:30, 16:45, 19:00, 21:15 Me Before You (12A) 10:30, 13:45, 16:15, 18:40, 21:10 Warcraft (12A) 18:00, 20:50 Central Intelligence (12A) 10:25, 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 The Conjuring 2 (15) 10:15, 14:15, 18:00, 20:50 Valletta Living History (U) 10:00, 10:45, 11:30, 12:15, 13:00, 13:45, 14:30, 15:15 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 Race (PG) 13:50, 18:40 Tale of Tales (15) 14:00, 18:40 Central Intelligence (12A) 14:05, 16:30, 18:50, 21:10, 23:35 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (12A) 14:05, 16:30, 18:50, 21:15 Angry Birds (U) 14:10, 16:20, 18:35, 20:50 Money Monster (15) 14:15, 16:25, 18:45, 21:05 The Secret Life of Pets (PG) 14:15, 16:30, 18:40, 20:45 X-Men: Apocalypse (12A) 14:20, 18:10, 21:10, 23:10 Independence Day: Resurgence (12A) 14:30, 18:30, 21:15, 23:45 Alice Through the Looking Glass (PG) 14:30, 18:15, 21:00, 23:25 Warcraft (12A) 14:30, 18:10, 20:50, 23:30 The Conjuring 2 (15) 14:30, 18:10, 21:00, 23:00 Werther (PG) 15:00 Sing Street (12A) 16:30, 21:20 Love & Friendship (U) 16:40, 21:20 The Jungle Book (PG) 18:35, 20:55 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Central Intelligence (12A) 11:00, 13:35, 16:05, 18:30 The Conjuring 2 (15) 11:10, 14:00, 18:00 The Secret Life of Pets (PG) 11:00, 13:45, 15:55, 18:00 Independence Day: Resurgence (12A) 10:45, 13:20, 15:55, 18:30 Angry Birds (U) 10:55, 13:45, 16:00, 18:15 Me Before You (12A) 10:45, 13:35, 16:05, 18:30 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (12A) 11:05, 13:45, 16:10, 18:35 AMONG the myriad adapta- tions of English literary classics, the novels of Jane Austen appear to be particularly germane for appropriation by either the BBC or Hollywood. Providing ample 'posh entertainment' fodder to fill up airspace on British tele- vision, while playing the same – nostalgic and escapist – nerve as Downton Abbey for interna- tional audiences. The appeal of these perennial social comedies – usually cen- tered around women in Aus- ten's Regency Era Britain, and in particular their negotiation of romantic and economic realities – is not only evident in the fact that the books have never gone out of print. The fact that their corresponding films continue to gain pop culture traction shows that the characters and mores that populate Austen's narra- tives are not just of academic interest. It is perhaps the sheer breadth of these adaptations that has led to director Whit Stillman (The Last Days of Disco) to plumb deeper into the recesses of Austen's oeuvre, plucking out an early, posthumous novella – Lady Susan – to adapt into the effervescent social comedy Love & Friendship. Aiming to shelter herself from unsavoury rumours about her romantic habits, beautiful young widow Lady Susan Vernon (Kate Beckinsale) pays a visit to her in- laws' estate, and soon decides to make it her mission to secure a husband for her reluctant young daughter, Frederica (Morfydd Clark). However, her true intentions – which she only reveals to her equally unscrupulous American friend Alicia Johnson (Chloë Sevigny) – are far more self- serving, and it becomes clear that Susan will even sacrifice her daughter's happiness to secure financial and romantic satisfac- tion. Into this whirlwind swoop in Susan's intelligent and charis- matic former brother-in-law Reginald DeCourcy (Xavier Samuel), the insufferable Sir James Martin and the most intense object of Susan's de- sire, the 'divinely handsome' but married Lord Manwaring (Lochlann O'Mearáin). Austen fans will likely find the unrepentant flirt Lady Susan to be a jarring presence in the complex but otherwise ethically sound trajectory of the bulk of the author's later and better- known works. Characters like her exist in Austen's fiction, to be sure, but they're often framed as either antagonists or second- ary players whose scheming is diminished by parallel and more prominent characters. Instead, Susan is treated as a destructive but compelling pro- tagonist, and it's a challenge that Beckinsale leaps into with relish. It's a canny career choice for the British actress, who has transi- tioned somewhat uncomfortably from strait-laced period dramas to sexpot roles throughout her career. Lady Susan lets her play into both of those broad catego- ries, and she simmers with sexu- ality while remaining firmly en- trenched in the social confines of Austen's world. Stillman's jocular approach to the material also helps sugar the pill somewhat. Introducing his characters as 'dramatis perso- nae', with corresponding ironic captions, declares his intentions with the tone of the film pretty early on. Immaculately photographed and costumed, Stillman's film is a reminder that while Austen's literary reputation still inspires reverence, the particulars of her work can afford to be very irrev- erent indeed. Early Austen given a refreshing jolt ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ FRIENDS FOREVER ★ ★ ★ ★ BFFS ★ ★ ★ FRIEND IN NEED ★ ★ FAIR-WEATHER FRIEND ★ FRENEMY FILM By Teodor Reljic LOVE & FRIENDSHIP (U) ★ ★ ★ ★ Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale are fast friends in Whit Stillman's adaptation of an early Jane Austen novella Saucy minx: Beckinsale shimmers with sexual energy