I wandered into the newly released Jane Austen adaptation “Emma” more out of mild curiosity than genuine expectation or interest. Film has been kinder to Jane Austen than to any of her female contemporaries, and since the renewed thirst for costume dramas in the 1990s, adaptations of her work have seemed constant. And, yet, a new Emma seemed a curious choice for the directorial debut of American photographer Autumn de Wilde. It’s not just that in many ways, Austen’s Emma for all its delights seems out of place in 2020. Between 1995 and 1996 three adaptations of the novel landed on screen, with the contemporary “Clueless” being probably the best remembered. Since then, there have been numerous additional small-screen adaptations so what could a new “Emma” illuminate about the text, or the world it’s premiering in?
