Hasta La Ideas

Set in the 1930s, I Capture the Castle (directed by Tim Fywell in 2003 and based on Dodie Smith‘s 1948 novel) has plenty to say about modern romance. The film chronicles the adventures of the Mortmains, an impoverished, eccentric writer’s family living in a dilapidated English castle and looking for love and inspiration in quite a few of the wrong places.

First love and loss is captured with uncommon grace by the film’s narrator, Cassandra Mortmain, the more bookish, quiet sister pictured below in a heart-to-heart with the beloved who is about to break hers.

Click here to watch a trailer for the film.

Nobody does modern english romance like Jane Austen, and while the BBC productions (and Colin Firth!) take the cake, Hollywood has offered up some fine guilty treasures.

Film stills below from Emma (1996), Becoming Jane (2007) and Pride and Prejudice (2005).