Sense and Sensibility (2026) -- on the hair
I've been thinking a lot about the 'hair' problem in this film, and whether or not it's something to get too angry about.
Long story short, in a lot of the stills released for this movie, within the trailer, and on the poster itself, the main characters wear their hair down. Historically, in the regency era, hair was almost always worn up-- if you were younger, you could wear your hair up, but once you got to a certain age wearing your hair up was one of the signs of your maturity, and this went for all classes of women.
It feels like a simple thing to get hung up, but I think there's two reasons why it's reasonable to be frustrated by it-- 1) I think historical accuracy isn't unimportant, especially a work that was written within that era itself. And at the end of the day, the events in Sense and Sensibility are rather tied to the society they live in, and the stringent rules they have to observe. These rules effect their lives in so many ways, and when filmmakers appreciate even some of these simple rules, it at least reflects a sincere desire on their part to understand the era.
and my other reason, 2) It doesn't make sense for Elinor to wear her hair down. Elinor's just a more stoic character in general who has to hide her feelings at so many points in the book. Her hair being tied up, even from a modern point of view, is such an easy shorthand for her personality and how she acts, that it seems mystifying that they would basically disregard what could be easy symbolism and just let her hair down... for the vibes, I guess?
With Marianne you can make a decent argument for it, given her wild and romantic personality, her wearing hair down isn't the craziest thing to do even if it would still be inaccurate. I think if a film maker wanted to be creative, and really show the difference between Marianne and Elinor, having one sister be the uptight one, following the rules of the era, and wearing her hair up, while Marianne rebels and often does not put her hair up, could be great symbolism for the contrast between the two of them, and is the best way for me to accept such an anachronism.
But nothing from what has been shared so far has even indicated a vision like that, and at the end of the day, I can't shake the feeling that this decision was made more with an aesthetically purpose in mind, because the filmmaker prefers hair down looks, and not from some well thought out way to perhaps show the internality of the characters. So again, it's a simple thing, but it represents already the attitude of the filmmakers towards the story, and I find myself feeling a bit troubled by what we've seen so far.
