Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman’s free adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Lady Susan, has been widely praised on the festival circuit as a witty and original version that infuses the text with contemporary sensibilities. The novel, which was written by Austen in the form of letter correspondence, is transposed as a narrative with Kate Beckinsale as the titular heroine. Lady Susan is a thoroughly self-absorbed, supremely egotistic and suitably manipulative recent widow who seeks refuge at her in-laws’ estate after rumors arise about her virtue. But gossip soon follows as she seeks to find husbands for herself and her daughter. Stillman discovered the rarely adapted novel in 1990 and declared it “too good not to be known”.  Along with Beckinsale as Susan he cast Chloë Sevigny as her close friend Alicia – he had previously worked with both actresses in Last Days of Disco. The HFPA’s Ramzi Malouki spoke to the director and his star at the films’ Los Angeles premiere.