Screening Jane. When History, Biography and Fiction create a Cinematic Life

This paper analyzes the interesting technique of adaptation of the film Becoming Jane, a biopic on the life of Jane Austen, released in 2007. Loosely based on Jon Spence's biography Becoming Jane Austen, the film faces the problem of the scarcity of information on Jane Austen’s life through a technique that, if not original nor always satisfying, is nevertheless worth being studied. By recurring to the character descriptions and the anecdotes narrated in the novels, the film (and Spence’s book too) “fills in the blanks” in Austen’s life by adding touches of romance with questionable historical accuracy and fictionalizes the writer’s biography in order to adapt it to the stereotype of modern romantic film heroines.