Jane Austen onscreen for the '90s.

Aldous Huxley, who wrote the screenplay for the 1940 ``Pride and Prejudice,'' wrote at the time that ``the essence of Jane Austen cannot be duplicated on the stage or screen, but skilled actors may spin magic with her characters, particularly if the writers give them interesting things to say.'' The Austen movies of the '90s bear Huxley out.

_``Sense and Sensibility.'' This 1995 film starring Emma Thompson, who won an Oscar for her wonderful script, is the pinnacle of the Austen boom. Thompson and a pre-``Titanic'' Kate Winslet play the Dashwood sisters, and Ang Lee's direction is superb.

_``Emma''/``Clueless.'' The Gwyneth Paltrow ``Emma'' (1996) and Alicia …