Effie Gray (film)

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Effie Gray
Effie poster small.jpg
Film poster, featuring Fanning with Millais' painting Ophelia behind her.
Directed by Richard Laxton
Written by Emma Thompson
Produced byAndreas Roald
Donald Rosenfeld
Starring Dakota Fanning
Emma Thompson
Tom Sturridge
David Suchet
Julie Walters
Greg Wise
Claudia Cardinale
Robbie Coltrane
James Fox
Riccardo Scamarcio
Derek Jacobi
Polly Dartford
Cinematography Andrew Dunn
Edited byKate Williams
Music by Paul Cantelon
Production
company
Distributed byMetrodome Distribution (United Kingdom) [1]
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (International)
Release date
  • 5 October 2014 (2014-10-05)
Running time
108 minutes [1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$11 million [2]
Box office$721,143 [3]

Effie Gray is a 2014 British biographical film written by Emma Thompson and directed by Richard Laxton, starring Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, David Suchet, Derek Jacobi, James Fox, Claudia Cardinale, Greg Wise, Tom Sturridge, and Robbie Coltrane, in his final film appearance before his death in 2022. It is based on the true story of John Ruskin's marriage to Euphemia Gray and the subsequent annulment of their marriage.

Contents

Effie Gray was released worldwide by Universal Pictures in the United Kingdom on 10 October 2014 and in America on 3 April 2015.

Plot

In a pre-credit sequence Euphemia "Effie" Gray is seen walking through a garden speaking to her younger sister, Sophie, about a fairy story in which a girl married a man with wicked parents.

The marriage of Euphemia "Effie" to the prosperous art critic and philosopher John Ruskin in Perth, Scotland is seen. The couple travel to London to stay with his parents. Effie soon begins to feel isolated, especially as she is repeatedly belittled by John's hardhearted mother. Her distress is compounded by the fact that her husband shows no interest in consummating the marriage and refuses to discuss the subject.

At the Royal Academy of Arts, John and Effie attend a dinner at which there is heated debate about the new Pre-Raphaelite movement in art, which John supports. John convinces Sir Charles Eastlake, the president of the academy, to allow the young artists to exhibit their pictures.

Effie attracts the attention of Sir Charles' wife, Elizabeth. When the Eastlakes visit the Ruskins, Elizabeth sees how distressed Effie is in the repressive atmosphere of the Ruskin family. Feeling pressured due to the encounter with the Eastlakes, John calls in a doctor to examine Effie.

Effie hopes that matters will improve when they travel to Venice, where John will be researching his new book The Stones of Venice but when they get there, John busies himself studying the many historic monuments of the city, leaving Effie in the company of Raffaele, a young Italian. Effie enjoys the city life, but is distressed when he tries to force himself on her. Her husband is oblivious to the situation.

Effie dreads returning to the Ruskin family. Back at their house she suffers from a string of nervous ailments. Her doctor expresses disgust at John's clear lack of care or concern toward Effie and is horrified to learn that John has been drugging Effie with laudanum, albeit unintentionally as his mother gave him the tonics. He chastises a guilty looking John for his ignorance. He advises fresh air and more attention from her husband. John says they intend to travel to Scotland where John Everett Millais, one of the Pre-Raphaelites, will paint his portrait.

In Scotland, Millais befriends Effie, and becomes increasingly disturbed by Ruskin's dismissive attitude to his wife. He is deeply embarrassed when John leaves the two of them alone together for several nights when he visits Edinburgh. Effie and Millais fall in love. He convinces her to take someone she trusts with her and to explore the options for divorce.

Effie sends for Sophie, claiming that her sister wants to see the capital. Together they visit Elizabeth Eastlake. Effie tells her that she is still a virgin and that John has told her he was disgusted by her body on their wedding night. Elizabeth advises her to seek legal advice as John clearly has no desire to fulfill any of his obligations in the marriage, and Effie doesn't deserve the type of treatment she is receiving.

Effie is examined by a doctor, who confirms her virginity. Her sympathetic lawyer tells her the marriage can be annulled. She leaves for Scotland, supposedly to accompany her sister, but really to leave John forever. Before she leaves London, she visits Millais, but communicates with him only via her sister. He says he will wait for her. Ruskin's family is horrified when Effie's lawyer calls round with a notification of annulment proceedings on the grounds of John's impotence.

Cast

Lawsuits

The release of the film, originally titled Effie, was delayed by a series of court actions. Eve Pomerance, author of two scripts on the same subject as Thompson's screenplay, brought the first case. One of the scripts had been produced as a stage play. The judge ruled in December 2012 that Thompson's script was not in breach of copyright and could be released. [4] Another copyright dispute arose, with playwright Gregory Murphy, author of the play The Countess which had been positively received, [5] and ran Off-Broadway for 634 performances during the 1999/00 season. [6] The matter was decided in Thompson's favour in March 2013. [7] [8] [9] The judge’s ruling was based on a second, revised screenplay that the court allowed Thompson to submit in the middle of the case, which Murphy called "unprecedented". [10] Murphy appealed the ruling, [8] [11] but the Second Circuit rejected the appeal. [12] The District Court then ordered Murphy to reimburse Effie Film, LLC $500,000 for its legal fees. Murphy filed an appeal, but in debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of the initial lawsuit instigated by Effie Film, petitioned the Court for pro bono counsel. Lawyers representing Effie Film successfully blocked Murphy's petition, and filed a motion that Murphy be required to put up a bond of $125,000 before his case could be heard on appeal. In the year-long court battle that ensued, Murphy, representing himself, fought both the $500,000 fee award and the $125,000 bond motion. The case was eventually moved to the Court of Appeals. On 16 October 2015 the three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in Murphy's favour, dismissing the motion for a bond requirement and ruling that the District Court had "abused its discretion" in awarding Effie Film $500,000 in legal fees, adding that the Court of Appeals had never characterized Murphy's original claims of infringement as "frivolous" or "objectively unreasonable" as contended. [13] The Court of Appeals also ordered Effie Film, LLC to pay Murphy $603.80 for his court costs.

The release date was put back to October 2013, but the film was withdrawn from the Mill Valley Film Festival in California at which it was to be premiered under the title Effie Gray. [14] In December 2013, Thompson said the film’s time had "probably passed". [15] The film was finally released in October 2014. [16] Thompson did not attend its London premiere, nor did she promote the film. [17]

Reception

Effie Gray has received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 42%, based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Effie Gray benefits from its strong cast, elevating a period drama that doesn't strike quite as many narrative sparks as it could." [18] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 54 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [19]

Mark Kermode said that the film "intelligently dramatises the prison-like nature of Effie’s status while struggling to engage us in what is essentially a non-relationship...we have a handsome but rather inert portrait of a suffocating social milieu in which it is left to Thompson herself to inject vibrant relief as the independently minded Lady Eastlake." [20] Tim Robey in The Telegraph said that "There are clever and sensitive touches right through, and a moving ending. But Fanning seems wholly uncomfortable, and not always intentionally. She's meant to be playing a trapped Pre-Raphaelite muse, frequently ill and/or sedated, but moons her way through the film seeming mostly dazed and confused." [21]

David Sexton, in contrast, praised Fanning's performance as "remarkably good", but objected to the caricatured portrait of Ruskin and what he called the "Everyday Feminism" of the portrayal of Effie as a victim. [22] Stephen Dalton in The Hollywood Reporter was unflattering, calling the film "an exquisitely dreary slice of middlebrow armchair theater which adds little new to a much-filmed story. Despite a lurid plot involving sex scandal, family dysfunction and proto-feminist revolt, the end result is depressingly conventional and deadeningly tasteful...yet another surface-level rehash of Victorian costume-drama clichés." However, Fanning's "wounded, emotionally conflicted performance" was praised. [23]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ruskin</span> English writer and art critic (1819–1900)

John Ruskin was an English polymath – a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, political economy, education, museology, geology, botany, ornithology, literature, history, and myth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effie Gray</span> Scottish artists model and wife (1828–1897)

Euphemia Chalmers Millais, Lady Millais was a Scottish artists' model and writer who was married to Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. She had previously married the art critic John Ruskin, but she left him with the marriage never having been consummated; it was subsequently annulled. This famous Victorian "love triangle" has been dramatised in plays, films, and an opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Everett Millais</span> British painter and illustrator (1829–1896)

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street. Millais became the most famous exponent of the style, his painting Christ in the House of His Parents (1849–50) generating considerable controversy, and he produced a picture that could serve as the embodiment of the historical and naturalist focus of the group, Ophelia, in 1851–52.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood</span> Group of English painters, poets and critics, founded in 1848

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner who formed a seven-member "Brotherhood" partly modelled on the Nazarene movement. The Brotherhood was only ever a loose association and their principles were shared by other artists of the time, including Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes and Marie Spartali Stillman. Later followers of the principles of the Brotherhood included Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and John William Waterhouse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Thompson</span> British actress and screenwriter (born 1959)

Dame Emma Thompson is a British actress and screenwriter. Her work spans over four decades of screen and stage, and her accolades include two Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2018, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to drama.

<i>Ophelia</i> (painting) Painting by John Everett Millais

Ophelia is an 1851–52 painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais in the collection of Tate Britain, London. It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river.

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Edith Penelope Mary Lutyens was a British author who is principally known for her biographical works on the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Eastlake</span> English writer

Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake, born Elizabeth Rigby, was an English author, art critic and art historian who made regular contributions to the Quarterly Review. She is known for her writing and her significant role in the London art world.

<i>Autumn Leaves</i> (painting) Painting by John Everet Millais

Autumn Leaves (1856) is a painting by John Everett Millais exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856. It was described by the critic John Ruskin as "the first instance of a perfectly painted twilight." Millais's wife Effie wrote that he had intended to create a picture that was "full of beauty and without a subject".

<i>Peace Concluded</i> 1856 painting by John Everet Millais

Peace Concluded, 1856 (1856) is a painting by John Everett Millais which depicts a wounded British officer reading The Times newspaper's report of the end of the Crimean War. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856 to mixed reviews, but was strongly endorsed by the critic John Ruskin who proclaimed that in the future it would be recognised as "among the world's best masterpieces". The central figure in the painting is a portrait of Millais's wife Effie Gray, who had previously been married to Ruskin. It is now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Richmond</span> English painter

Thomas Richmond (1802–1874) was a British portrait painter, known for his idealised pictures in the so-called keepsake style. He was the son of Thomas Richmond (1771–1837), the miniature painter, and the brother of George Richmond.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline, Lady Trevelyan</span> British artist

Pauline, Lady Trevelyan was an English painter, noted for single-handedly making Wallington Hall in Northumberland a centre of High Victorian cultural life, and for enchanting with her intellect and art John Ruskin, Swinburne, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, Thomas Carlyle, John Everett Millais, and other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. She was married in May 1835 to Sir Walter Calverley Trevelyan, 6th Baronet.

<i>Desperate Romantics</i> British television drama series

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<i>The Love School</i> 1975 British television drama series

The Love School is a BBC television drama series originally broadcast in 1975 about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, written by John Hale, Ray Lawler, Robin Chapman and John Prebble. It was directed by Piers Haggard, John Glenister and Robert Knights. It was shown during January and February 1975. It includes six episodes, each episode is 75 minutes in length.

<i>Dantes Inferno</i> (1967 film) 1967 television film directed by Ken Russell

Dante's Inferno: The Private Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poet and Painter is a 1967 British 35 mm docudrama film directed by Ken Russell and first screened on BBC1 on 22 December 1967 as part of Omnibus. It quickly became a staple in cinemas in retrospectives of Russell's work.

<i>John Ruskin</i> (Millais) Painting by John Everett Millais

John Ruskin is a portrait of the leading Victorian art critic John Ruskin (1819–1900). It was painted by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais (1829–1896) during 1853–54. John Ruskin was an early advocate of the Pre-Raphaelite group of artists and part of their success was due to his efforts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Gray</span> Artists model and sister-in-law to painter John Everett Millais (1843–1882)

Sophia Margaret "Sophie" Gray, later Sophia Margaret Caird, was a Scottish model for her brother-in-law, the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. She was a younger sister of Euphemia "Effie" Gray, who married Millais in 1855 after the annulment of her marriage to John Ruskin. The spelling of her name was, after around 1861, sometimes "Sophy," but only within the family. In public she was known as Sophie and later in life, after her marriage, as Sophia.

<i>The Countess</i> (play) 1995 play by Gregory Murphy

The Countess is a play written by the American playwright and novelist Gregory Murphy. It recounts the break-up of the marriage of John Ruskin and Effie Gray, one of the greatest scandals of the Victorian era in Britain.

Suzanne Elizabeth Fagence Cooper is a British non-fiction writer who has written extensively on the Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian women.

References

  1. 1 2 "EFFIE GRAY (12A)". British Board of Film Classification . 1 October 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  2. ↑ Brooks, Brian (3 April 2015). "'Woman In Gold', 'Effie Gray', 'Lambert & Stamp' Lead Specialty Box Office: Preview". Deadline.
  3. ↑ "Effie Gray". Box Office Mojo.
  4. ↑ Effie Film, LLC v. Eve Pomerance Archived 13 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine , No. 11-CIV-7087 (JPO) (S.D.N.Y. 18 Dec. 2012) (248 KB PDF, accessed 17 January 2013)
  5. ↑ Gates, Anita (30 March 1999). "THEATER REVIEW; A Critic Who Takes His Work Home". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ↑ Eden, Richard (23 December 2012). "Emma Thompson is kept waiting by John Ruskin film". The Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
  8. 1 2 Eden, Richard (24 March 2013). "Emma Thompson wins John Ruskin legal battle". The Telegraph. London: Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  9. ↑ "Effie Film, LLC v. Murphy, No. 1:2011cv00783 - Document 42 (S.D.N.Y. 2013)".
  10. ↑ Eden, Richard 24 March 2013. "Emma Thompson wins John Ruskin legal battle". The Telegraph .{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ Walker, Tim (2 September 2013). "John Ruskin legal battle goes on for Emma Thompson". The Telegraph. London.
  12. ↑ "Emma Thompson Didn't Steal 'Effie' Script, 2nd Circ. Says". Law360. 7 May 2014.
  13. ↑ "Effie Film, LLCC v. Murphy, 14-3367-cv 15-1573 2nd Cir. 2015)".
  14. ↑ Walker, Tim (15 October 2013). "Emma Thompson's film about Effie Gray is withdrawn from film festival". Daily Telegraph .
  15. ↑ Synnot, Siobhan (3 December 2013). "Emma Thompson on her role in Saving Mr Banks". The Scotsman.
  16. ↑ Campbell-Johnston, Rachel. "The Times Saturday Review". 23 August 2014.
  17. ↑ Walker, Tim 7 October 2014. "Emma Thompson declines to plug her new film Effie Gray". The Telegraph.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ↑ "Effie Gray (2015)". Rotten Tomatoes.
  19. ↑ "Effie Gray". Metacritic.
  20. ↑ Kermode, Mark, "Effie Gray review – a handsome but inert portrait", The Observer, Sunday 12 October 2014.
  21. ↑ Robey, Tim (9 October 2014). "Effie Gray, review: 'a damp portrait'". The Telegraph .
  22. ↑ Sexton, David (10 October 2014). "Effie Gray - film review: 'Dakota Fanning is remarkably good but Emma Thompson's script makes John Ruskin out to be a sexist villain'". London Evening Standard.
  23. ↑ Dalton, Stephen (10 October 2014). "Effie Gray: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
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