Portrait of Jennie | |
---|---|
Directed by | William Dieterle |
Screenplay by | Paul Osborn Peter Berneis Leonardo Bercovici (adaptation) |
Based on | Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan [1] |
Produced by | David O. Selznick David Hempstead |
Starring | Jennifer Jones Joseph Cotten Ethel Barrymore |
Narrated by | Joseph Cotten |
Cinematography | Joseph H. August |
Edited by | William Morgan |
Music by | Claude Debussy Dimitri Tiomkin |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Selznick Releasing Organization |
Release date |
|
Running time | 86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $4,041,000 [2] |
Box office | $1,510,000 (rentals) [2] |
Portrait of Jennie is a 1948 American supernatural film based on the 1940 novella by Robert Nathan. The film was directed by William Dieterle and produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten. At the 21st Academy Awards, it won an Oscar for Best Special Effects (Paul Eagler, Joseph McMillan Johnson, Russell Shearman and Clarence Slifer; Special Audible Effects: Charles L. Freeman and James G. Stewart). Joseph H. August was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography - Black and White.
In 1934, the impoverished painter Eben Adams meets a young girl dressed in old-fashioned clothing named Jennie Appleton in Central Park, Manhattan. Moved by her beauty, Eben draws a sketch of her from memory. Miss Spinney, an art dealer, purchased one of his paintings before but tells Eben that his paintings lack feeling. However, Miss Spinney confesses to her partner that she sees potential in Eben's work.
Eben again encounters Jennie intermittently. Strangely, she appears to be growing up much more rapidly than is humanly possible. He soon falls deeply in love with her, but is puzzled by the fact that she seems to be experiencing events which occurred several decades earlier as if they had just happened. Eventually, Eben learns the truth about Jennie. Though inevitable tragedy ensues, she continues to be an inspiration to his life and professional career. His artwork takes a remarkable upturn, commencing with a beautiful portrait of Jennie.
After speaking to one of Jennie's teachers at the convent which took Jennie in after her parents' deaths, Eben discovers that Jennie habitually rowed out to Land's End Lighthouse alone and that she drowned ten years earlier, on October 5, when a hurricane struck while she was out sailing. Eben sells enough of his paintings to take a trip to the lighthouse, where he rents a boat and searches for Jennie despite clear signs of another approaching hurricane. They find each other on the island but are both swept into the sea by a strong wave. Eben attempts to save Jennie but she is carried away. Eben is rescued by some locals and wakes with Miss Spinney, who oversees his recovery, by his bedside. A title card notes that the Portrait of Jennie became the defining art piece of Eben's career, giving his work more feeling than all his previous works, which held "nothing distinguishing" until the creation of the portrait.
The book on which the film was based first attracted the attention of David O. Selznick, who purchased it as a vehicle for Jennifer Jones.
Filming began in early 1947 in New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, but Selznick was unhappy with the results and scheduled re-shoots as well as hiring and firing five different writers before the film was completed in October 1948.
The New York shooting enabled Selznick to use Albert Sharpe and David Wayne, who were both appearing on stage in Finian's Rainbow , giving an Irish flair to characters and the painting in the bar that was not in Nathan's novel.
Although Portrait of Jennie was a fantasy, Selznick insisted on filming actual locations in Massachusetts (The Graves Light) and New York City (Central Park, The Cloisters and the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which dramatically increased the film's production costs. [3] The film's major overhaul came when Selznick added a tinted color sequence for the final scenes. The final shot of the painting, appearing just before the credits, was presented in three-strip Technicolor.
Portrait of Jennie was highly unusual for its time in that it had no opening credits as such, except for the Selznick Studio logo. All the other credits appear at the end. Before the film proper begins, the title is announced by the narrator (after delivering a spoken prologue, he says, "And now, 'Portrait of Jennie'").
The portrait of Jennie (Jennifer Jones) was painted by artist Robert Brackman. The painting became one of Selznick's prized possessions, and it was displayed in his home after he married Jones in 1949.
The film features Joseph H. August's atmospheric cinematography, capturing the lead character's obsession with Jennie amongst the environs of a wintry New York. August shot many of the scenes through a canvas, making the scenes look like actual paintings, using many lenses from the silent film era. [4] He died shortly after completing the film, for which he was posthumously nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
The composer, Dimitri Tiomkin, used themes by Claude Debussy, including Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), the two Arabesques, "Nuages" and "Sirènes" from Nocturnes , and La fille aux cheveux de lin , with the addition of Bernard Herrmann's "Jennie's Theme" to a song featured in Nathan's book ("Where I came from, nobody knows, and where I am going everyone goes"), utilizing the haunting sound of the theremin, previously heard in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound and Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend . Herrmann was assigned the original composing duties for the film but left during its extended shooting schedule.
A scene of Jennie and Eben having a picnic after witnessing the ceremony in the convent features in the original screenplay. It was filmed but deleted when it looked as if Jennie's hair was blending into the tree next to her. Another scene that featured Jennie doing a dance choreographed by Jerome Robbins took over ten days to film, [4] but was not used in the completed film.
When Portrait of Jennie was released in December 1948, it was not a success, but today it is considered a classic in the fantasy genre, [5] with a 91% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. [6] Upon its release, The New York Times reviewer Bosley Crowther called it "deficient and disappointing in the extreme;" [7] but the Variety reviewers found the story was "told with style, taste and dignity." [8] Later film critics have also given the film strong praise. Leslie Halliwell wrote that it was "presented with superb persuasiveness by a first-class team of actors and technicians". [9] Spanish surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel included the film on his list of the 10 best of all time. [10]
"Portrait of Jennie," the title song, written by J. Russel Robinson, with lyrics by Gordon Burge, was performed by Ronnie Deauville. [11] It has been covered since by many in jazz, often under the variant spelling "Portrait of Jenny," with early versions by Harry Babbitt, Jack Fina, Carmen Cavallaro, Freddy Martin, and Bill Snyder, [11] and became a hit for Nat King Cole. Clifford Brown with Strings (1955) features the jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown performing an instrumental version with string accompaniment arranged by Neal Hefti. The jazz trombonist J. J. Johnson recorded an instrumental rendition in 1955 and one with choir accompaniment for his 1960 album Trombone and Voices . The song was revisited in 1958 by the pianist Red Garland on Manteca and again in 1966 by the jazz trumpeter Blue Mitchell on his Bring It Home to Me . Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass recorded a version featuring Guido Basso for their 1976 LP The Jazz Album that was heard widely on jazz radio stations.
Joseph Cotten's performance as Eben Adams won the International Prize for Best Actor at the 1949 Venice International Film Festival.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
Portrait of Jennie was presented on the radio program Academy Award on December 4, 1946. Joan Fontaine starred in the adaptation. [14] Lux Radio Theatre presented an hour-long adaptation of the film on October 31, 1949, again starring Joseph Cotten, but this time with Anne Baxter in the role of Jennie.
Joseph Cheshire Cotten Jr. was an American film, stage, radio and television actor. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original stage productions of The Philadelphia Story (1939) and Sabrina Fair (1953). He then gained worldwide fame for his collaborations with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and Journey into Fear (1943), in which Cotten starred and for which he was also credited with the screenplay.
Jennifer Jones, also known as Jennifer Jones Simon, was an American actress and mental-health advocate. Over the course of her career that spanned more than five decades, she was nominated for an Academy Award five times, including one win for Best Actress, and a Golden Globe Award win for Best Actress in a Drama.
The Third Man is a 1949 British film noir directed by Carol Reed, written by Graham Greene, and starring Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard. Set in post-World War II Allied-occupied Vienna, the film centres on American writer Holly Martins (Cotten), who arrives in the city to accept a job with his friend Harry Lime (Welles), only to learn that he has died. Martins stays in Vienna to investigate Lime's death, becoming infatuated with Lime's girlfriend Anna Schmidt (Valli).
Since You Went Away is a 1944 American epic drama film directed by John Cromwell for Selznick International Pictures and distributed by United Artists. It is an epic about the US home front during World War II that was adapted and produced by David O. Selznick from the 1943 novel Since You Went Away: Letters to a Soldier from His Wife by Margaret Buell Wilder. The music score was by Max Steiner, and the cinematography by Stanley Cortez, Lee Garmes, George Barnes (uncredited), and Robert Bruce (uncredited).
Spellbound is a 1945 American psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, and Michael Chekhov. It follows a psychoanalyst who falls in love with the new head of the Vermont hospital in which she works, only to find that he is an imposter suffering dissociative amnesia, and potentially, a murderer. The film is based on the 1927 novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Hilary Saint George Saunders and John Palmer.
Love Letters is a 1945 American romantic film noir directed by William Dieterle from a screenplay by Ayn Rand, based on the novel Pity My Simplicity by Christopher Massie. It stars Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann Richards, Cecil Kellaway, Gladys Cooper and Anita Louise. The plot tells the story of a man falling in love with an amnesiac woman with two personalities, who is believed to have killed his soldier friend.
Duel in the Sun is a 1946 American epic psychological Western film directed by King Vidor, produced and written by David O. Selznick, and starring Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish, Walter Huston, and Lionel Barrymore. Based on the 1944 novel of the same name by Niven Busch, it follows a young orphaned Mestiza woman who experiences prejudice and forbidden love, while residing with her white relatives on a large Texas ranch.
Notorious is a 1946 American spy film noir directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains as three people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation.
The Paradine Case is a 1947 courtroom drama with elements of film noir set in England, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by David O. Selznick. Selznick and an uncredited Ben Hecht wrote the screenplay from an adaptation by Alma Reville and James Bridie of the 1933 novel by Robert Smythe Hichens. The film stars Gregory Peck, Ann Todd, Alida Valli, Charles Laughton, Charles Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, and Louis Jourdan. It tells of an English barrister who falls in love with a woman who is accused of murder, and how it affects his relationship with his wife.
Gone to Earth is a 1950 British Technicolor film created by the director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack and Esmond Knight. The film was significantly changed for the American market by David O. Selznick and retitled The Wild Heart in 1952.
William Dieterle was a German-born actor and film director who emigrated to the United States in 1930 to leave a worsening political situation. He worked in Hollywood primarily as a director for much of his career, becoming a United States citizen in 1937. He moved back to Germany in the late 1950s.
Robert Brackman was an American artist and teacher, best known for large figural works, portraits, and still lifes.
Terminal Station is a 1953 romantic drama film directed and produced by Vittorio De Sica and starring Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, and Richard Beymer in his debut role. It tells the story of the love affair between a married American woman and an Italian intellectual. The title refers to the Roma Termini railway station in Rome, where the film takes place. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.
Intermezzo is a 1939 American romantic film remake of the 1936 Swedish film of the same title. It stars Leslie Howard as a married virtuoso violinist who falls in love with his accompanist, played by Ingrid Bergman in her Hollywood debut. Bergman had played the same role in the Swedish original against Gösta Ekman. The film was directed by Gregory Ratoff and produced by David O. Selznick. It features multiple orchestrations of Heinz Provost's title piece, which won a contest associated with the original film's production. The screenplay by George O'Neil was based on that of the original film by Gösta Stevens and Gustaf Molander. It was produced by Selznick International Pictures.
I'll Be Seeing You is a 1944 American drama film made by Selznick International Pictures, Dore Schary Productions, and Vanguard Pictures, and distributed by United Artists. It stars Joseph Cotten, Ginger Rogers, and Shirley Temple, with Spring Byington, Tom Tully, and John Derek. It was produced by Dore Schary, with David O. Selznick as executive producer. The screenplay was by Marion Parsonnet, based on a radio play by Charles Martin (1910-1983).
Academy Award is a CBS radio anthology series, which presented 30-minute adaptations of plays, novels, or films.
The Prisoner of Zenda is a 1937 American black-and-white adventure film based on Anthony Hope's 1894 novel and the 1896 play. A lookalike has to step in when his royal distant relative is kidnapped to prevent his coronation. This version is widely considered the best of the many film adaptations of the novel and play.
Patricia Paz Maria Medina was a British actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles in the films Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) and Mr. Arkadin (1955).
A Farewell to Arms is a 1957 American epic war drama film directed by Charles Vidor. The screenplay by Ben Hecht, based in part on a 1930 play by Laurence Stallings, was the second feature-film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's 1929 semiautobiographical novel of the same name. It was the last film produced by David O. Selznick.
Portrait of Jennie is a novel by American writer Robert Nathan, first published in 1940. This story combines romance, fantasy, mystery, and the supernatural. The most successful of Nathan's books, it is considered a modern masterpiece of fantasy fiction.
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