The plot follows the interaction between two European siblings and their American cousins. Facing hard times in Europe, Eugenia, a Baroness by marriage, and her younger artistic brother arrived for the first time in New England in the 1850s to meet their wealthy maternal uncle and their three cousins, the Wentworths. Their bohemian sophistication and alien ways dazzle some of their puritanical American relations and arouse suspicion in others.
The Europeans was the first of Merchant Ivory's period dramas, the genre for which they would become best known. Made on a modest budget, it nonetheless featured lavish costumes and sets, with top actors portraying genteel characters who suffer from disillusionment and tragic entanglements.
Plot
The Wentworths are a prosperous family living in an estate in a suburb of Boston in the 1850s. The family consists of the dour father, Mr. Wentworth, and his three adult children: Gertrude, Charlotte, and Clifford. Their quiet existence is shaken by the unexpected arrival of almost forgotten relatives from Europe. The Europeans are Felix Young and his older sister Eugenia Münster who are cultured, witty and broke. Felix is interested in painting while Eugenia, sophisticated and alluring, is a baroness as the morganatic wife of a minor German prince.
On his arrival at the Wentworths' state, Felix first meets Gertrude, the nonconformist Wentworth daughter, who is shirking attendance at church and reading romantic literature instead. After introducing himself, he stays over for dinner while she is soon intrigued and enchanted by her cousin. The next day Eugenia pays them a visit and meets not only the four Wentworths but also Robert Acton and his sister Lizzie who are the Wentworths' cousins by another side of their family. Eugenia drops backhanded compliments to the befuddled silence of the modest, straightlaced Wentworths. Robert and his sister are cautious and suspicious of Eugenia’s intentions. After Felix and Eugenia have left, the family debates what to do. Since they are relatives, Mr. Wentworth puts them up in a neighboring cottage on his property. Felix installs his art studio there and suggests making a portrait of his uncle. Mr. Wentworth declines, but Felix continues to paint Gertrude. Felix wonders why his American relatives seem so little concerned for the pleasures of life, living by strict standards, seeming not to think of their own individual happiness.
Eugenia sets her eyes on the Wentworths’ wealthy cousin Robert Acton, who is torn between captivation by the Baroness and distrust of her European worldliness. Eugenia refers little to her marriage other than telling him she has a paper the husband's family wishes her to sign which would dissolve the marriage. During a ball at the Actons’ house, Eugenia is introduced to Robert's ailing mother whom she manages to charm. At the ball, Clifford has too much to drink. When Mr. Wentworth complains about it to Felix, he suggests that his sister’s influence might help the wayward youngster to improve his behaviour, and indeed, Clifford begins visiting Eugenia. Meanwhile, Felix and Gertrude are falling in love. Gertrude tells him her father wants her to marry the Unitarian minister, Mr. Brand, though she doesn't love him. Felix, noticing that Gertrude's pliable sister, Charlotte, seems attracted to the minister, speaks to Mr. Brand, redirecting Brand’s feelings away from Gertrude and towards Charlotte instead. One late evening, Robert Acton, who has been away for a few days (and is beginning to believe he is in love with Eugenia), goes to visit her. Clifford has been enjoying an intimate and promising evening with Eugenia; she makes him hide in a back room. When Clifford comes unexpectedly out of his hiding place, there is a very awkward moment. Clifford leaves and Eugenia lies about why the young man was at her home. Later, in talking with Clifford, Mr. Acton realises she had not told the truth. Eugenia's lies begin to weigh upon his thoughts, and he loses interest as Lizzie outflanks the baroness in her attempt to win her brother.
Meanwhile, Felix tells his sister he wants to marry Gertrude; Eugenia lies to him, claiming Robert Acton asked to marry her, but she is not sure she wants to. Felix makes a visit to his uncle and asks for Gertrude's hand. Mr. Wentworth is bewildered at first, but his other daughter, Charlotte, speaks in favour of the match, then Gertrude comes in and declares she will marry Felix, and finally Mr. Brand comes in to say he would like to marry the young couple. Understanding that her goal of finding a wealthy man in the United States has failed, Eugenia decides to go back to Germany. She makes a farewell visit to Mrs. Acton, sees Robert as she is leaving and lies to him claiming to have sent the annulation papers to Germany. Mr. Acton expresses regret that she has decided to leave and offers his carriage to Eugenia for her use at her departure. Felix will marry Gertrude. Clifford will be paired with Lizzie Acton. Mr. Brand and Charlotte plan to marry, far more suited to one another than Gertrude was to Mr. Brand. The final scene shows all of the paired lovers - Felix and Gertrude, Mr. Brand and Charlotte, Lizzy and Clifford - walking together to various destinations, while Eugenia, having availed herself of Acton's offer of his carriage to take her to the boat, travels alone one way, and Acton, on horseback, rides alone the other way.
Henry James's third novel, The Europeans, first appeared as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1878. Set thirty years earlier in Boston, the story follows the encounter between a family of established, religious New Englanders and their European relations, whose alien, sophisticated ways dazzle some family members and scandalize others. Written as a light comedy of manners, Henry James contrasted the attitudes of the two camps: the Europeans sophistication and light-heartedness with the puritanical asceticism of their American cousins. It played out James's vision of America trying to maintain its innocence by fending off European influences.
By the late 1960s, a film adaption of the novel kindled the interest of Merchant Ivory Productions, a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Merchant and Ivory were a couple from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. During their time together they made twenty-five feature films, with Merchant producing and Ivory directing. Nineteen of those films were written by their close friend, the novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. After early, modest successes with films such as The Householder, Shakespeare Wallah, and Bombay Talkie, Merchant and Ivory suffered a lean period during the 1970s. Films such as Jane Austen in Manhattan and The Wild Party failed to find an audience. Their fortunes revived dramatically in 1979, however, when they took on adapting Henry James's novel The Europeans. The Europeans was the first of Merchant Ivory's period dramas, the genre for which they would become best known.
The idea behind the project came about in 1968 when Jhabvala, a long time admirer of Henry James, gave the novel to read to James Ivory. Ivory, who had watched BBC television productions of Henry James, thinking that he could do much better, became interested in adapting The Europeans as it could be done with a modest budget using houses of the period, natural locations, and a small cast with few extras.
By 1974, Jhabvala had completed a screenplay, but production was delayed for years as financing proved to be difficult to obtain.
Writing
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote a faithful screenplay, lifting most of the dialogue from the novel itself. The novel is a succession of small scenes that do not build up to anything particular. She added a scene of a ball at the Acton house, giving the story a pivotal point. The meeting of Eugenia and Mrs. Acton, an isolated incident in the book, is at the center of the ball scene. Ivory liked to have a big party in his film, as a focal point when Eugenia begins to recognize that she is out of place there, both with the demure old women who sit in a room off to the side and with the young couples on the dance floor. Jhabvala also provided a new ending in which, as Eugenia prepares to leave in a carriage that Acton puts at her disposal, Mr. Brand and Charlotte joyfully speak lines from a book of sermons.
The film is notable for its atmosphere of New England countryside in autumn with striking reds and oranges, capturing Henry James's sense of ambivalent wonder at the New World in New England.
Reception
The Europeans was a modest arthouse box-office success in England. It opened at the Curzon in London the same week as Moonraker. It grossed an opening record for the cinema of £11,758 in its first week and was fifth at the London box office.[2] It became Merchant Ivory Productions’ most widely seen film up to that point.[3][4] The film also performed well on its release at the Paris Theater in New York City grossing $108,630 in its first three weeks.[5]
The film received a number of lukewarm reviews as a somewhat over-literary adaptation. Critic Chris Elliot noted the movie's "opaque refinements and elusive intentions, a predilection for intricacies of language and manners."[citation needed] Roger Ebert similarly demurred that the movie's "elegantly composed visuals, the stately progression of scenes, the deliberate understatement of the dialogue, are all as ‘faithful’ to James as a film can be. But that's exactly the film's problem: Ivory hasn't found a way to make his own film, and has ended up with a classroom version of James, a film with no juice or life of its own."[6]
Writing for The New York Times, Vincent Canby unfavorably compared the film to the novel: "The beauty and precision of James's prose is that it persuades us his characters are as alive today as they were in 1878. There's nothing quaint or picturesque or foolish about them. They are battlers. This is the feeling that's missing from the otherwise remarkably intelligent, careful screen version of The Europeans that has been adapted with skill by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and directed with affection by James Ivory."[7]
John Pym, reviewing the film, commented:" For all its engaging sidelong playfulness, the beauty of its settings, and some excellent performances, there is in Ivory's Europeans also a sense of genuine characters trapped somewhat awkwardly by the conventions of their lines."[3]
In 2003, a special edition DVD of the film was released as part of The Criterion Collection. The special features include an on-camera interview with the Merchant-Ivory team: Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins.
The DVD also includes Sweet Sounds (1976), a 29-minute documentary film directed by The Europeans' composer Richard Robbins.[8] It follows a handful of children chosen for a music development class as they are instructed by their music teachers at NewYork's Mannes College of Music Preparatory School in New York City, of which Richard Robbins was then director.[8]
Related Research Articles
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Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was a British and American novelist and screenwriter. She is best known for her collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, made up of film director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant.
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Ismail Merchant was an Indian film producer. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included film director James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.
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The Golden Bowl is a 2000 period romantic drama film directed by James Ivory. The screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is based on the 1904 novel of the same name by Henry James, who considered the work his masterpiece. It stars Kate Beckinsale, James Fox, Anjelica Huston, Nick Nolte, Jeremy Northam, Madeleine Potter, and Uma Thurman.
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The Householder is a 1960 English-language novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. It is about a young man named Prem who has recently moved from the first stage of his life, a student, to the second stage of his life, a householder. The book is a bildungsroman, which is a story where the protagonist develops mind and character as he passes from childhood through various experiences usually through a spiritual crisis into maturity.
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