The Portrait of a Lady | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jane Campion |
Screenplay by | Laura Jones |
Based on | The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James |
Produced by | Steve Golin Monty Montgomery |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Stuart Dryburgh |
Edited by | Veronika Jenet |
Music by | Wojciech Kilar |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Gramercy Pictures (United States) PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (United Kingdom) [1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 142 minutes |
Countries | United Kingdom United States [2] |
Language | English |
Box office | $20 million [3] |
The Portrait of a Lady is a 1996 British-American film directed by Jane Campion and adapted by Laura Jones from Henry James' 1881 novel of the same name.
The film stars Nicole Kidman, Barbara Hershey, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Donovan, Shelley Duvall, Richard E. Grant, Shelley Winters, Viggo Mortensen, Valentina Cervi, Christian Bale, and John Gielgud. It received two nominations at the 69th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Hershey) and Best Costume Design (Janet Patterson).
The film tells the story of Isabel Archer, an innocent young woman of independent means who is manipulated by her "friend" Madame Merle, and the devious Gilbert Osmond.
Isabel Archer is a very beautiful woman, who has already rejected many suitors: among them the wealthy Lord Warburton and Caspar Goodwood, to whom she had initially given hope. Caspar's arrival is arranged by Henrietta, a close friend of Isabel, who cares for her deeply. Isabel's strong character and free-spirited nature is adored by her cousin, Ralph Touchett, who persuades his father, her uncle, to give Isabel money so that she can be rich and independent. Upon her uncle's death, Isabel receives a fortune.
Isabel encounters Madame Serena and instantly likes her, however, learning about Isabel's wealth, Serena decides to arrange a marriage between Isabel and Serena's former lover Gilbert Osmond, who lives in Florence, Italy. Gilbert is a widower and has a daughter Pansy, who grew up in a convent and is not allowed to leave the house, even to walk in the garden, when her father is away. Isabel is enchanted by Gilbert and accepts the proposal; however, she's warned by Ralph that Gilbert is a "small man" and Isabel is giving up her dreams to be in a cage with a worthless husband. Isabel is enraged and slaps Ralph, to which he calmly answers that he said what he must, that he loves Isabel, and that he knows he has no hope. It's also evident that he's slowly dying from consumption.
Gilbert is nice to Isabel until after they are married. Isabel finds herself trapped in Rome in an unhappy marriage with a fear of her abusive husband, who gradually disconnects her from all of her friends. Henrietta, Ralph, and Caspar all leave for England. Pansy is also a victim of her father's overly protective behavior; she's in love with Rosier, but Gilbert has decided to arrange a marriage between her and Lord Warburton, who is attentive to Pansy just to get closer to Isabel. Isabel sees the mutual love between Pansy and Rosier and is deeply moved. Gilbert sees through Isabel's schemes to prevent Pansy becoming engaged to Warburton, but he is too late; Lord Warburton leaves Italy. Gilbert angrily slaps Isabel and steps on her dress so that she falls on the ground. Serena deeply regrets organizing the fateful union between Gilbert and Isabel.
Isabel learns that Ralph is overtaken by consumption and is on his deathbed. She asks Gilbert to let her to go to England to be with her dying cousin, but receives a cold and negative answer. Pansy is sent to a convent away from her lover. Isabel is pitied by Gilbert's sister, who finally opens Isabel's eyes, telling her that Gilbert's first wife was childless and Pansy is, in fact, Gilbert and Serena's daughter. Isabel finally decides to go against her husband's wishes and leave for England. She visits Pansy and proposes the girl to flee, but Pansy refuses, saying that she wants to please her father. In the convent, Isabel also encounters Serena, but proudly ignores her attempts to start a conversation. However, in the last minute before Isabel leaves, Serena runs to her - she has guessed Isabel is going to England to Ralph and reveals to Isabel that Ralph is the one that persuaded the uncle to give Isabel her fortune. On Ralph's deathbed, Isabel tearfully confesses that he's been her best friend and she loves him. Henrietta and Caspar attend Ralph's funeral. In the garden, Caspar tries to persuade Isabel to let go of her fear of her husband. They kiss passionately, but Isabel runs away to the house. She suddenly stops before the house door, and leans against it, looking back into the garden.
The Portrait of a Lady received mixed reviews from critics. It holds a 46% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The consensus summarizes: "Beautiful, indulgently heady, and pretentious, The Portrait of a Lady paints Jane Campion's directorial shortcomings in too bright a light." [4] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [5] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. [6]
The film grossed $3.7 million in the United States and Canada and $20 million worldwide. [7] [3]
On December 11, 2012, Shout! Factory released The Portrait of a Lady: Special Edition on DVD and Blu-ray. [19]
Alfie is a 1966 British comedy-drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Michael Caine. The Paramount Pictures release was adapted from the 1963 play of the same name by Bill Naughton. Following its premiere at the Plaza Theatre in the West End of London on 24 March 1966, the film became a box office success, enjoying critical acclaim, and influencing British cinema.
Ryan's Daughter is a 1970 British epic romantic drama film directed by David Lean, written by Robert Bolt and starring Robert Mitchum and Sarah Miles. The film, set between August 1917 and January 1918, tells the story of a married Irish woman who has an affair with a British officer during World War I, despite moral and political opposition from her nationalist neighbours. The supporting cast features John Mills, Christopher Jones, Trevor Howard and Leo McKern. The film is a re-telling of the plot of Gustave Flaubert's 1857 novel Madame Bovary.
Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion is a New Zealand filmmaker. She is best known for writing and directing the critically acclaimed films The Piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), for which she has received two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Campion was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DNZM) in the 2016 New Year Honours, for services to film.
The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly and Macmillan's Magazine in 1880–81 and then as a book in 1881. It is one of James's most popular novels and is regarded by critics as one of his finest.
Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey, is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including westerns and comedies. She began acting at age 17 in 1965 but did not achieve widespread critical acclaim until the 1980s. By that time, the Chicago Tribune referred to her as "one of America's finest actresses".
Shelley Alexis Duvall is an American actress and producer widely known for her portrayal of distinctive, often eccentric characters. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award and a Peabody Award and nominations for a British Academy Film Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Jodhi May is an English actress. Starting her career as a child actress, she is the youngest recipient of the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival, for A World Apart (1988).
Valentina Cervi is an Italian film and television actress.
Sandra Dickinson is an American-British actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She has often played characters within the trope of a dumb blonde with a high-pitched voice.
The 62nd New York Film Critics Circle Awards, honoring the best in film for 1996, were announced on December 12, 1996, and given on January 5, 1997.
Carole Augusta Shelley was an English actress who made her career in the United States and United Kingdom. Her many stage roles included originating the roles of Gwendolyn Pigeon in The Odd Couple and Madame Morrible in Wicked. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in The Elephant Man (1979) and received additional nominations for her work on Absurd Person Singular (1975), Stepping Out (1987), and Billy Elliot (2009).
The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, based on the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White, the film is about an English tourist travelling by train in continental Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, the two proceeding to search the train for clues to the old lady's disappearance.
Frances Catherine Partridge CBE was an English writer. Closely connected to the Bloomsbury Group, she is probably best known for the publication of her diaries. She married Ralph Partridge in 1933. The couple had one son, (Lytton) Burgo Partridge (1935–1963).
A Hazard of Hearts is a 1987 made-for-television romantic drama film starring Helena Bonham Carter in one of her first major roles. It is based on a 1949 novel by Barbara Cartland.
The Way We Live Now is a 2001 four-part television adaptation of the Anthony Trollope 1875 novel The Way We Live Now. The serial was first broadcast on the BBC and was directed by David Yates, written by Andrew Davies and produced by Nigel Stafford-Clark. David Suchet starred as Augustus Melmotte, with Shirley Henderson as his daughter Marie, Matthew Macfadyen as Sir Felix Carbury, Cillian Murphy as Paul Montague and Miranda Otto as Mrs Hurtle.
Céline Sciamma is a French screenwriter and film director. She wrote and directed Water Lilies (2007), Tomboy (2011), Girlhood (2014), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), and Petite Maman (2021). Sciamma has won many nominations and awards for her films.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a 2019 French historical romantic drama film written and directed by Céline Sciamma, starring Noémie Merlant and Adèle Haenel. Set in France in the late 18th century, the film tells the story of a lesbian sexual affair between two young women: an aristocrat and a painter commissioned to paint her portrait. It marked Haenel's final film role prior to her retirement from the French film industry in 2023.
The Portrait of a Lady is a British television series which originally aired on BBC One during 1968. An adaptation of the novel The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, it starred Suzanne Neve and Richard Chamberlain.
Mrs Osmond is a novel by the Irish author John Banville, published in 2017. It is based on the 1881 novel The Portrait of a Lady by the American-British author Henry James. The Henry James novel describes how a young American heiress Isabel Archer marries Gilbert Osmond, a widower. It emerges that Osmond married her for her money, a scheme brought about by Osmond’s mistress Serena Merle. The marriage is an unhappy one, and Isabel is faced with various alternatives; however, the outcome of the story is ambiguous. In Banville's retelling of the story, Isabel is able to use her wealth to resolve the situation mostly to her satisfaction.