Description
Before their breakthrough successes with A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, the Merchant-Ivory filmmaking team refined their literary adaptation skills with this 1984 drama, adapted from the classic novel by Henry James. Although the film can only begin to approximate the internal dialogues that ma
Before their breakthrough successes with A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, the Merchant-Ivory filmmaking team refined their literary adaptation skills with this 1984 drama, adapted from the classic novel by Henry James. Although the film can only begin to approximate the internal dialogues that make up much of James's fascinating fiction, it retains the central conflict of the post-Civil War drama, which takes place just as women are beginning their struggle for equality. The story involves a triangle of conflicting relationships, in which a repressed lesbian (Vanessa Redgrave) engages in a subtle, unspoken tug-of-war with a Southern lawyer (Christopher Reeve) for the affections of a young woman (Madeleine Potter) who is just coming into her own as a young suffragette. Although the film is slow and dry compared to Merchant-Ivory's later efforts, it's eminently respectable (as you might expect) and is highlighted by Redgrave's superb, Oscar-nominated performance as the story's feminist heroine. The supporting cast is equally impressive, and includes Jessica Tandy, Linda Hunt, Wallace Shawn, and Wesley Addy. --Jeff Shannon
Description Merchant Ivory Productions, The Criterion Collection, and Home Vision Entertainment are proud to present The Merchant Ivory Collection
In Boston in the aftermath of the Civil War, Verena Tarrant (Madeleine Potter), a gifted young orator, has attracted the attention of Olive Chancellor (Vanessa Redgrave), who wishes to nurture Verena as an inspirational force for the Womens Movement. But ranged against her is Basil Ransom (Christopher Reeve), a handsome male chauvinist, who wants Verena as his wife. Against a backdrop of luminous New England landscapes, battle is joined, and for Olive the struggle will prove an odyssey that forces her to acknowledge her true nature. Merchant Ivory Productions acclaimed screen adaptation of the Henry James classic charts the struggle between two charismatic forces to gain control over the destiny of a spirited young woman.
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