James Ivory, 1979, U.K., 91m, DCP
In this delightfully droll Henry James adaptation, the lives and routines of the puritanical Wentworths of New England are upended by the not-so-welcome arrival of their European cousins one particularly golden autumn. Lee Remick shines as the snooty and calculating Eugenia, a Baroness whose marriage to a German prince is on the fritz—meanwhile her dapper brother Felix has his eye on one of the Wentworth daughters. Boasting a characteristically witty script by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (A Room With a View), the first in Merchant Ivory’s Henry James triptych explores the social and moral clashes between the New World and the Continent. Per James Ivory himself, the BAFTA-nominated production design and Oscar-nominated costumes solidified the "state-of-the-art" (and impeccably researched) period trappings that have since become synonymous with Merchant Ivory.
Nominated for the Cannes Palme d’Or and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film
“Remarkably intelligent.” —The New York Times
“A jewel of a movie.” —Gene Shalit
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