The Portrait of a Lady (1996)

It IS The Portrait of a Lady!

One of my favorite novels. James has great prose, but his books are hard to put on film.

The Heiress is a classic, The Golden Bowl admirable, The Bostonians poignant, and this one is delightful.

James Cellan Jones directed an adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady with Richard Chamberlain and Suzanne Neve. He also directed The Forsyte Saga with Eric Porter.

OMG! Nicole's original face!

Gielgud was like 100 in this film

M was originally signed for the Barbara Hershey role but dropped out for some reason. Would have been another nomination probably.

Great film. I love Barbara Hershey in it. And the soundtrack is insane. Especially the closing track.

Amazing performance in it by Barbara Hershey as the conflicted Madame Merle. She should have won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

Hershey was great, but had extraordinary hard competition for Best Supporting Actress:

Juliette Binoche for The English Patient

Lauren Bacall in The Mirror Has Two Faces

Joan Allen in The Crucible

Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Secrets & Lies

For Best Actress, Frances McDormand won for Fargo.

It is similar to Dangerous Liaisons

Great movie. If you want another great period piece try Moll Flanders with Robin Wright and Stockard Channing.

Thanks DL, now I have to watch this movie-never saw it. I read the HJ novel, realized I never read "Turn of the Screw". Henry James week at the beach, Thanks!!

R12 It is great. Have you seen The Bostonians too?

The Bostonians and The Golden Bowl too.

Who knew Nick Nolte could play a Gilded age robber baron so well? Who knew Nick could act?

What about Washington Square?

Read the book and the 1997 version with JJL. However, The Heiress is flawless, there isn't a bad part in that movie.

Olivia, Monty, Miriam and Ralph Richardson (who I would have shot) were all good.

The Europeans with Lee Remick is good, too

Washington Square was a beautiful movie that just seem to come out of the blue.

I didn't care for the film, except for Hershey, who was stellar. Kidman is too cold an actress for the lead but the real problem is Malkovich, who is such an obvious creep as Gilbert that you feel Isabel has to be a complete dolt to find him attractive or appealing. This film also has a dreadful performance from Mary Louise Parker as Henrietta.

James Maxwell, who played Gilbert in the above-mentioned BBC version with Chamberlain, was a much better Gilbert.

The WASHINGTON SQUARE movie with JLL is rather flat IMO, and JLL is miscast in the lead.

I find both THE EUROPEANS and THE BOSTONIANS pretty dry, except for some of the performances (primarily Remick and Redgrave).

Jesus Christ. Go watch fucking Porky's then.

If I remember correctly, the premiere featured one of the only times Kidman wore heals in the presence of then-husband Cruise… theory was that he gifted that to her, lol.

Heal before Zod!

Is the book worth a read?

Shelley Winters acted out on set.

Barbara Hershey is an excellent actress and deserved the Oscar this year (and several more nominations over her career).

R25 1996 was a hard year for Best Supporting Actress:

Barbara Hershey for The Portrait of a Lady

Lauren Bacall for The Mirror Has Two Faces

Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Secrets & Lies

Joan Allen in The Crucible

Juliette Binoche for The English Patient

Any other year, these women would have won, but Binoche took home the prize.

It’s a beautiful looking film but you can only take so much of Kidman crying after a while. It also makes Madame Merle’s motivations murkier than in the novel.

But connected are wonderfully done. I am especially fond of the last ten minutes.

But agreed it is hard to adapt most James. “The Turn of the Screw” is a good one to adapt, however.

The original score for this film by Wojciech Kilar is one of my favorites of all time.

I wanted to look it since I loved the book but I agree that Malkovich is too slimy. Imagine someone actually sexy like Colin Firth in the role!

It’s like whenever you see Jack Nicholson, you know exactly what to expect

Sir John Gielgud was great in this