The Europeans (1979 film)
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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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."[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.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.The special features include an on-camera interview with the Merchant-Ivory team: Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins.