''The Portrait of a Lady'' is a 1996

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film directed by

Jane Campion Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) 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 a tot ...

and adapted by Laura Jones from

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

' 1881 novel of the same name. The film stars

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid act ...

Barbara Hershey Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), 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 weste ...

John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Aw ...

, Mary-Louise Parker,

Martin Donovan Martin Donovan (born Martin Paul Smith; August 19, 1957) is an American actor. He has had a long collaboration with director Hal Hartley, appearing in many of his films, such as ''Trust'' (1990), ''Surviving Desire'' (1991), ''Simple Men'' (1992) ...

Shelley Duvall Shelley Alexis Duvall (born July 7, 1949) is an American actress and producer who is known for her portrayals of distinct, often eccentric characters. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Cannes Film Festival Award and a Peab ...

Richard E. Grant Richard E. Grant (born Richard Grant Esterhuysen; 5 May 1957) is a Swazi-English actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy ''Withnail and I'' (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Mar ...

Shelley Winters Shelley Winters (born Shirley Schrift; August 18, 1920 – January 14, 2006) was an American actress whose career spanned seven decades. She appeared in numerous films. She won Academy Awards for ''The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1959) and ''A Patch o ...

Viggo Mortensen Viggo Peter Mortensen Jr. R (; born October 20, 1958) is an American actor, writer, director, producer, musician, and multimedia artist. Born and raised in the State of New York to a Danish father and American mother, he also lived in Argenti ...

Valentina Cervi Valentina Cervi (born 13 April 1976) is an Italian film and television actress. Cervi was born in Rome, Italy. She is the daughter of director Tonino Cervi and granddaughter of actor Gino Cervi. Her mother is the Italian producer of Austri ...

Christian Bale Christian Charles Philip Bale (born 30 January 1974) is an English actor. Known for his versatility and physical transformations for his roles, he has been a leading man in films of several genres. He has received various accolades, includin ...

, and

John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud, (; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Brit ...

. It received two nominations at the

69th Academy Awards The 69th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 24, 1997, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the cerem ...

: Best Supporting Actress (Hershey) and Best Costume Design ( Janet Patterson).

Premise

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.

Plot

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.

Cast

as Isabel Archer *

as Gilbert Osmond *

as Madame Serena Merle * Mary-Louise Parker as Henrietta Stackpole *

as Ralph Touchett *

as Mrs. Touchett *

as Mr. Touchett *

as Countess Gemini *

as Lord Warburton *

as Caspar Goodwood *

as Edward Rosier *

as Pansy Osmond * Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Bob Bantling

Reception

''The Portrait of a Lady'' received mixed reviews from critics. It holds a 46% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

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." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film a grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.

Accolades

Home media

On December 11, 2012,

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...

released ''The Portrait of a Lady: Special Edition'' on DVD and Blu-ray.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait Of A Lady 1996 films American romantic drama films 1990s feminist films Films based on works by Henry James Films based on American novels Films directed by Jane Campion Films set in Italy Films set in the 19th century Films scored by Wojciech Kilar British romantic drama films Films produced by Steve Golin PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films Gramercy Pictures films 1996 romantic drama films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films 1990s British films