La coupe d'or

Prince Amerigo (Jeremy Northam) has a castle on the verge of ruin and empty pockets. Although he lusts after a poor but beautiful lady named Charlotte, he decides to marry her very rich friend instead. His new wife, Maggie, is a lovely, innocent human being, totally unspoiled by wealth. Maggie hopes to see her widowed father happily remarried and encourages his interest in Charlotte. It happens. Charlotte agrees to marry America's first billionaire, what a tough gig. But, why? Does she have any affection for Maggie's father? Or does she want to stay in close contact with Amerigo? It seems the latter, for Charlotte and the Prince go everywhere together, now that it is acceptable for two "relatives" to gad about. What is happening here? The book was written over 100 years ago but this story of human nature shows that very little changes under the sun. Northam and Thurman excel as the egocentric and evil humans who are so very lovely to look upon, it hurts. Beckinsale and Nolte likewise give nice turns as the folks who still have hearts beating in their breasts, despite their riches. As period pieces go, the costuming, the scenery, the staging, and the cinematography here are sumptuous. True, the pace is somewhat slow and the tale is intricate and subtle, requiring a repeat viewing, perhaps. However, Merchant and Ivory fans and non-fans will be rewarded by sitting through this timeless and tantalizing tale. If anyone wants to arrange for friends to share a movie evening together, the Bowl will have everyone talking.

For those people who loved "A Room With a View" and "Howards End" but hated "Surviving Picasso" and "A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries," all is well in the universe. "The Golden Bowl" is excellent in every way. The film is exquisitely balanced. Nick Nolte, Kate Beckinsale, Angelica Houston and Uma Thurman are all amazing. Jeremy Northam is even better. The cinematography, the writing, the costumes; everything fits together. This is not a sleepy and slow costume drama, it is an exhilarating masterpiece. I do not know how loyal the screenplay is to James' novel, but the story is very moving and even though it is a "period piece," the issues that the characters face somehow seem contemporary. Uma Thurman's character Charlotte is one of the most heart-wrenching on-screen women I've seen recently. I hope the film can keep up a presence until the next Oscar race begins. This is one of the best films I have seen so far this year.

I agree with Timer, and, frankly am tickled that someone else noticed the resemblance of the antique dealer Jarvis to Henry James himself. I have seen too many of James Ivory's films to feel that this was accidental. But I didn't really see the resemblance until Jarvis came to deliver the bowl. (His shop was rather dark, and he may not have been wearing his cut-away coat at work.) I also thought it interesting how at least twice Jarvis put his hands out to catch the bowl should someone drop it, thus calling our attention to its fragility. (This was crystal, not glass, and who knows whether it will break when dropped?)

The movie was over-long, of course. But it was a feast! There were many scenes that could have been edited down or eliminated, but the luxury of seeing the extra footage was wonderful. It reminded me of another favorite, wonderful(and long) movie, Mike Leigh's *Topsy-Turvey* (about the partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan).

And interestingly, there's the same continuity/accent problem in both. In *The Golden Bowl* Angelica Houston plays some scenes with a distinct American Southern accent and some without. In *Topsy Turvy*, Sullivan's lover is quite British in one scene, chatting on about young Winston, yet at a piano recital she speaks in an American Southern accent. Wouldn't you think someone would have noticed in both instances and just re-looped the audio?

Finally, the only reason I knew that Jarvis resembled Henry James is a book that my wife and I wrote for Harcourt. It's called *About the Author* and contains "juicy-bits profiles" of 125 favorite (living, dead, male, female, etc.) novelists. To put it another way, we assume that the reader has access to most of the boilerplate info on each author (Web searches, encyclopedia articles, textbooks, etc.). So we focus on the stuff you won't find in most of those sources.

As part of our research, we learned that James's novels were often inspired by conversations and stories he heard at the many dinner parties he attended in London. (Between 1878 and 1879, he dined out 140 times.) Shades of Truman Capote?

Although born in New York City in 1843, he became a British citizen in 1915. Henry James also attended Harvard Law School between 1862 and 1863. His father was a friend of Thoreau, Emerson, and Hawthorne. He himself, at age 26, arrived in London and soon met Darwin, George Eliot, Ruskin, Rossetti, William Morris, and others.

He felt that criticism was intellectually superior to creative writing and considered himself primarily a critic. At the time of his death in 1916 at age 72, his novels were all but unread. Only after the observance of his 100th birthday in 1943, when World War II had focused America's attention on Europe, did critics realize that he was one of the greatest novelists of the 19th century.

"The Golden Bowl" felt more like recent Edith Wharton adaptations like "Age of Innocence" and "House of Mirth" than its Henry James provenance, because the focus is more on the social criticism of a society that forces the impecunious upper class into marriage with pecunious upstarts than the individual faults of people this hypocritical society produces.

But maybe my mind wandered as this was a bit over-long as I seemed to have missed some crucial epiphany when characters changed their relationships where they find true love a manipulable characteristic -- with the audience responding with sharp intakes of breath.

I was surprised how good Uma Thurman was in a costume drama as I had thought of her only as a modernist, while I thought Nick Nolte far too subdued to be a robber baron.

The costumes and settings were gorgeous.

The audience was typical Merchant/Ivory fans -- the woman on my right chastised me during the opening credits for eating my popcorn too loudly, while the guy on my left was snoring almost as soon as the movie started.

(originally written 5/13/2001)

This film is about the complicated love life between four people bound by blood, marriage and lust.

The plot is rather simple and plainly told, but it is made up for by the lush costumes and visuals. It is delightful to see so many extravagant period dresses in each scene, I felt I was watching a fashion show! Uma Thurman's dresses are the most remarkable, her peacock costume and the white curly hat stand out from the crowd. Her heart wrenching performance proves she has great acting skills to parallel her extraordinary beauty.

Scenes in "The Golden Bowl" are thoughtfully constructed and thoughtfully decorated. The palace rooms are maximally decorated with flowers, paintings and sculptures; providing a visual feast of luxury and grandeur.

"The Golden Bowl" is well worth watching just for the grand sets and lavish costumes.