The Age of Innocence (1993)
Winona Ryder as May Welland
in The Age of Innocence
Martin Scorsese does not sound like the logical choice to direct an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about manners and morals in New York society in the 1870s. But these are mean streets, too, and the psychological violence inflicted between characters is at least as damaging as the physical violence perpetrated by Scorsese's usual gangsters. At the center of the tale is Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), a somewhat diffident young man engaged to marry the very respectable May Welland (Winona Ryder). But Archer is distracted by May's cousin, the Countess Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), recently returned from Europe. As a married woman seeking a divorce, the countess is an embarrassment to all of New York society. But Archer is fascinated by her quick intelligence and worldly ways. Scorsese closely observes the tiny details of this world and this impossible situation; this is a movie in which the shift of someone's eyes can be as significant as the firing of a gun. The director's sense of color has never been keener, and his work with the actors is subtle. Joanne Woodward narrates, telling us only as much as we need to know, which is one reason why the climax comes as such a surprise.
- Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, Alexis Smith, Geraldine Chaplin
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Running time: 139 minutes
- Speaker: University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of English and Women's Studies, Emily Auerbach
- When and where: the auditorium of the Wisconsin Historical
Society, 816 State Street, Madison, at 1:30 p.m. Sunday,
September 16, 2007.
Admission
to all the screenings is free to the public on a first-come,
first-serve basis.
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