The Europeans (1979 film)

The Wentworths are a prosperous family living in an estate in a suburb of Boston in the 1850s. The family consists of the dour father, Mr. Wentworth, and his three adult children: Gertrude, Charlotte, and Clifford. Their quiet existence is shaken by the unexpected arrival of almost forgotten relatives from Europe. The Europeans are Felix Young and his older sister Eugenia Münster who are cultured, witty and broke. Felix is interested in painting while Eugenia, sophisticated and alluring, is a baroness as the morganatic wife of a minor German prince.

On his arrival at the Wentworths' state, Felix first meets Gertrude, the nonconformist Wentworths daughter, who is shirking attendance at church and reading romantic literature instead. After introducing himself, he stays over for dinner while she is soon intrigued and enchanted by her cousin. The next day Eugenia pays them a visit and meets not only the four Wentworths but also Robert Acton and his sister Lizzie who are the Wentworths' cousins by another side of their family. Eugenia drops backhanded compliments to the befuddled silence of the modest, upright Wentworths. Robert and his sister are more cautious and suspicious of Eugenias's intentions. After Felix and Eugenia have left, the family debates what to do. Since they are relatives, Mr. Wentworth puts them up in a neighboring cottage on his property. Felix installs his art studio there and suggests making a portrait of his uncle. Mr. Wentworth declines, but Felix takes on painting Gertrude instead. Felix wonders why his American relatives seem so little concerned for the pleasures of life, living by strict standards, seeming not to think of their own individual happiness.

Eugenia sets her eyes on the Wentworth's wealthy cousin Robert Acton, who is torn between his captivation with the Baroness and his distrust of her European worldliness. Eugenia refers little to her marriage other than telling him she has a paper the husband's family wishes her to sign which would dissolve the marriage. During a ball at the Acton's house, Eugenia is introduced to Robert's ailing mother who she manages to charm. At the ball, Clifford has too much to drink and when Mr. Wentworth complains about it to Felix, he suggests that his sister influence might help the wayward youngster to improve his behaviour, and indeed, Clifford begins visiting Eugenia. Meanwhile, Felix and Gertrude are falling in love. Gertrude tells him her father wants her to marry the Unitarian minister, Mr. Brand, though she doesn't love him. Felix, noticing how Gertrude's pliable sister, Charlotte, seems attracted to the minister speaks to Mr. Brand, implying as much redirecting his feelings away from Gertrude and towards Charlotte instead. One evening, Robert Acton who has been away a few days (and is beginning to believe he is in love with Eugenia even though for him love is an overrated feeling) goes late to visit her. Clifford was with Eugenia at the time and she makes him hide in a back room. When Clifford comes unexpectedly out of his hiding place, there is a very awkward moment. Clifford leaves and Eugenia lies about why the young man was at her home. Later, in talking with Clifford, Mr. Acton realises she had not told the truth, and 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.

Meanwhile, Felix tells his sister he wants to marry Gertrude; Eugenia lies to him claiming Robert Acton asked her to marry her, but she is not sure she wants to. Felix makes a visit to his uncle and asks for Gertrude's hand. Mr. Wentworth is bewildered at first, but his other daughter, Charlotte, speaks in favour of the match, then Gertrude comes in and declares she will marry Felix, and finally Mr. Brand comes in to say he would like to marry the young couple. Understanding that her goal of finding a wealthy man in the United States has failed, Eugenia decides to go back to Germany. She makes a farewell visit to Mrs. Acton, sees Robert as she is leaving and lies to him claiming to have sent the annulation papers to Germany. Mr. Acton expresses regret that she has decided to leave and offers his carriage to Eugenia for her use at her departure. Felix will stay in America and will marry Gertrude. Clifford would be paired with Lizzie Acton. Mr. Brand and Charlotte will also later marry, far more suited to one another than Gertrude was to Mr. Brand.

• Lee Remick as Eugenia Münster
• Robin Ellis as Robert Acton
• Wesley Addy as Mr Wentworth
• Tim Woodward as Felix Young
• Tim Choate as Clifford
• Lisa Eichhorn as Gertrude
• Kristin Griffith as Lizzie Acton
• Nancy New as Charlotte
• Norman Snow as Mr Brand
• Helen Stenborg as Mrs Acton
• Gedda Petry as Augustine

Henry James's third novel, The Europeans, first appeared as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1878. Set thirty years earlier in Boston; the story follows the encounter between a family of pre-Civil War New Englanders and their European relations whose alien, sophisticated ways dazzle some family members and scandalize others. 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. It played out James's vision of America trying to maintain its innocence by fending off European influences.

By the late 1960s, a film adaption of the novel awoken the interest of Merchant Ivory Productions, a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Merchant and Ivory were a couple from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. During their time together they made twenty-five feature films, with Merchant producing and Ivory directing. Nineteen of those films were written by their close friend, the novelist Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. 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. Films such as Jane Austen in Manhattan and The Wild Party failed to find an audience. Their fortunes revived dramatically in 1979, however, when they took on adapting Henry James's novel The Europeans. The Europeans was the first of Merchant Ivory's period dramas, the genre for which they would become best known.

The idea behind the project came about in 1968 when Jhabvala, a long time admirer of Henry James, gave the novel to read to James Ivory. 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.

By 1974, Jhabvala had completed a screenplay, but production was delayed for years as financing proved to be difficult to obtain.

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala wrote a faithful screenplay, lifting most of the dialogue from the novel itself. The novel is a succession of small scenes that do not build up to anything particular. She added a scene of a ball at the Mr Acton house to which everything builds up and from which everything then comes down. The meeting of Eugenia's and Mrs. Acton, an isolated incident in the book, is at the center of the ball scene. Also Ivory liked to have a big party in his films at which Eugena begins to recognize that she has no place there, neither with the demure old women who sit in a room off to the side nor with the young couple at the dance floor, Jhabvala also provided a new ending in which as Eugenia prepares to leave in a carriage that Acton puts at her disposal; Mr Brand and Charlotte joyfully speak lines from a book of sermons.

The Europeans was shot between October and November 1978 on locations using interiors of the period in Barrett House, and Bullard-Barr House both in New Ipswich, New Hampshire; Gardner-Pingree House and Salem Maritime National Historic Site both located in Salem, Massachusetts; Lyman Estate in Waltham and in Concord, Massachusetts.

The film is notable for its look of New England countryside in Autumn with its striking reds and oranges, capturing Henry James's sense of ambivalent wonder at the New World in New England.

The Europeans was a modest arthouse box-office success in England. It became Merchant Ivory Production most widely seen film up to that point.[1][2]

The film received a number of lukewarm reviews as a somewhat over-literary adaptation. Critic Chris Elliot noted the movie's "opaque refinements and elusive intentions, a predilection for intricacies of language and manners." Roger Ebert similarly demurred that the movie "elegantly composed visuals, the stately progression of the scenes, the deliberate understatement of the dialogue, are all as "faithful" to James as a film can be. But that's exactly the film's problem: Ivory hasn't found a way to make his own film, and has ended up with a classroom version of James, a film with no juice or life of its own".[3]

Writing for the New York Times, Vincent Canby compared unfavourably the film to the novel: "The beauty and precision of James's prose that persuades us his characters are as alive today as they were in 1878. There's nothing quaint or picturesque or foolish about them. They are battlers. 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."[4]

John Pym reviewing the film commented:" For all its engaging sidelong playfulness, the beauty of its settings, some excellent performances, there is in Ivory's Europeans also a sense of genuine characters trapped somewhat awkwardly by the conventions of their lines."[1]

The Europeans received many nominations but no wins. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival; for Best Costume Design (Judy Moorcroft) at the 1980 Academy Awards; for Best Foreign Film at the 1980 Golden Globes Awards; and for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Supporting Actress at the 1980 BAFTA Awards.

In 2003, a special edition DVD of the film was released as part of The Criterion Collection. The special features include an on-camera interview with the Merchant-Ivory team: Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and composer Richard Robbins.

The DVD also includes: Sweet Sounds (1976), a 29-minute documentary film directed by The Europeans' composer Richard Robbins.[5] It follows a handful of children chosen for a music development class as they are instructed by their music teachers at NewYork's Mannes College of Music Preparatory School in New York City of which Richard Robbins was then director.[5]

• Long, Robert Emmet. The Films of Merchant Ivory. Citadel Press. 1993, ISBN 0-8065-1470-1
• Long, Robert Emmet. James Ivory in Conversation. University of California Press, 2005, ISBN 0-520-23415-4.
• Pym, John. The Wandering Company: Twenty-one years of Merchant Ivory Films. BFI Publishing. 1983 ISBN 0-85170-127-2.

• The Europeans at the British Film Institute
• The Europeans at IMDb
• The Europeans at AllMovie
• Merchant Ivory Productions page about The Europeans