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The Age of Innocence [Blu-ray]
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Genre | Drama |
Format | Widescreen |
Contributor | Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Martin Scorsese, Winona Ryder |
Language | English |
Runtime | 2 hours and 18 minutes |
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Product Description
No filmmaker captures the grandeur and energy of New York like Martin Scorsese. With this sumptuous romance, he meticulously adapted the work of another great New York artist, Edith Wharton, bringing to life her tragic novel of the cloistered world of Gilded Age Manhattan. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE tells the story of Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), whose engagement to an innocent socialite (Winona Ryder) binds him to the codes and rituals of his upbringing. But when her cousin (Michelle Pfeiffer) arrives in town on a wave of scandal after separating from her husband, she ignites passions in Newland he never knew existed. Swelling with exquisite period detail, this film is an alternately heartbreaking and satirical look at the brutality of old-world America.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, approved by director Martin Scorsese, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New interviews with Scorsese, coscreenwriter Jay Cocks, production designer Dante Ferretti, and costume designer Gabriella Pescucci
- INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE, a 1993 documentary on the making of the film
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 3.2 ounces
- Item model number : CC2862BD BLU-RAY
- Director : Martin Scorsese
- Media Format : Widescreen
- Run time : 2 hours and 18 minutes
- Release date : March 13, 2018
- Actors : Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder
- Studio : Criterion Collection
- ASIN : B0788WXTHQ
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #15,622 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #247 in Romance (Movies & TV)
- #1,628 in Drama Blu-ray Discs
- Customer Reviews:
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The Age of Innocence
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The film is very true to the novel, maintaining its dual perspective of Newland Archer as its point of view character and an omniscient author, spoken by Joanne Woodward in a voice that commands authority. Though centered on a love triangle, the tale is just as much about the workings of a particular society as well as how they lived. Though some actually criticized the use of narration, it wouldn’t be “The Age of Innocence ” without its description of the characters and their motives or details such as the van der Luydens’ Crown Derby and Sevres china.
Often described as occurring during the Gilded Age, it takes place in 1872-73, the early part of that era. This is the old Knickerbocker society and it would not be until 1883 that Mrs. Vanderbilt gave her famous masked ball and was finally acknowledged by Mrs. Astor. These people lived in brownstones and the gloriously opulent mansions of Fifth Avenue were yet to be built. This is why Henry and Louisa van der Luyden stand above everyone, an old Patroon family of the highest order, like the actual Van Rensselaers (to whom Wharton herself was related). They even have an estate on the Hudson with an old Patroon House on its grounds.This was a time of great change and turmoil, the Industrial Revolution creating new money fortunes which were exponentially larger than the fortunes of the older moneyed class who had to deal with them.
The film opens at the opera, an important ritual for these native aristocrats, where they go to be seen. As the camera pans the crowd, Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer) receives the most attention, particularly from Larry Lefferts (Richard E. Grant), an expert on manners and Sillerton Jackson (Alec Mccowan), who knows everyone’s family tree as well as all the gossip. They cynically comment on everyone throughout the film. Pay particular attention to Jackson’s description of Count Olenska to Archer with its oblique references. The countess has returned to New York after a disastrous marriage to the Polish count, expecting America to be open and free but discovering her family and New York Society to be quite the opposite. Also there, Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), at that moment a smug young man with a great future already laid out, who is about to have his world shattered by a glimpse of new possibilities in life that he had never imagined existed. He is about to announce his engagement to May Welland (Winona Ryder), appearing in angelic white, a perfect picture of this society’s ideal young woman. She is sweet, shallow and seemingly totally innocent but can be steely and manipulative when the need occurs.
The opera is followed by the annual ball given by Julius and Regina Beaufort (who is connected to May’s family through grandmother Catherine Mingott). He is an ostentatious financier with a shady business past in England and a dissolute reputation. He not only displays Bouguereau’s “Return of Spring”with its nude woman and numerous putti hinting at his chief interest besides money, but also owns James Tissot’s “Too Early”, picturing ladies wearing the same up to date fashions that we see in the ballroom. Ellen is not there, considering her dress not opulent enough for a ball. Note Archer’s various costumes at various times in the film. These people changed clothing completely three times a day, with separate outfits for morning, afternoon and evening.
The film is sumptuously set with great attention to detail. Wharton was famous for her book, “The Decoration of Houses” co-written with architect and interior designer Ogden Codman and was tremendously knowledgeable and influential. Scorsese and his set and costume designers made an incredible effort to bring the world as described in detail by Wharton to life and it has a surface beauty like few other films. He also brings to life a few large tableaux like a park in Boston, the streets of New York and most memorably the ocean shimmering in a pink and gold sunset as Ellen gazes with her back turned to Archer. Elmer Bernstein’s score enhances the film beautifully without overwhelming it and in fact the most intense moments occur without any musical enhancement. The soundtrack worth owning just to listen to it.
The film is highly praised by critics and is often considered one of Scorsese’s best but it has never truly caught on with the public. For one thing most of it goes on beneath the surface, just as it had to in this society of manners. You have to watch the actors’ faces and body language carefully, especially Newland and Ellen as they descend into a nearly unbearably painful state of living. The society depicted is one at odds with modern sensibilities. But most of all, I think many people dislike Newland Archer. Anyone raised from the mid twentieth century on was raised with the idea of the Romantic Hero. By those standards, Newland must stand up to everyone and run off with Ellen so that love may triumph, as epitomized by films like “The Graduate”. Wharton’s notes show that she did actually toy with this idea but rejected it as untrue to the times and the society. Such an ending probably would have made the film more popular than it is. To his credit Archer is not totally taken in by his peers and often seriously questions things as when he says that women should be as free as men are.
What is the ‘innocence” in the title? It is the style and attitude of innocence that everyone here plays out, often hypocritically, where “the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs”. It’s May Welland’s demeanor of innocence when she seems to know a great deal about what is going on. I also believe it’s meant sincerely as an epithet for that time and place itself. Though often called a tragedy, it’s not quite that to me. Archer is disappointed with events to an extent but overall admits he lived a good life. In “The House of Mirth” Lily Bart is completely destroyed by her circumstances and that novel can be truly called tragic. Wharton wrote “The Age of Innocence ” in 1920 after experiencing the horror of The Great War in France, even reporting from the Front and setting up charities for refugees. She also already saw that the war had totally obliterated the old world in which she had grown up. Although she was critical and satirical of the society in which she had grown up, most of it is with a sense of humor, and even a sense of affection for a time that now looked quaint. She wrote that for her, writing it was a nostalgic return to her childhood memories. She records that society with all its hypocrisy but also approves of the fact that order is maintained by it.There is so much going on in this film that it can be watched many times and actually needs to be to catch it all.
The Blu-ray: The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray was overseen by Martin Scorsese himself, particularly the transfer so that the colors would be correct for a film of sumptuous beauty and great detail. It looks as good as anyone coils imagine. It would be worth it for this alone but the extras include a full commentary by Scorsese plus three half-hour interviews of the screenwriter, and the production and costume designers plus a documentary on the making of the film featuring Scorsese and others. Do not hesitate to get this edition.
Even though a film of this type is not “my cup of tea,” the photographic imagery was more than enough to keep me watching and interested. My wife and women would probably enjoy viewing a film of this type.
Can't say what impressed more the cinematography or the story.
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2019