Rating: 4.5/5
Criterion Challenge 2024 | 48/52 | 1990s
You know what they say: A gentleman may leave New York City, but New York City will never stop talking about a gentleman. xoxo gossip girl
New York City, the 1870s
Everything is labeled, but everybody is not.
Two actors performing Gounod’s opera, Faust, sing “Il se fait tard! … adieu!” Newland Archer passively watches from a box seat along with Larry Lefferts and Sillerton Jackson. Lefferts scans the audience with his binoculars, spotting a box where May Welland, her mother, and her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, sit. He passes the binoculars to Jackson, both shocked to see Olenska present after her tempestuous marriage to a Polish aristocrat.
Across the way, at the end of the opera’s third act, Regina Beaufort rises from her seat. The message is clear to the audience—the annual Beaufort Opera Ball will soon commence. Archer intends to announce his engagement to May Welland at the ball, ideally drawing attention away from Ellen, who has been his friend since childhood. However, since Ellen did not come to the ball, their engagement can only spread through unofficial word-of-mouth.
Beaufort’s husband, Julius, did not come from old money as she had; instead, he married into New York society. Though tolerated, he is quietly disliked, especially for his flagrant extramarital affairs. Not that they’re happening, but he doesn’t follow the other men’s suit and keeps it quiet. So, when he and Ellen begin spending time together, the gossip starts. However, Archer, while conventional on the surface, disapproves of this treatment and fights to restore Ellen’s honor. So, when Ellen’s unconventional views draw Archer in, he finds his idyllic plans and social standing in jeopardy.
— Society has a history of tolerating vulgar women. — To a point.
I know this pertains to the book more than the movie, but Wharton herself grew up in this world. If you’ve ever heard the phrase “keeping up with the Joneses,” it is in reference to her father’s family. That this film is so faithful to the novel only reinforces the sense that we are experiencing a world once hidden from normies like me.
Like the original book, the film focuses on the intricacies of New York City society at the time—the families and their money, old or new, and the gossip that runs like a black vein underneath its fragile skin, all a labyrinth hidden inside NYC’s grid. It’s not too dissimilar from Gossip Girl in how gossip carries every action taken in the world of these socialites.
Michael Ballhaus’s signature flowing shots take us through decadent homes full of paintings and hardwood. The florid style complements the constant, subdued energy of the socialities. Clever matt paintings and compositions give us the New York City of the 1870s, with dirt roads, horse-drawn carriages, and a sparseness of buildings—it’s pretty surreal.
The “Faust as the market of years” conceit worked for me.
Scorcese makes his movie fixations more apparent with the contrast from his more contemporary films. We have a protagonist who follows a code of ethics set forward by the world in which he lives—a world of double standards and corrupt morals that pretend otherwise—but finds himself pushing against it at great risk. His love of William Wyler comes through in little ways—it’s hard to clarify, but I got The Heiress vibes.
Actor Corner:
- It’s nice to get a rare spotting of Carolyn Farina. It makes sense that her role in Metropolitan would land her in a role like this one.
- I’m always thrilled to see Michael Gough.
- Miriam Margoyles is never not iconic. I long to live lounging the rest of my days, always surrounded by small, sleepy dogs.
- I am happy to be represented by Winona Ryder’s elegant vacuity. Her performance is actually perfect, and I pity you if you feel otherwise.
- Daniel Day-Lewis is doing his best John Malkovich impersonation.
- Robert Sean Leonard jump scare!
Is this my favorite Scorcese movie? So far, yes! I still have, like, 20 more films of his I want to watch, so we’ll see if that changes.