Opening of "The Age of Innocence" (1993), directed by Martin Scorsese
Second of a trio of Scorsese sequences (I'm capping directors at three). The "Blue Danube" in Kubrick's 2001 is a space ballet, and dance is a kind of courtship. There, it culminated in the symbolic 'docking' with the space station; in a similar way, Kubrick conveyed the primordial sexual motifs of technology with the umbilical refueling between B-52 bombers during the title sequence of Dr. Strangelove. So let us shift from the ballet to the opera, with more courtship in the air, and witness Scorsese's mastery in a milieu very different (or is it?) from the gangster flicks that he's best known for (see Goodfellas). Here he's adapting Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning portrait of rivalry, scheming, and unrequited love in 1870s New York. The recreation of the age is sumptuous, and in this opening sequence, Scorsese's restless camera roves around the opulent space (it's actually Philadelphia's Academy of Music), introducing us subtly to the tribalism and voyeurism that underpins this bourgeois society. It's Scorsese's most female-centric film since Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1973), which won Ellen Burstyn her Oscar; in an appreciation posted below, Andrew Gilchrist writes: "I love the fact that it's the women who drive all the big events, while the men stand around in a fug of cigar smoke." Scorsese has two of the goddesses of 1990s American cinema here, Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder. The gleeful expression of Pfeiffer's Countess Olenska when she announced she's been away "so long I'm sure I'm dead and buried and this dear old place is heaven" -- you know that's straight out of Wharton's novel -- radiates the kind of liberty and vivacity that Newland (Daniel Day-Lewis) desperately longs for. But he is betrothed to May (Ryder), who gives a chilling, Oscar-nominated performance as a demure manipulator determined to retain her catch. In a scant five minutes at the outset of the movie, we are introduced to all its major characters and thematic currents, and the director is already making us feel the menace and moodiness of this gilded cage. The Age of Innocence is a masterpiece, up there with Goodfellas and Taxi Driver in Scorsese's oeuvre, I believe.
Documentary:
Scorsese's The Age of Innocence: An Analysis
Article:
My Favourite Film: The Age of Innocence
Scorsese's The Age of Innocence: An Analysis
My Favourite Film: The Age of Innocence
Comments
Post a Comment